The Friends of Edinburgh University Library

4 Febuary 2026

Indian Children Return the Colonial Visual Gaze:
On University Archives, Scientific Tourism, and Early Travel Photography
Dr Sheelalipi Sahana, Library Fellow, IASH

15:30, Centre for Research Collections, 6th Floor Main Library

Between the 1870s and 1930s, thousands of glass slide photographs were taken, collected and commissioned by members of staff at the University of Edinburgh for research and tourism purposes. Of these, the Roslin Glass Slide Collection, acquired and digitised by the Heritage Collections team, holds a large corpus of early travel photography to India, among other former British colonies. Dr Sheelalipi Sahana has been studying these photographs and theorising an alternate mode of detecting resistance to the colonial documentation process by native Indians, which will form the basis of her talk. Through a particular focus on children captured in still photos by Robert Wallace (former Professor of Rural Economy and Agriculture at the University), Sheelalipi will present on forms of technological disobedience employed by children within the frames that resist the ethnographical nature of colonial travel. This decolonial methodology of reading facial expressions, body language and non-verbal modes of communication allows for the possibility of reading the visual material.

Dr Sahana completed her PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 2025, examining the role of architectural spaces in the formation of cultural identity of Indian Muslim women in the 20th century. She has previously worked with Uncover.Ed in spotlighting the contributions made by alumni of colour to the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and the UK at large, and worked on an exhibition for Historic Environments Scotland. She has published in the Journal of Postcolonial Writing and South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies on work arising from her doctoral research into women’s public and private spaces.  She is planning an online exhibition in 2026 to present the larger research project she has been undertaking at the CRC.

Please note that this is an in-person event, being held in the Main Library.  Sign up for the event by contacting Alason Roberts at a.roberts@ed.ac.uk