Shubha Chaudhuri has a Phd in Linguistics. She has been with the Archives and Research Centre for Ethnomusicology of the American Institute of Indian Studies since its inception in 1982, and Director since 1985.
In the field of audio-visual archiving her major interests have been database applications, research archives and ethnomusicology, issues of Intellectual Property Rights and community archives. She has presented papers at many national and international venues in these areas.
Her fieldwork has been in Western Rajasthan in India and more recently in Goa and Kutch. She has co-authored with Daniel Neuman and Komal Kothari “Bards, Ballads and Boundaries : an ethnographic atlas of music in West Rajasthan, and co edited with Anthony Seeger “Archives for the future:  global perspectives on Audio visual archiving in the 21st Century” , and “ Remembered Rhythms: Essays on diaspora and the music of India”
She has served as Vice President of the International Association of Sound and Audio-Visual Archives, the Executive Board of the ICTM (International Council of Traditional Music), and as council member of the Society of Ethnomusicology.
Shubha Chaudhuri has been a consultant for the Ford Foundation in the area of audiovisual archiving for projects in India, Indonesia and Sudan. She has been active in holding training workshops for archiving and ethnomusicology, and served as consultant with the WIPO Creative Heritage Project and with UNESCO for the cultural mapping project, and interactive museums.
As a trained facilitator of UNESCO, she has been active in training workshops for the implementation of the 2003 Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention in Nepal, Bhutan, Cambodia and Lao PDR.