Devika is a public engagement practitioner, researcher and educator working at the intersection of science communication, youth participation, equity and decolonial practice. She is Youth Programmes Leader at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, where she leads national and regional programmes for young people aged 10–19 and works with scientists, educators and young people to explore more inclusive approaches to engaging with science.
Alongside her museum practice, Devika is pursuing a DPhil in Education at the University of Oxford. Her wider work has spanned museums, libraries, universities and local government, including research and consultancy on decolonisation, institutional histories and racial equity. She has also delivered extensive public engagement work examining the histories of science, collecting and colonialism.
Her practice asks a deceptively simple question: who gets to see themselves as a “science person”? She is particularly interested in moving science communication beyond simply making scientific knowledge accessible towards examining the cultures, histories and assumptions that shape who feels entitled to participate in science in the first place. Through youth-led and participatory approaches, her work explores how museums and science organisations can recognise the scientific curiosity already embedded in young people's everyday lives and create spaces in which more people can see science as something that belongs to them.
