Dhan S. Zunino Singh

(Professor Derek J. Keene & Dr James Moore) M.Phil./Ph.D.
The history of the Buenos Aires underground railways. A cultural analysis of the modernization process in a peripheral metropolis (1890–1950).

Dhan graduated from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), Argentina, with a degree in Sociology. He continued his studies in urban history and sociology of culture obtaining a postgraduate degree as Specialist in History and Criticism of Architecture and Urbanism (School of Architecture, Design, and Urbanism, UBA) and an MA degree in Sociology of Culture and Cultural Analysis (Institute of Higher Social Studies, National University of San Martin). Along with his studies, he participated in several academic projects working as a research assistant at the Department of Urban Studies, Gino Germani Research Institute, UBA. He was teaching assistant in the undergraduate course: “Social and urban processes” at the same school.

Dhan has participated in academic events organising several conferences and seminars on urban topics. He has also worked on knowledge diffusion coordinating a book collection on theory, critics, and urban culture at the Publishing House El Cielo por Asalto, and collaborating with the on-line journal Bifurcaciones.

He carried out a research project on urban regeneration in a historical district of Buenos Aires, exploring the relationship between tourism and heritage. His Master thesis: “Economic uses of culture in the urban renewal process,” contains the outcomes of that research. During his specialisation in urban history, Dhan began to explore the cultural history field analysing the implementation of the first underground line in Buenos Aires and its impact on the culture and society at the turn of 20th century. Currently, he is carrying out his research on the same topic but covering a broader historical period, from early projects for the underground railways to the construction of the main network. The relationship between this urban artefact and its representations (ideas, images, meanings) during the modernisation of Buenos Aires is the main focus of his enquiry.

Main Publications (in books and journals)

  • ‘Buenos Aires from below: planning the municipal metropolitan underground railway (1905-1910)’, Centro-H, April 2009: 3, pp. 15-26
  • Redondo, Adriana y Zunino Singh, Dhan (2008) “El entorno barrial. La Boca, Barracas y San Telmo. Breve reseña histórica” [“The suburban environment. Brief historical description of La Boca, Barracas, and San Telmo districts”] in Herzer, Hilda (org.) Con el corazón mirando al sur. Transformaciones en el sur de la ciudad de Buenos Aires, (Buenos Aires: Editorial Espacio) ISBN 9508022914
  • Gómez, Mariana y Zunino Singh, Dhan (2008) “La (re)valorización de la zona sur y su patrimonio histórico-cultural como recurso turístico” [“The regeneration of the southern districts and their cultural heritage as tourist resource”] in Herzer, Hilda (org.) Con el corazón mirando al sur. Transformaciones en el sur de la ciudad de Buenos Aires, (Buenos Aires: Editorial Espacio). ISBN 9508022914
  • Dhan Zunino Singh: “Cortázar y los subtes. Juegos de espacio y tiempo en los subterráneos de Buenos Aires", en bifurcaciones [online]. núm. 2, otoño 2005. World Wide Web document, URL: <www.bifurcaciones.cl/002/Zunino.htm>. ISSN 0718-1132. (“Cortázar and Metro. Play of time and space in Buenos Aires’ underground railways”).
  • Barria, C.; Sáez Nebreda, L.; Velázquez, M. y Zunino Singh, D. (2004) “Memoria Urbana: borrón y cuenta nueva”, [“Urban memories: let’s make a fresh star”] in AAVV “Espacio, memoria e identidad,” UNR Editora, Rosario, Argentina, 2004, p. 98-103 ISBN 950-673-440-2.
  • Maximiliano Velázquez y Dhan Zunino Singh (2001) "¿Hacia la ciudad cerrada?" [“Towards the enclosed city?”] in Manuel A. Rodriguez y Jorge P. Roze (coord.) Ciudades latinoamericanas: una visión social del urbanismo, (Guerrero: Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero, México), p. 253 a 268. ISBN: 968-6766-01-4

Recent Conferences and Seminars Papers

  • “The use of visual sources for a cultural history of the underground railway (Buenos Aires, 1886-1945),” Transcending the Boundaries: doctoral research across discipline, Workshop run by Doctoral Students, School of Historical Studies at the University of Leicester, 30 January 2010
  • “Planning the metropolis ‘from below.’ The case of the Metropolitan Underground Railways for Buenos Aires (1905-1910)” Open Seminars, Gino Germani Institute of Social Research, School of Social Sciences, University of Buenos Aires, 29 September 2009
  • “Buenos Aires between America and Europe: dreaming of a metropolis from a peripheral location c.1880–1910”, Anglo-American Conference of Historians 2009: Cities, Institute of Historical Research, London, UK. 2 - 3 July 2009
  • “City of tomorrow: the ideas and images on Buenos Aires in the future through the ‘space of circulation’ (c.1880-1910)”, Cultural Histories of Sociability, Spaces and Mobility Conference, Department of History Cultural History, University of York, UK. 9-11 July 2009

Awards

  • 2008-2009 ORSAS Award, School of Advanced Study – University of London
  • 2007-2010 MPhil/PhD SAS Bursary, School of Advanced Study – University of London
  • 2007-2010 Alban Scholarship, European Union (declined)
  • 2004-2007 Fellowship. CONICET (National Scientific and Technical Research Council), Argentina