Part one of an interview with Lala Rukh conducted in 2009, Lahore, by Maliha Noorani, AAA researcher for Pakistan.

The interview centres on the important role critical approaches have played in Rukh’s development as an artist and educator, and proposes that the same intellectual rigor should be implemented into current education systems as well. Rukh begins by tracing her education in Lahore under Anna Molka Ahmed, crediting the strong art history curriculum at Punjab University for her intellectual and artistic maturity. She goes on to explain her work towards the culture of scholarship in Pakistan now, and stresses the need to incorporate local, personal histories within wider social, contemporary, and international contexts. Her participation in the Women’s Action Forum is an example of this mixed approach, so is her possession of ‘two bodies of knowledge’—'the so-called traditional and the more western, contemporary' art. While she notes some of the contributions her MA curriculum has made in the field, she is also wary of the unnecessary fractions and divisions within educational programmes now.