Aishwarya Kumar, PhD student of the Lisbon Consortium, will be joining the Europaeum Scholars Programme 2026-2027 to explore some of the continent’s most pressing policy challenges with fellow scholars across Europe in Oxford, Brussels, Budapest, Geneva, Luxembourg, and Lammi.
Through her ongoing project, Sobremesa | Vagaries of the Palate, Aishwarya’s research will focus on migration, artistic research, and intangible cultural heritage as areas through which transnational identity and knowledge can be reconsidered. Using Sobremesa as a case study, Aishwarya is especially interested in how everyday practices of gathering can serve as a lens for examining broader socio-political questions of belonging, social cohesion, negotiated knowledge, and the ways communities navigate difference in an era of increasing polarisation.
At a time when migration debates are often framed through economic, demographic, or security concerns, Aishwarya hopes to explore what we can learn from cultural practices that create meaningful encounters across lines of difference and how the table can become more than a site of conviviality and care: a space where difficult conversations can take place, disagreement can be navigated, and relationships can be built despite competing perspectives.
You can follow Sobremesa | Vagaries of the Palate project here: https://www.sobremesaproject.com/
The Lisbon Consortium 