Forum Lecture: Architecture as Gift

Vyjayanthi Rao is an anthropologist, writer, artist, and curator whose work examines displacement, memory, material cultures, and imaginaries of the future in contemporary social life. Trained in socio-cultural anthropology at the University of Chicago, her research explores the intersections of violence, ruination, uncertainty, and speculation in the built environment, with a particular focus on urbanism in India and the United States.

She is currently a Visiting Professor at the Yale School of Architecture and Co-Editor in Chief of Public Culture (Duke University Press). Rao serves as Chief Curator of the 2026 edition of the Sharjah Architecture Triennial and has curated and participated in major international exhibitions and biennials, including projects in Lisbon, Venice, Chicago, Kochi, and Berlin. Her artistic practice includes collaboratively produced film installations and lecture performances that engage architecture, history, and the politics of space.