Sonali Gupta

Sonali Gupta (born 5 May 1975), also known as Sonali Gupta-Agarwal, is an Indian anthropological archaeologist, Egyptologist, and lawyer. She is noted for her efforts in creating knowledge and dialogue around the cultural, historical, and natural heritage of the Himalayas. She is the founder-director of the Himalayan Institute of Cultural and Heritage Studies.

Personal life Gupta's mother belonged to Sirmaur (Himachal Pradesh) and father to Jammu and Kashmir. Her father was a diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service. She is married and is a cancer survivor.

Education Gupta obtained a BA (Hons) in History from Hansraj College, Delhi University; an MA in History from the Department of History, Delhi University, and an LL.B. from the Faculty of Law, Delhi University. Later, she earned an MA in Archaeology from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and then a PhD (2015) from the Cotsen Institute of Archeology at UCLA, specialising in Egyptian archaeology.

Legal and academic career Gupta practiced as a criminal lawyer in India for four years and then worked at the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office.

At UCLA, after her PhD, she was awarded the Dean's Lecturership in Social Research, following which she was appointed as Director of Public Research at the Cotsen Institute.

Additionally, Gupta was a visiting professor at the National Museum Institute, New Delhi. Among others, the talks include ones by Raaja Bhasin, William Sax, Ed Douglas, Ian Baker, Kevin Bubriski, Manju Kak, Anjali Kapila, and Siddharth Pandey.

From time to time, HICHS has also organised events on Himalayan cultural heritage and conservation in collaboration with local colleges in Himachal Pradesh, as well as for sale of gift items made from environmentally-friendly techniques and recycled products.

Other works

In the United States, Gupta is also the founder-director of the Himalayan Conservation and Preservation Society (HCPS), which seeks to fund and collaborate with HICHS in its Himalayan projects. In 2017, Gupta and Sonam Spalzin from the Archaeological Survey of India organized a day-long seminar in Leh, Ladakh, in honour of the German author and photographer Peter van Ham, for his three decades of research and contributions on the Western Himalayas. In the early 2020s, Gupta was the cultural resource specialist for the City of Santa Monica's Airport Conversion Project. Her work included research and landmark nominations of several sites, including 1925 Broadway, Palisades Park, Topanga State Park, and Zephyr Dogtown Boys Project. She serves as a consultant to Communitology, a US-based women-owned consulting firm. Gupta has also provided expert opinion on women, architecture, and water utilisation in the Western Himalayas. Gupta has written several feature articles for The Tribune on Himalayan religions and cultural histories.