Dr A S Gaur shares his experiences and the findings of marine archaeology expeditions along the coast of India in his Talk "Maritime Archaeology in India".
Dr Lakshmi Subramanian shows us how one nation's sea-faring adventurer is another's pirate in her talk "The Politics of Piracy and Predation in the Indian Ocean".
Dr A S Gaur, obtained a Master's degree in Archaeology from Gwalior University and his Ph.D. on ‘Maritime Archaeology of Gujarat coast’ from Tamil University, Tanjavur. At present, he works for the Marine Archaeology Centre of the CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, Goa. He has carried out extensive research in the field of Maritime Archaeology; important projects include the underwater explorations along the Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Kerala and Tamilnadu coasts. He has dived over 600 hours all along the Indian, Southern Sri Lankan and Thai coasts. He has authored a book on Harappan Maritime Legacies of Gujarat and co-authored three books Archaeology of Bet Dwarka Island, Underwater Archaeology of Dwarka and Somnath and Maritime Archaeology around Porbandar. He has also co-edited 3 books and published over 150 research papers in National and International reputed Scientific and Archaeological journals.
Dr Lakshmi Subramanian is currently visiting professor of history at BITS Pilani, Goa. She has had a long and distinguished research and teaching career. She has taught at various levels from undergraduate to post graduate and beyond in India and overseas. She has charted important sub-fields of research, namely maritime history and the social history of music. She has also curated an exhibition and has intervened in designing curriculum, developing methodology workshops and expanding international academic collaboration.
Her most important publications include "Singing Gandhi’s India: Music and Sonic Nationalism", "The Sovereign and the Pirate: Ordering Maritime Subjects in India’s Western Littoral", "Three Merchants of Bombay: Business Pioneers of the Nineteenth Century", "A History of India 1707-1857", "Veena Dhanammal: The Making of a Legend", "Ports, Towns and Cities: A Historical tour of the Indian Littoral", "New Mansions for Music: Performance, Pedagogy and Criticism", and "From the Tanjore Court to the Madras Music Academy: A Social History of Music in South India".