University of Colorado Denver College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Bio

Alison Shah is an Assistant Professor in the History Department at the University of Colorado Denver. Her work explores how traditional architectural forms and the practices they shelter are critical features in creating modern urban environments. Her current project focuses on the uses of pre-modern Islamic heritage in modern India, and she is working on a book manuscript titled, “Islam and the Politics of Heritage in Urban India, 1800-2000.”

Trained as both an architectural historian and a social historian, she has published articles that examine the ways that hand-drawn maps, monumental building patronage, and formal urban designs hold keys to uncovering new narratives of power and social change in nineteenth century Hyderabad, India. She teaches courses in Public History, the history of India, and the Islamic World.

Profile
Research Interests: South Asia/Islamic World, History & Heritage, Cultural Memory

Select Publications

“Mapping Space, Mapping Identity: Imagining Hyderabad’s Walled City in the 19th Century,” Marg, vol. 56, no. 1, Sept. 2004, pp. 50-59.

“Palaces of the Asaf Jahis of Hyderabad” in Helen Philon, ed., Silent Splendour: Royal Architecture of the Deccan, Mumbai: Marg Publishing, March 2010.

“Hyderabad in the Nineteenth Century: Re-Scripting Urban Heritage, 1858-1868,” in al-Jayussi, Holod, Pettruccioli, and Raymond, eds., The City in the Islamic World, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2008.

Book manuscript in preparation, Islam and the Politics of Heritage in Urban India, 1800-2000

Courses Taught

HIST 3471: Islam and Asia
HIST 3483: (online) Modern South Asia
HIST 4234/5234: Introduction to Public History
HIST 4460/5460: The Golden Age of Islam: The World of Ibn Battuta
HIST 4481/5481: Textiles and Trade in the Pre-modern World
HIST 6931: Special Topics: Histories of Place
HIST 6931: Special Topics: Monuments and Memory