What do the images we use say about our place in the world and our relationship to Britain’s Imperial past and current nationalist agendas?
This is a question Visiting Fellow Dr Zehra Jumabhoy hopes to tackle during her research at Trinity Hall and associated work at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, California.
She will be the first person to come to the College as part of a new Berger Trust Future Leaders Fellowship in the History of British Art.
Dr Jumabhoy, a lecturer in the History of Art at the University of Bristol, said of her research project: “Uncovering Hybrid Visuals probes what Britain and South Asia share in art, history and visual culture; putting their ‘hybrid visuals’ under the microscope. The ‘hidden Empire’ ensconced within the three nations – Britain, India and Pakistan – has yet to be explored systematically.”
A serendipitous visit to The Huntington, where she was guest curating an exhibition, Raqib Shaw: Ballads of East and West, is what led to her being nominated for the fellowship.
“They have a wonderful collection, including an amazing British India Collection and Botanical library which colonial archives. They have Rudyard Kipling’s letters which are so wonderful to see, and a colonial photography collection.
“I told them “Oh, I’m in heaven”, and they suggested there was a way for me to spend more time there! So here I am.”
I am particularly excited about their botanical Imperial archive and that is also what I am hoping to look at while in Cambridge – starting with the fabulous Cambridge University Herbarium’s collection of specimens. I want to look at the stories you can draw from botanical art and Imperialism’s categorisation offlora and fauna: what they reveal about “extractive” colonialism and the perceived ownership, surveillance and documentation of ‘new’ terrains. I am so happy to have the time to do this thanks to the Fellowship.”
Dr Jumabhoy hopes that perhaps in the future an exhibition may be born from her research project, similar to her recent exhibition and conference Tigers and Dragons: India and Wales in Britain, which examined links and distinctions between Wales and India in the (post)colonial context. As part of that exhibition, at Swansea’s Glynn Vivian Museum, Pakistani artist Adeela Suleman’s impressive tapestry, Imperium Amidst Opium Blossoms, 2023-25, was commissioned (see image above). In the meantime, the more immediate goal is to bring together new discoveries, relevant art historians, botanical specialists and artists in a one-day online symposium in June 2026, co-chaired by Dr Jumabhoy and The Huntington’s Curator of British art, Dr Melinda McCurdy.
Professor Alexander Marr, Trinity Hall Fellow in History of Art and Co-director of the programme, said The Berger Educational Trust Future Leaders Fellowship is a brilliant opportunity for an early career scholar.
He added: “Trinity Hall is excited to be partnering with The Huntington on this initiative, which complements our existing scholarly exchange programme, and we are very grateful to the Berger Educational Trust for their support and vision in establishing the Fellowship.”
