Archita Arun (she/her) is an interdisciplinary researcher, writer, and singer from Mumbai, India. Sound is her first language— she is a trained Indian classical singer, having trained in both Carnatic and Hindustani classical music styles. In her research, Archita studies the performance of desire and pleasure as forms of refusal to normative representations of the South Asian diaspora across music, performance art, visual culture, and film.
Her dissertation project listens for embodiments of pleasure and desire across the works of four femme diasporic artists, namely Indian American performance artist Samita Sinha, Swiss Tamil hip hop and R&B singer Priya Ragu, British Tamil Qawwali singer Abi Sampa, and Singaporean Tamil time-based media artist Priyageetha Dia. By centering the fleshiness of sound, Archita’s work explores the ways in which diasporic subjects perform refusal. Her areas of research include sound studies, diaspora studies, minoritarian performance theory, Black feminist theory, and queer of color critique. She holds a Bachelors in Theater and Creative Writing from New York University Abu Dhabi and a Masters in Performance Studies from Northwestern University.
