Aditi Mohta

Bachelor Of Arts (Honours), Social and Political Science major — Freshman year
Aditi is a first year undergraduate student, majoring in Social and Political Science at Ahmedabad University. Her major areas of interest lie in looking at a particular problem through different lenses of intersectionality and in studying about the impact of the Bollywood Cinema (and popular culture in general) on the audience, and how they portray characters and social problems. Apart from that, she works with the NGO called U&I where she teaches underprivileged children English. During the lockdown, Aditi is in Ahmedabad, Gujarat with her grandmother, parents, and siblings. 

Adnan Abbasi

Bachelor Of Arts (Honours), Social and Political Science major — Freshman year
Adnan is a first-year undergraduate student pursuing a major in Social and Political Science from Ahmedabad University. Adnan is also a co-founder of mentorBaba.co — an online startup ecosystem. He has consulted startups like HomesInfra — a real-estate tech company and Ezedu — an ed-tech startup — to develop their brand and web experience. In the past, he has launched an Android game called Cubic Craze that entered the top 100 new casual games list. He is doing this course back home at Lucknow — self-quarantined.

Anant Jani

Bachelor Of Arts (Honours), Philosophy, History, and Languages Major — Freshman year
Anant is a first year student, majoring in Philosophy, History and Languages at Ahmedabad University. He has varied interests in music, film, archaeology and video- and board-games. He has worked as an assistant writer for Studio Oleomingus, working on interactive fiction and speculative literature and architecture, with exhibitions in museums and art spaces. During the lockdown, Anant is based at his home in Vapi, South Gujarat, with his parents and elder sibling.

Hardi Talwani

Integrated Master of Science Life Sciences Major — Freshman year
Hardi is an undergraduate student pursuing an Integrated masters of Life Sciences degree at Ahmedabad University. She has spent the first 17 years of her life in Surat, Gujarat and is in Surat itself during the lockdown.Hardi has always been interested in reading and writing. She loves to indulge herself in pop culture from time to time. She is a scientifically inclined person and is highly intrigued by the wonders of the brain. She is highly passionate about communicating science and reducing the gap between layman and the science community.

Patrick French

Patrick French was appointed as the inaugural Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Ahmedabad in the Summer of 2017. He holds an additional position as Professor for the Public Understanding of the Humanities, advocating for their importance in a well-rounded education. Professor French is an award-winning historian and biographer, and has a PhD in South Asian Studies and an MA in English and American Literature, both from the University of Edinburgh. In 2016-18, he was a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) at Cambridge University, and in 2018 was the Derek Brewer Visiting Fellow at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he is a Member.

Sharik Laliwala

Sharik is a student of Gujarat's contemporary politics, especially Hindu nationalism and Muslim marginalization, and Muslims in north India. He holds an MA from King's College London with the Overall Best Student Award for King's India Institute cohort (2016-17). His popular writings are available at the Indian Express, BBC, Wire, Scroll, Ahmedabad Mirror, Asia Dialogue, among others.

We were assisted in our project by the following guest lecturers:

We were also inspired by https://www.archivingcovid19.com/, an initiative of Georgetown University students to archive the ongoing pandemic.

We thank them for their valuable insights on the history of the ‘Spanish Flu’ and its effect on migration in India, the distinction and history of people's archives versus state archives, and more generally, the nature of archiving and recording in the digital age..