Devika is a DPhil candidate in Education at the Department of Education, University of Oxford. Her research explores the relationship between education, cultural institutions, and historical narratives, with a particular focus on how pedagogy operates within spaces such as museums, archives, and universities. She is especially interested in questions of equity, knowledge production, and the role of ritual and institutional practice in shaping learning.
Alongside her doctoral research, she is Youth Programmes Leader at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, where she designs and leads interdisciplinary educational initiatives for young people. She is also a researcher and senior guide with Uncomfortable Oxford, where she develops and delivers research-led tours. She has led over 500 tours that critically engage with histories and structures of race, gender, class, sexuality, and other forms of marginalisation.
Her work bridges research, teaching, and public engagement, with a particular emphasis on researching who and what can transform institutional practice towards greater equity and inclusion.
Supervisors
Professor Velda Elliott and Dr Alexandra Franklin
Papers
Devika. (2024). Exploring the Relationship between Rituals and Food at Oxford Colleges Formal Halls. In M. McWilliams (Ed.), Food Rules and Rituals: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery
Report
Franklin A. & Devika (2024). History of the Bodleian Libraries through the lens of the British Empire
Article
Devika. (2025). Playing with the Past. Liberatory Archives & Memory. https://www.liberatoryarchivesmemory.org/playing-with-the-past/