Ocean Law/Policy & Art Scholar

Dr Mekhala Dave is a lawyer and art academic based in Vienna. She is the ocean law and policy analyst/researcher at TBA21–Academy. She has a doctoral degree in contemporary art history and curatorial practice at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. In her past and current legal practice, as well as through her doctoral research, she advocates for a social turn in artistic practices and explores encounters located across knowledge spheres and communities in the Global South at the intersection of activism and newly shaping ocean policy. From her lived experiences across borders, she draws inspiration and spiritual guidance from water to the questions of historicity and the search for emerging “new” relations of identity and belonging.