Srestha [sray’sh–thaa] moved to Vienna from India in 2023 to join the ARTIS Lab as a PhD candidate. Grounded in a decolonial research approach, and using longitudinal experience sampling and cross-sectional behavioural methods in museum- and domestic-settings, they are investigating how socially-engaged art can change viewers’ prosocial attitudes towards refugees, asylum-seekers, and migrants.

Srestha’s decolonial approach follows ethical, intersectional, and trauma-informed best practices beyond Eurocentric conventions of empirical research, with the broader aim of combating societal challenges of prejudice and discrimination.

They are a visual artist, calligrapher and singer, and consider the arts to be an essential agent of socio-political transformation. P.S. They are obnoxiously obsessed with Gaganendranath Tagore’s “Durga Pratima Visarjana”, cute stationery, Hozier, and silly memes.