ANTHROPOLOGIST | WRITER | CURATOR
Vyjayanthi V. Rao is an anthropologist, writer and curator, teaching at the Yale School of Architecture. Her work explores the role of culture and speculation in shaping built and living environments. Her understanding of speculation expands beyond the financial realm into practices that center around the imagination such as design and art. In addition to observant participation through fieldwork, her research draws on sound, image, mapping and collaborations with visual artists and architects. She has published extensively on these subjects, co-curated exhibitions for the Lisbon Architecture Triennale (2022) and the Center for Architecture in New York (2023) and participated as an artist in the Kochi Biennale (2016) and the Chicago Biennale of Architecture (2023). Since 2023, she has been one of the Editors in Chief of the journal Public Culture (Duke University Press).