Radhika Subramaniam is a curator and writer with an interdisciplinary practice. She explores crises and surprises as they emerge in urban life, walking, art and human-nonhuman relationships. She is the recipient of a Culture and Animals Foundation grant, an International Visiting Curatorship at Artspace, Sydney,  a SEED Foundation Teaching Fellowship in Urban Studies at the San Francisco Art Institute, and artist/writer residencies at The Banff Center, Canada and the Hambidge Center. In 2018-2019, she was a fellow at the Graduate Institute for Design, Ethnography and Social Thought. She is presently working on a book about Abu'l Abbas, a medieval elephant, purportedly gifted to emperor Charlemagne by Harun al-Rashid, caliph of Baghdad. Her book Footprint: Four itineraries is scheduled to be out in 2025.

She is Associate Professor of Visual Culture at Parsons School of Design/The New School where she was also the first Director/Chief Curator of the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center from 2009-2017. Previously, she was the Founding Executive Editor of the the art/politics journal, Connect: art.politics.theory.practice (Arts International) and the Director of Cultural Programs at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (2005-2008).  She has a Masters in Anthropology and a PhD. in Performance Studies.

Contact: rsubramaniam[at]newschool.edu