Deepa is an architect and historian who grew up in Mumbai, India. She has a Ph.D. in Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a MA in Histories and Theories from Architectural Association, UK. She completed her undergraduate studies in architecture in Mumbai. She is currently an Assistant Professor of the History of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of Houston. She has previously taught at Cooper Union and CEPT University, India, and was a postdoctoral researcher at the Knowlton School of Architecture, Ohio State University.

 

Deepa's research examines land and environmental histories. Central to her research is unraveling the environmental, economic, and social inequities that emerge from material infrastructures, organizational practices, and financial instruments that shape the built environment. Deepa's ongoing project, "Reclaimed Lands," traces the colonial histories of land reclamation along Mumbai's coasts. The project won the Graham Foundation Grant for Research and the New Faculty Research Grant at the University of Houston in 2023. 

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Deepa’s research has been supported by the Graham Foundation, Getty Research Institute, the Canadian Center of Architecture, Rockefeller Center, Global Architectural History Teaching Collaborative and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Her works have been published in Neoliberalism on the Ground (University of Pittsburgh Press), Instituting Worlds: Architecture and Islands (Routledge), Places Journal, Journal of Planning History, Arris, Cite 104, Places Journal, CLOG magazine, and Arris. 

 

Before her doctoral studies, Deepa was a practicing architect in Chicago and Mumbai.