Shahidha is an academic, critic and broadcaster. She studied English at King's College Cambridge and now reviews books for The Guardian and teaches at the University of the Arts London. She’s also a presenter of BBC Radio 3's arts and ideas programme, Free Thinking.

Shahidha has written a book about the poet Keats and, most recently, Dressed: The Secret Life of Clothes. In 2016, Shahidha was awarded The Observer Anthony Burgess Arts Journalism Prize. She's been a judge for the Forward Prizes for Poetry and the Baillie Gifford Non-Fiction Prize. Previous trustee experience includes the educational charity, Arts Emergency.