Esha Akhtar received her B.A. in American Studies with advanced certificates in Spanish and Human Rights from Yale University. She was born and raised in Rogers Park, Chicago by parents who immigrated to the United States from Rajshahi, Bangladesh. This upbringing informs her research interests in the mutual relay of 20th and 21st century feminist art/cultural production as forms of political resistance between the U.S. and the Global South.
At Brown, she looks forward to investigating how modern and contemporary art by women of color can be more intentionally curated within public humanities institutions. She is especially interested in how such curatorial work can transmit the grief, wisdom, and visions of the future that our creative practices bear to the world. Outside of academics, Esha enjoys ceramics, experimental filmmaking, and writing on her Substack.