Paul Basu is an anthropologist specialising in critical heritage, museum and material culture studies in transcultural contexts. He draws upon a wide range of ethnographic, historical and participatory methods to explore how pasts are differently materialized and mediated in the present, and how they shape futures. Paul's research examines the complex ways in which natural as well as cultural heritage is entangled in shifting regimes of value and geopolitical configurations. His work has often involved re-engagements with colonial archives and collections relating to West Africa, exploring their ambiguous status as both sites of epistemic violence and, potentially, resources for communities to recover cultural histories, memories and alternative ways of knowing and being in the world.
Before becoming an anthropologist, Paul trained and worked in film and television production, and he continues to use audio-visual as well as other multimodal and participatory approaches in his research. He has designed and curated numerous exhibitions and museum spaces
Documentation of the ‘[Re:]Entanglements: Colonial Collections in Decolonial Times’ exhibition, curated by Paul Basu at the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in 2021-22. Includes shorts excerpts from the films ‘Faces|Voices’, ‘Unspoken Stories’ and ‘Lines, Faces, Fragments’.
