Debika Ray is a writer, editor, and consultant specializing in the arts, with a keen interest in the Global South, diasporic communities, cities, and material culture. Over the past 20 years, she has written for some of the world's leading newspapers, magazines, and websites — ranging from Financial Times, Guardian, The Independent, and Al Jazeera, to Wallpaper*, Kinfolk, Elle Decoration, and Architectural Digest. Most recently, she was interim program director of the Global Design Forum, the talks and thought leadership program at the London Design Biennale. From 2022 to 2025, she was editor of Crafts and head of editorial and communications at the UK Crafts Council. Before that, she was senior editor at Icon and deputy editor at Disegno. In 2017, she founded Clove, a magazine and online platform about the culture of South Asia and the region's international diaspora, and the associated creative agency Clove Press. In 2022, she co-founded We Are Here, a collective that explores cultural, social, and political ideas from the perspective of migrant and diasporic communities. Debika frequently chairs public conversations, delivers lectures, and participates in juries and interview panels in the sphere of craft, design, and architecture. She has advised major businesses, architecture practices, engineering firms, universities, charities, think tanks, and other institutions on their editorial, communications, and events strategies.
