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Curating South Asian histories: a community exhibition project

Help curate a new exhibition about South Asian histories

What do archives tell us about South Asian communities – and what do they leave out?

LSE Library is looking for three LSE students and three people from the local area of Tower Hamlets to work together to create a new exhibition about South Asian communities, opening at LSE Library in 2027.

Over six Saturday 2-3 hour workshops, you’ll explore archives at LSE and Tower Hamlets, learn about exhibition-making and decide together which stories you want to tell.

No previous experience working with archives, museums, researching history, or curating is required. Curiosity is more important than any previous experience

Apply by 30 November 2026.

About the project

You’ll be the curator.

Archives can tell us a lot about the past – but they don't always tell the whole story.

They can reflect who had the opportunity to create records, whose experiences were considered important enough to preserve, and whose voices were overlooked or left out altogether.

This project brings together three LSE students and three community participants from Tower Hamlets to explore these questions through archival collections relating to South Asian histories.

Together, you’ll explore material held at LSE Library and Tower Hamlets, discover stories in the collections and decide what you want to say about them.

You’ll have the opportunity to question how South Asian communities have been represented, look for gaps and silences in the archives, and bring your own perspectives, knowledge, memories and objects into the exhibition.

The exhibition will be created by the participants and hosted at LSE Library in 2027.

What will you do?

Across six Saturday workshops, you will:

  • Explore archival collections at LSE Library and Tower Hamlets
  • Learn how archives are organised and how to research them
  • Learn practical skills in exhibition research, curation and interpretation
  • Work with other participants to identify themes and stories
  • Decide which archival objects and materials to include
  • Think critically about how communities are represented in archives
  • Write and develop interpretation for the exhibition
  • Bring your own knowledge, perspectives, memories and objects to the project
  • Help decide how the final exhibition tells its stories

Who can apply?

First or second year LSE students

You should:

  • Identify as South Asian
  • Be a current undergraduate LSE student in first or second year
  • Be interested in exploring archives, histories or exhibition-making
  • Be available for all six Saturday workshops
  • Be willing to work collaboratively with other participants

Tower Hamlets community participants

You should:

  • Identify as South Asian
  • Live in Tower Hamlets
  • Be interested in exploring local histories, archives or exhibition-making
  • Be available for all six Saturday workshops
  • Be willing to work collaboratively with other participants

Must be available on the following Saturdays in 2027:

  • 17 Jan, 10am-1pm
  • 20 Feb, 10am-1pm*
  • 20 Mar, 10am-1pm
  • 15 May, 10am-1pm
  • 19 Jun, 10am-1pm
  • 17 Jul 10am-1pm

*Held at Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives. All other sessions at LSE Library.

What will you receive?

  • Costs incurred to attend the workshops such as subsistence and travel will be covered by LSE Library.
  • Learn about archival research, exhibition development, curation and interpretation.
  • Your research and ideas will contribute directly to an exhibition at LSE Library.
  • Explore collections at two institutions and discover material that isn't usually seen by the public.
  • Training in how to curate an exhibition from start to finish.

How to apply

Expression of Interest forms are now available. The deadline is 11:59pm, 30 November 2026

Expression of interest: Curating South Asian histories: a community exhibition project

Participants will be notified by 11 December. We will assess applications based on the relevance to the written questions if there is more interest than we have the capacity for. In the event, you’re unsuccessful, you will have the opportunity to contribute to the project with a feedback session in July 2027.

Questions can be sent to library.learning@lse.ac.uk