Sultan Ali

Specialist - Cultural Heritage and Memory Systems

Sultan Ali specializes in documentary heritage management, oral history methodology, and the intersection of digital archiving and community memory in vulnerable contexts. With over a decade of experience spanning heritage preservation, museum development, and archival systems design across Pakistan and South Asia, he brings distinctive expertise in translating heritage preservation principles into practical frameworks for institutions with limited resources and complex political environments. Sultan currently serves as founder of Mountain Heritage Archives, a pioneering initiative documenting and digitizing documentary heritage and oral histories in endangered languages across Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. From 2016 to 2023, he led the Citizens Archive of Pakistan's Oral History Project in Punjab, overseeing the country's largest memory project and digital archive. Earlier in his career, he directed cultural mapping and heritage documentation for Lahore's historic Anarkali Bazaar as part of a World Monuments Fund project and served as Director of Archives at the Applied Social Research Resource Centre, managing Pakistan's largest feminist archive. He has provided cultural heritage consulting to Mott Macdonald Pakistan on heritage site assessment and cultural mapping to inform urban planning across multiple districts. Beyond institutional archival work, Sultan has engaged in international heritage discourse and public programming. He has spoken at UNESCO's 2nd Memory of the World Global Policy Forum and curated significant exhibitions including "In the Present Lies the Past: Feminist Excavations," the largest exhibition on Pakistani women's history, held during the Lahore Biennale 2020. He has trained local volunteers and students in oral history methodology and archival practices through partnerships with the British Council's Cultural Protection Fund, building grassroots capacity for heritage documentation. Sultan holds an MA in Heritage Studies with Distinction from the University of Manchester, where he was awarded the Gill Wright Prize for his dissertation examining post-Partition politicization of heritage and its impacts on built heritage in South Asia. He also holds an MPhil in Cultural Studies from the National College of Arts, Lahore. He was awarded a research fellowship by the Heidelberg Center for Cultural Heritage at Heidelberg University in Germany and is an alumnus of ICCROM CollAsia. At Manāra, he contributes heritage management expertise, advises on archival system design, and supports projects requiring oral history methodology and documentary heritage preservation frameworks.