PhD student in Ethnomusicology, Department of Music, Goldsmiths, University of London.

Menaka PP Bora, a young Indian classical dancer-choreographer and scholar is awarded prestigious USTAD BISMILLAH KHAN YUVA PURASKAR 2009 (highest national young artiste award in India) by Sangeet Natak Akademi (India's national academy for music, drama and dance), New Delhi for her contribution to Indian classical Sattriya dance. The young artiste award is given to encourage outstanding young talents in diverse fields of performing arts and give them a national recognition early in life so that they may work with greater commitment and dedication in their chosen form of art. Menaka received the award at a special ceremony on 10th of August, 2010 in New Delhi, India

Menaka PP Bora has won the prestigious Wingate Scholarship 2010 in 'Music' category to conduct a pioneering academic and practice based research entitled "Cross-cultural musical knowledge: A contemporary study of Sattriya performance culture in India and UK" at Oxford University, Faculty of Music (St. John's College) from 2011. Wingate Scholarships are awarded to outstanding individuals of great potential or proven excellence who need financial support to undertake creative or original work of intellectual, scientific, artistic, social or environmental value and to musicians for advanced training. 

She is the first Indian to conduct an ethnomusicological research related to Indian classical dance at Faculty of Music, Oxford University. As a Wingate scholar, Menaka will address the current debate on 'impact' and 'knowledge transfer' of ethnomusicological research through her artistic work at several key dance/music venues in London and Paris from spring 2011. The legacy of this project is to create long term artistic and academic resources of Sattriya peformance art in cross-cultural context. 

Menaka has an MA in Transnational Communications and Global Media from Goldsmiths and has worked as a 0.5 Lecturer in Dance at Kingston University, London from 2008-2009. She is currently finishing her doctoral thesis on Indian contemporary experimental music under the supervision of Dr. Barley Norton in Music department for which she had received Central Research Fund from University of London for fieldwork and British Federation of Women Graduates Fund