Manvi Seth is Dean, NMI and Professor & Head in the Department of Museology, National Museum Institute.
At the National Museum Institute her major responsibilities are – teaching, supervising PhD programmes, conducting research projects, organising national and international seminars and conferences and conducting capacity building programmes for the in-service professionals in the museum sector. She has been awarded two prestigious grants jointly with the School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester, from the British Academy and UGC-UKIERI.
She has conceptualized and coordinated research projects in the areas of Visitor Studies and Museum Education. She has a major research project ongoing on the documentation of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Ladakh and Uttar Pradesh, India. She has also been organizing Museum Education, Museum Outreach and Outreach to villages programmes. She has coordinated and conducted various international and national in-service training programmes. She has coordinated international and national seminars and conferences. In 2015 she was the Convener of the annual conference 2015 of CIDOC, “Documenting Diversity – Collections, Catalogues and Context”. In 2012 she organized an International Seminar on ‘Museums and Changing Cultural Landscape’ in Ladakh.
She has also curated many exhibitions. Amongst the various exhibitions she has curated, the prominent ones are – ‘First Frames –In the Footsteps of Early Explorers’ a photographic exhibition aimed to bring to the people of Ladakh some of the earliest photographs of Ladakh and Tibet; a Tactile Exhibition titled ‘Ehasas: Senses and Images’ for the visually impaired section of Museum Target Audience; and ‘Astitav-a search for our identity’, an exhibition on heritage awareness.
Prof. Seth is the recipient of prestigious Nehru Trust UK Visiting Fellowship. She has recently been awarded the “Best Professor’ award by the Dewang Mehta National Education Awards. She is the Chair, Intangible Cultural Heritage Working Group, CIDOC.