Dr. Alka Pande is an art historian who taught Indian Arts and Aesthetics at Panjab University for more than ten years. Her major fields of interest are gender identity, sexuality, and traditional arts. Dr. Pande, under the aegis of the Charles Wallace India Trust, conducted postdoctoral research in Critical Art Theory at Goldsmiths, University of London. In 2006, she was awarded the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters. In 2009, she received the Australian-India Council Special Award for her contribution to Indian art.
In 2015, she was awarded L’Oreal Paris Femina Women under Design and Arts and Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi honours-in recognition of the distinguished contribution to art- with Amrita Sher-Gil Samman. She has been responsible for curating several significant and perceptive exhibitions in India and abroad.Dr. Pande is artistic director of photography biennale Habitat Photosphere, a photography award instituted by India Habitat Centre.
She has written extensively on Indian aesthetics, culture and photography some of her prominent books include Pha(bu)llus: A Cultural History, Flower Shower: The Culture of Flowers in India, Body Sutra: Tracing The Human Form Through Art & Imagination, Third Eye: Photography and Ways of Seeing, Panchtattvas: The Road Ahead, Voices and Images, Leela, An Erotic Play of Verse and Art, Indian Art: The New International Sensation, The Collector’s Handbook, Divine Gesture: The Magnificence of Mewar Spirituality, Ardhanarishvara the Androgyne: Probing the Gender Within, The New Age Kama Sutra for Women, Shringara: The Many faces of Indian Beauty, Indian Erotica, From Disco Lights to Mustard Fields: A Study of the Folk Instruments and Performers of Panjab to name a few. Currently, Dr. Pande is a consultant art advisor and curator of the Visual Arts Gallery at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi (India).
