Scholar | Author | Teacher
Exploring Cultural Landscapes Through Memory, Meaning, and Design

Amita Sinha is a scholar of cultural landscapes with over three decades of experience in landscape architecture, heritage conservation, and ethnographic research. Her work investigates how landscapes preserve cultural memory and negotiate the tensions between past and present. Through teaching, writing, and planning heritage sites across India, she advocates for sustainable and culturally rooted design futures.
Education
B.Arch
Indian Institute of Technology,
Kharagpur
Indian Institute of Technology,
Kharagpur
1981
M.Arch
Virginia Polytechnic Institute &
State University, USA
Virginia Polytechnic Institute &
State University, USA
1984
Ph.D. in Architecture
University of California,
Berkeley
University of California,
Berkeley
1989
View All Projects
View All Projects
Creative Projects












Awards
Beckman Research Award Recipient, 1992.
National Merit Award, by the American Society of Landscape Architects for the Taj Mahal Heritage Project, 2001.
Outstanding and Inspiring Leadership Award, Indian Consulate, Chicago, 2003.
Research and Cultural Awareness Award, Eco-Development Foundation, New Delhi, India, 2007.
2022 J.B. Jackson Book Award
SACRPH Prize for best article “Jamshedpur: Planning an Ideal Steel City in India” (with Jatinder Singh) in the Journal of Planning History, 2011–2013.
Fulbright-Nehru Award for teaching and research at IIT Kharagpur, 2018–19.
Senior Fulbright Research Scholar in New Delhi, India, Spring 2009.
EDRA Achievement Award for Cultural Landscape of South Asia (co-edited with Kapila Silva), 2018.


Publications
(Books Authored)

Sinha, Amita. Landscapes in India: Forms and Meanings. Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado, 2006
See Online

Sinha, Amita. Landscapes in India: Forms and Meanings. Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado, 2006
See Online
Academic Journey
From Professor at the University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign to Visiting Professorships at premier Indian institutes like
Urbana-Champaign to Visiting Professorships at premier Indian institutes like
IIT Kharagpur, IIT Gandhinagar, and IIT BHU, Amita Sinha
has taught and mentored across borders and disciplines.
has taught and mentored across borders and disciplines.
