School for Syncretic Cultures & Practices
We start from a curiosity: how do cultures live, shift, and grow together over time? Syncretism here is a living process that shows how communities adapt practices for meaning, functioning, and for coexistence.
History tells us that cultures have been never singular, they are plural, layered, and constantly reshaped by the people who inhabit them. In every place we work, this plurality becomes visible in food, music, architecture, religious practices, languages, and art forms. Our explorations look at these as creativity: from the way a recipe carries stories of many kitchens to how an architectural form borrows from different traditions to become something anew.
The school is a space to learn from this plurality - listening to how people have always lived with difference, together, and how these practices might guide us in shaping more inclusive co-existing futures.
As Ruksana Nazneen, our collaborator shared during our work with CLKN: "The value of an art, a craft, or a practice is not always recognised in its present moment. It is often future generations who look back to understand what it carried."
The key questions that guide this school are:
- 🔎How can we learn best about syncretic cultures from a place and letting these places guide what and how we learn?
- 🔎What are the best ways to bring together different fields of study so we can understand and respond to the many challenges and opportunities in places with mixed cultures?
- 🔎How can we create new and different ways for communities to grow and improve, based on local knowledge and creative ideas, instead of just following traditional 'development' models, to support cultural diversity and community well-being in a place?
- 🔎Through hands-on projects combined with careful thinking and real-world experiences, can we gain new insights and support the understanding and ongoing evolution of syncretic practices?
- 🔎How can we teach in a way that helps students actively explore, think about, and personally understand cultural events - giving them ownership of their learning and allowing them to create meaningful stories from their experiences in diverse cultural settings?
Past courses
Past
Bioregional Cultures: Sacred Sites, Ecology and Syncretism
Delving into the historical inter-linkages of community sacred sites and the surrounding ecologies. A look into myths, legends, and how locally rooted rituals-practices help us understand the micro social and ecological relationships.
- Schools For Concentration: Syncretic Cultures & Practices
- Micro-Context: Muhharam Padagalu
- Micro-Context: Local History
- +4 More Micro-Context
- Place: Bidar
- Place: Gulbarga
- Learning Module: Deliberate Practice
Past
Rural Series: Pastoralism and land
A travel based learning of Pastoral migration, and it’s unique knowledge and exchanges shared with the local land, migratory routes and places.
- Schools For Concentration: Syncretic Cultures & Practices
- Place: Gulbarga
- Place: Bidar
- Learning Module: Travelling Studio
- Trimester: 01
Past
Jatre as a communal practice
Jatre are a moment for large public gatherings that intertwines cultural practices, religious festivals and local economy. In this travelling studio series we will learn from culturally rooted practice of Jatre in Bidar region
- Schools For Concentration: Syncretic Cultures & Practices
- Micro-Context: Allamma Prabhu Jathre
- Micro-Context: Jatre
- +1 More Micro-Context
- Place: Bidar
- Learning Module: Travelling Studio
- Trimester: 02
Past
Place as Archive - Syncretic Cultures
In this practicum we will reimagine the idea of an archive as something that's alive and evolving. This module will directly learn from and contribute to Bidar Heritage Centre Archives, our long-term infrastructuring engagement.
- Schools For Concentration: Syncretic Cultures & Practices
- Micro-Context: Agrarian Practices
- Micro-Context: Agrarian Festivals
- +2 More Micro-Context
- Place: Bidar
- Learning Module: Deliberate Practice
- Trimester: 01
Past
Assembling the plural world
3 – 14 Nov 2025
Artefacts embedded in a place are containers of shared experiences among communities. In this unit we will assemble narratives through cultural artefacts to initiate a public dialogue.
- Schools For Concentration: Syncretic Cultures & Practices
- Micro-Context: Community Histories Practices Dhors
- Micro-Context: Community Histories Practices Gowli
- +2 More Micro-Context
- Place: Bidar
- Learning Module: Deliberate Practice
- Trimester: 02