Yale Bulletin and Calendar

June 28, 2002Volume 30, Number 32Four-Week Issue


Arjun Appadurai




Arjun Appadurai joins faculty
as the Lanman Jr. Professor

Arjun Appadurai, who will join the Yale faculty July 1 as the William K. Lanman Jr. Professor of International Studies, is a noted expert on modern developments in the Indian city of Mumbai (formerly called Bombay) and on the cultural effects of globalization.

Appadurai comes to Yale from the University of Chicago, where he has taught since 1992 and is currently the Samuel N. Harper Professor. He holds joint appointments in the Departments of Anthropology and in South Asian Languages and Civilizations.

Appadurai's current research is focused on three areas: ethnic violence in the context of globalization, with a special focus on ethnic relations in Mumbai in the late 1980s and 1990s; an exploration of the cultural dimensions of social crisis in Mumbai, focusing on housing, poverty, media and violence; and a comparative ethnographic project on grass-roots globalization, particularly emergent transnational organizational forms and new practices of sovereignty. His other areas of interest include historical anthropology, international civil society and urban South Asia.

The author of numerous articles in scholarly journals, Appadurai has written on such topics as religion, cuisine, agriculture and mass culture in India. His books include "Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization" and "Worship and Conflict Under Colonial Rule: A South Indian Case." He edited "The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective" and coedited (with M. Mills and F. Korom) "Gender, Genre and Power in South Asian Expressive Traditions." He is the editor of two collections of essays that are in preparation -- "India After Empire" and "East of Anthropology" -- and is preparing a book titled "Space, Uncertainty and Ethnic Violence in the Era of Globalization."

Appadurai is one of the founding editors of the journal Public Culture and was founding director of the Chicago Humanities Institute at the University of Chicago.

Born and educated in Bombay, Appadurai earned an intermediate arts degree from Elphinstone College before coming to the United States. He earned his B.A. from Brandeis University and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He taught at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) from 1976 until 1992, when he joined the faculty at the University of Chicago. At UPenn, he held the Hollin Chair in Anthropology and was also a consulting curator for the University Museum's Asian section.

Appadurai has held numerous fellowships and scholarships, including residential fellowships at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Palo Alto, California, and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Harold Attridge appointed as Divinity School dean

F&ES Dean Speth honored with Blue Planet Prize

Official accolades

Arjun Appadurai joins faculty as the Lanman Jr. Professor

W. Mark Saltzman to teach as Goizueta Foundation Professor

John Mayes II is appointed the director of Yale Procurement


MEDICAL SCHOOL NEWS

Yale SOM survey finds CEOs remain confident in auditors

YSN-affiliated practice offers care for women

Beinecke exhibit features photos of literary notables


OBITUARIES

The World in the City

Witt will coach women's ice hockey team this year

Yale now boasts eight certified HR professionals

Yale Books in Brief

Campus Notes


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