Sara Ather

Sara Ather is a Ph.D. student in the History of Architecture and Urban Development (HAUD) program at Cornell University. Her research seeks to examine the role of architecture in sustaining and legitimizing authoritarian ideological structures in the context of post-colonial India. Specifically, she is interested in investigating how colonial spatial continuities in post-independence India shape nationalist as well as religious nationalist imaginations, focusing on the historical processes through which concepts of religiosity and profanity are embedded in architecture. Prior to Cornell, Sara earned her Master of Arts in Architecture from the Staedelschule Architecture Class, Frankfurt. She has worked as an architect at Atelier Brückner in Stuttgart and as a project architect at Studio Symbiosis in New Delhi, contributing to several museum and hospitality projects across Turkey, Sweden, Dubai, and India. In addition to her architectural work, Sara has worked in the field of journalism, with her writings featured in outlets such as Al Jazeera, Middle East Eye, TRT World, Vittles Magazine, and The Wire, among others. Her columns have critically analyzed the rise of Hindu nationalism and its socio-political ramifications in India.