Tanaya is an ecologist, artist, and Hatha Yoga instructor from India. She is an Amansa scholar at the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development and is reading a DPhil in Geography and Environment at the University of Oxford. She is looking at how insects (like termites and ants), rainfall, and soil conditions influence nutrient flows in tropical ecosystems across Africa and Asia. She is currently collecting leaves from tall trees, extracting wood cores, and digging fine roots from long-term research sites in Ghana and India.
Tanaya is most herself when she is outdoors, walking across savannas and grasslands, identifying plants and birds, and learning from communities who have intricate relationships with their environment. She has an educational background in both ecology and performance art, she sees the potential for art and science to come together through participatory interventions to roll out research more meaningfully and urgently in the world.
She is currently exploring art and science intersections by co-producing workshops with artists in South Africa, UK, Mexico and India. They typically end in public participatory exhibitions, walks, and performances open to the public.
