Nicholas Dirks curriculum vitae

By Carol Ness

VITA

NICHOLAS BERNARD DIRKS

ACADEMIC TRAINING

The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 1972-1978
Ph.D. 1981, Department of History
Fields: South Asian History (Modern, Ancient, Medieval); Anthropology
M.A. 1974, Department of History

Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, 1968-1972
B.A. Major Program: African and Asian Studies in the College of Social Studies

CURRENT POSITION

Executive Vice President and Dean of the Faculty of the Arts and Sciences, 2009-
(see www.columbia.edu/cu/vpas/)

Vice President and Dean of the Faculty of the Arts and Sciences, 2004-2009

As Executive Vice President, I am responsible for the academic administration, operational and financial management, long-term academic and financial planning, and overall direction of the Arts and Sciences, the central unit of the University, including twenty-nine departments (covering the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences), fifty institutes and centers, and five schools (Columbia College, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the School of the Arts, the School of General Studies, the School of Continuing Education, and until last July, the School of International and Public Affairs). The five deans of these schools report directly to me, along with the chairs and directors of the departments, institutes, and centers of the Arts and Sciences. I oversee and manage an independent budget of over $600 million (including close to $100 million of sponsored research), and have primary responsibility for academic and financial planning, as well as for fundraising in the Arts and Sciences (we have raised over $900 million towards our goal of $1.4 billion for the Arts and Sciences, in a $5 billion campaign to be completed in 2013). As EVP, I work directly with the President and the Trustees. As Dean of the Faculty, I preside over the review, promotion, recruitment, and retention of all faculty in the Arts and Sciences, while also overseeing reviews of schools, departments and programs. The Arts and Sciences have over 800 full-time faculty, and over 13,000 students (including all six schools). I am also responsible for all decisions regarding space and facilities in the Arts and Sciences, and have worked on the design of and planning for various major renovations as well as the construction of a large new interdisciplinary science building on the Morningside campus (as well as on plans to build a new campus in Manhattanville). During my time in office, I have recruited four new deans from outside Columbia, and put in place a new structure of administration for the Arts and Sciences and governance for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. I have led a major diversity initiative, and served as a key senior administrator working on the development of global outreach for the University as well.

ACADEMIC POSITIONS

Franz Boas Professor of Anthropology and History, Columbia University, February 2000-

Professor of Anthropology and History, Columbia University, July 1997-February 2000

Professor of History and Anthropology, University of Michigan, May 1990-June 1997

Directeur D’Études Associé, at L’École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris, January-April 1992

Associate Professor of History, the University of Michigan, September 1987-May 1990

Associate Professor of History, Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, January 1986-August 1987

Academic Visitor, Department of Anthropology, London School of Economics and Political Science, January-December 1986

Assistant Professor of History, California Institute of Technology, September 1980-December 1985

Instructor in Asian History, California Institute of Technology, September 1978-August 1980

Part-time Instructor in Cultural Anthropology, George Williams College, autumn 1973

OTHER PROFESSIONAL POSITIONS

Chair, Department of Anthropology, Columbia University, 1997-2003

Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations, 2005-

Trustee, Board of Trustees, Columbia University Press, 2003-

Series Editor, “Cultures of History,” Columbia University Press, 2002-

Chair, Faculty Publications Board, Columbia University Press, 2003-2006

Director, Advanced Study Center of the International Institute, University of Michigan, 1995-1997

Director, Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan, 1992-1995

Co-founder and Director, Interdepartmental Program in Anthropology and History, University of Michigan, 1988-1997

Director, Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan, 1992-1995

SCHOLASTIC AWARDS, HONORS AND FELLOWSHIPS

Old Dominion Fellow, The Humanities Council and the Department of History, Princeton University, spring 2005

Lionel Trilling Award for Best Book (Castes of Mind), 2002

Franz Boas Professor, Columbia University, 2000-

Mellon Foundation, Sawyer Seminar Convener, Columbia University, 1999-2002

Senior Fellow, Michigan Society of Fellows, 1995-1997

Invited Member, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford

Mellon Foundation, Sawyer Seminar Co-Convener, University of Michigan, 1996-1997

Julia Lockwood Certain Award, University of Michigan, 1995

University of Michigan Faculty Recognition Award, 1994

AIIS grant for travel research in India, summer 1993

Guggenheim Fellow, 1989-1991

John and Catherine D. MacArthur Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 1989-1990

AIIS short term grant, travel and research in India, summer 1989

NEH Summer Stipend, 1985

AIIS short term grant, travel and research in India, summer 1991

Social Science Research Council Postdoctoral Grant, 1985-1986

Senior Research Fellow, American Institute of Indian Studies, Smithsonian Institution, 1980

Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellow, 1975-1976

Doctoral Dissertation Grant from Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies, 1975-1977

American Institute of Indian Studies Summer Language Fellow, 1974

Kent Fellow, The Danforth Foundation, 1974-1978

NDEA Title VI, 1972-1973, 1973-1974

Honors in Social Studies, Wesleyan University

Cum Laude in General Scholarship, Wesleyan University

PUBLICATIONS

Books:

The Scandal of Empire: India and the Creation of Imperial Britain. Cambridge: Belknap Imprint, Harvard University Press, 2006.

Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001; New Delhi: Permanent Black, 2002.

In Near Ruins: Cultural Theory at the end of the Century. Ed. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998.

The Hollow Crown: Ethnohistory of an Indian Kingdom, New Edition, 406 pages. University of Michigan Press, 1993.

Colonialism and Culture. Ed. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1992 (with introduction entitled “Colonialism and Culture,” and article, “From Little King to Landlord: Colonial Discourse and Colonial Rule”).

Culture/Power/History: A reader in contemporary social theory. Eds. Eley, Geoff and Ortner, Sherry. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993.

The Hollow Crown: Ethnohistory of an Indian Kingdom. 1st ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.

Articles:

“Franz Boas and the American University: A Personal Account,” in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. vol. 154, no. 1, March 2010.

Foreward in, Fringes of Empire: Peoples, Places and Spaces in Colonial India, Agha, Sameetah and Kolsky, Elizabeth. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.

“Autobiography of an Archive,” in The Madras School of Orientalism. Ed. Trautmann, Thomas R. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.

“Imperial Sovereignty,” in Imperial Formations. Eds. McGranahan, Carole; Perdue, Peter, and Stoler, Ann Laura. Santa Fe, N.M.: School for Advanced Research Press, 2007.

“The Ethnographic State,” in The State in India: Past and Present. Eds. Kimura, Masaaki, and Tanabe, Akio. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

“South Asian Studies: Futures Past,” in The Politics of Knowledge: Area Studies and the Disciplines. Ed. Szanton, David. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2004.

“Colonial and Postcolonial Histories: Comparative Reflections on the Legacies of Empire,” in Building Inclusive Societies, Global Background Paper for the Human Development Report. New York: United Nations Publications, 2004.

“Colonial Amnesia and the Old Regime in the Photographs of Linnaeus Tripe,” in Traces of India: Photography, Architecture, and the Politics of Representation, 1850-1900. Ed. Pelizzari, Maria Antonella. Montreal: Canadian Centre for Architecture YEAR?; New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, 2003.

“Annals of the Archive: Ethnographic Notes on the Sources of History,” in From the Margins: Historical Anthropology and its Futures. Ed. Axel, Brian. Durham: Duke University Press, 2002.

“Discriminating Difference: The Postcolonial Politics of Caste in India,” in The Construction of Minorities: Cases for Comparison Across Time and Around the World. Eds. Burguiere, Andre, and Grew, Raymond. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001.

“Postcolonialism and its Discontents: History, Anthropology, and Postcolonial Critique,” in Schools of Thought: Twenty-five Years of Interpretive Social Science. Eds. Scott, Joan, and Keates, Debra. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.

“The Home and the Nation: Consuming Culture and Politics in Roja,” in Pleasure and the Nation: The History, Politics and Consumption of Public Culture in India. Eds. Pinney, Christopher, and Dwyer, Rachel. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001.

“The Sovereignty of History: Culture and Modernity in the Cinema of Satyajit Ray,” in Questions of Modernity. Ed. Mitchell, Timothy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000.

“The Crimes of Colonialism: Anthropology and the Textualization of India,” in Colonial Subjects: Essays on the Practical History of Anthropology. Eds. Pels, Peter, and Salemink, Oscar. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999

“In Near Ruins,” Introductory essay in, In Near Ruins: Cultural Theory at the End of the Century.Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998.

“The Policing of Tradition: Colonialism and Anthropology in Southern India,” in Comparative Studies in Society and History. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997

“Différence et discrimination. La politique des castes dans l’Inde post-coloniale,” in Annales HSS. Vol. 52, no. 3. 1997

“The Conversion of Caste,” in Conversion to Modernity (Zones of Religion). Ed. van der Veer, Peter. New York: Routledge Press, 1995.

“Reading Culture: Anthropology and the Textualization of India,” in Culture/Contexture: Explorations in Anthropology and Literary Studies. Eds. Daniel, E. Valentine, and Peck, Jeffrey. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.

“Recasting Tamil India: The Politics of Caste and Race in Contemporary Southern India,” in Caste Today. Ed. Fuller, C.J. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

“The Home and the World: The Invention of Modernity in Colonial India,” in Visual Anthropology Review. vol. 9, no. 2, fall 1993, pp. 19-31, revised version in Revisioning History: Film and the construction of a new past. Ed. Rosenstone, Robert. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995.

“Glorious Spoliations: Picturesque Beauty, Colonial Knowledge, and Colin Mackenzie’s Survey of India,” in Perceptions of India’s Visual Pasts. Eds. Asher, Catherine Ella Blanshard, and Metcalf, Thomas R. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Introduction in, “Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge,” Cohn, Bernard S. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995.

“Colonial Histories and Native Informants: Biography of an Archive,” in Orientalism and the Postcolonial Predicament: Perspectives on South Asia. Eds. Breckenridge, Carol and van der Veer, Peter. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993.

“Is Vice Versa? Historical Anthropologies and Anthropological Histories,” in The Historic Turn in the Human Sciences. Ed. McDonald, Terrence. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1993.

“Castes of Mind,” in Representations. no. 37, winter 1992.

“From Little King to Landlord: Property, Law, and the Gift Under the Madras Permanent Settlement,” in Comparative Studies in Society and History. vol. 28, no. 2, April 1986. Republished in revised form, “From Little King to Landlord: Colonial Discourse and Colonial Rule,” in Colonialism and Culture. Ed. Dirks, Nicholas. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992.

“Ritual and Resistance: Subversion As a Social Fact,” in Contesting Power: Resistance and everyday social relations in South Asia. Eds. Haynes, Douglas and Prakash, Gyan. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1991; Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.

“History as a Sign of the Modern,” in Public Culture. vol. 2, no. 2, spring 1990.

“The Invention of Caste: Civil Society in Colonial India,” in Social Analysis, vol. 29, Autumn 1989.

“The Original Caste: Power, History, and Hierarchy in South Asia,” in Contributions to Indian Sociology, vol. 23, no. 1, Jan.-June 1989. Also in India Through Hindu Categories. Ed. Marriott, McKim. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1990.

“Beyond the Fringe: The Nation State, Colonialism, and the Technologies of Power,” in Journal of Historical Sociology (with Cohn, Bernard S.). vol. I, no. 2, 1988.

“Terminology and Taxonomy; Discourse and Domination: From Old Regime to Colonial Regime in South India,” in Studies of South India: An Anthology of Critical Essays on Recent Scholarship. Eds. Frykenberg, R.E., and Kolenda, P. Madras: New Era Publications, 1986.

“The Pasts of a Palaiyakarar: The Ethnohistory of a South Indian Little King,” in Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 41, no. 4, August 1982, pp. 655-683. Reprinted in Temples, Kings, and Peasants: Perceptions of South India’s Past. Ed. Spencer, George W. Madras: New Era Publications, 1986.

“Indian Socio-Economic Development,” in Pacific Affairs, vol. 53, no. 4, winter 1980-1981

“The Structure and Meaning of Political Relations in a South Indian Little Kingdom,” in Contributions to Indian Sociology, vol. 13, no. 2, July-December 1979.

“Political Authority and Structural Change in Early South Indian History,” in The Indian Economic and Social History Review, vol. 13, no. 2, April-June 1979.

Miscellaneous Reviews on Books and Films in The American Historical Review, the New York Times, The Journal of Asian Studies, etc.

CURRENT WORK

Book project on the nature of global knowledge in the twenty-first century and the challenges of globalization for universities.

Book project on the role of India in the emerging interests of the United States in and after World War II, beginning with an account of the role of the Office of Strategic Services in the development of area studies.

INVITED LECTURES AND CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION

“Scholars and Spies: Worldly Knowledge and the Predicament of the University,” University Lecture, Columbia University, February 2012.

“The Rise of South Asian Area Studies: From the OSS to the challenges of the Twenty-first Century,” lecture, University of Virginia, November 2011, and Distinguished Lecture at the Mumbai Global Center, Mumbai, India, March 2012.

“Scholars and Spies: The Emergence of Area Studies in the United States,” lecture, Sciences Po, Paris, November 2010; Stanford University, January 2011; Free University, Berlin, May 2011.

“The Liberal Arts and Global Higher Education,” plenary speech, Conference on Global Education, Beijing, China, October 2010.

“Postcolonial Studies and the Question of Sovereignty,” lecture, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, June 2010.

“The British Empire in India: Beginnings and Endings,” lecture, University of Illinois, March 2010.

“Ghurye and the Anthropology of Caste,” inaugural G.S. Ghurye Lecture, Mumbai University, January 2010.

“The Historical Politics of Caste Studies,” lecture and seminar, Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India, January 2010.

“Caste after Ambedkar,” keynote lecture, Columbia University conference on the life and work of B.R. Ambedkar, April 2009.

“Scholars and Spies,” lecture, Mellon conference on disciplinary innovation, Cambridge University, April 2009.

“The Modern University and the Challenge of Global Education,” keynote lecture, Reinventions Conference, Washington D.C., November 2008.

“Empire on Trial,” keynote lecture, British Studies Group, Rutgers University, October 2008.

“Franz Boas,” keynote lecture, American Philosophical Society annual meeting, Philadelphia, May 2008

“On the Passion of Edmund Burke,” lecture, University of Michigan, November 2008.

“The New India: A Colonial History of the Present,” keynote lecture, India Shining conference in Copenhagen, October 2007

“Autobiography of an Archive: The Collection of Colin Mackenzie,” lecture, conference, University of Michigan, May 2007.

“Sovereignty and Nationalism: The Nation out of Empire,” keynote address, International Conference, Keio University, Kyoto, Japan, March 2007.

“On Imperial Sovereignty,” lecture, Postcolonialism Seminar, New York University, November 2006.

“Culture and Empire,” lecture, Tata Institute for Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India, December 2005.

“Empire and Sovereignty,” lecture, Conference on Utopias and Dystopias, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands, October 2005.

“Burke and Sovereignty,” lecture, Heyman Center for the Humanities, Columbia University, November 2004.

“Imperial Sovereignty,” lecture, Graduate Faculty Seminar, the New School University, September 2004.

“The Ethnographic State: Reflections on Castes of Mind,” keynote lecture, Heidelberg University, July 2004.

Conference Co-organizer, Empire and Terror, Institute for Southern Asian Studies, Columbia University, May 2004.

Lecture, Special Roundtable on Caste and Democracy, University of Delhi, January 2004.

Conference Member, Sixth Subaltern Studies Conference, Delhi, India, January 2004.

“Sovereignty and Empire,” paper and conference member, Research Seminar on Empire, School of American Research, Santa Fe, New Mexico, November 2003

“The Trial of Warren Hastings,” paper and conference member, Scotland and Empire, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, September 2003.

“Corruption and Empire,” lecture, International Conference on Empires: Past and Present, University of Thessaloniki, Volos, Greece, June 2003.

Respondent, Special Panel on the Scholarly Impact and Significance of “Castes of Mind,” Association for Asian Studies annual meeting, March 2003.

“The Colonial Context of Midnight’s Children,” lecture, Columbia University Humanities Festival, March 2003.

“The Scandal of Empire,” lecture, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, February 2003.

“The Ethnographic State: History, Anthropology, and Empire,” Society for South Asian Studies annual lecture, the British Academy, November 2002.

“The Scandal of History,” paper, conference, Clio in the Colonies, University of Michigan, October 2002.

“Caste and Colonialism,” lecture, Institute for Southern Asian Studies, Columbia, October 2002.

“The Ethnographic State,” keynote lecture, conference, Knowledge and its Objects in South Asia, Columbia University, November 2001.

“Caste and Identity in India Today,” plenary address, South Asia annual meetings, University of Wisconsin, Madison, November 2001.

“Historical Anthropology,” and “The Ethnographic State,” lectures, European University, Florence, Italy, April 2001.

“The Ethnographic State: Indirect Rule and Colonial Difference,” keynote lecture, Conference on Indirect Rule in Africa and India, Yale University, March 2001.

“Annals of the Archive,” paper, History and the Archive, American Historical Association annual meeting, January 2001.

“Dreams Chairs Dream,” roundtable, Future of Anthropology, Panel of Anthropology Chairs, American Anthropological Association annual meeting, November 2000.

“Tribute to Bernard S. Cohn,” paper and co-organizer of panel to commemorate the work of Bernard S. Cohn, American Anthropological Association annual meeting, November 2000.

“Violence, Religion, Critique: The Examples of B.R. Ambedkar, and E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker,” presented at Conference on Religion and Violence, University of Amsterdam, May 2000.

“Gandhi against the Grain,” presented at Wellesley College, February 2000.

“Slouching Towards Ambivalence: History, Anthropology, and Postcolonial Critique,” plenary address, Conference in the Human Sciences, George Washington University, April 2000; special lecture, University of Rochester, March 2000; University of Iowa, April 2000.

“The Ethnographic State,” presented at International Conference on the State in India, Kyoto University, December 1999 (published in volume of conference proceedings).

“Ambedkar, Nationalism, and the Problem of Governance,” presented to conference on Governance in South Asia, sponsored by the Social Science Research Council, Muree, Pakistan, August 1999.

“Historical Anthropology and the Archive,” presented to Department of Anthropology, New York University, October 1998; for a special seminar on historical anthropology at Emory University, February 1999.

“Homo Politicus: The Politics of Caste,” presented to the Department of Anthropology, City University of New York, November 1998; the Social Science Seminar, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, February 1999.

“Casting the Minority,” presented to Conference on Minorities, Department of History, Princeton University, April 1999.

“Anthropology and the Archive,” presented to Department of Anthropology, Princeton University, February 1998.

“The Crisis in Cultural Theory and the Echo of Postcoloniality,” paper, Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, November 1997.

“Subaltern Studies and African History,” discussant at conference, Problematizing History and Agency, University of Capetown, South Africa, October 1997.

“Annals of the Archive: Ethnographic Notes on the Sources of History,” presented at conference, History After Braudel, Bellagio, Italy, June 1997; South Asia Lecture Series, Columbia University, September 1997.

“Homo Hierarchicus: Colonial Histories and Postcolonial Politics,” lecture, History Department, Princeton University, February 1996.

Invited papers at the Center for Studies in Social Science, Calcutta, January 1996; Film Studies Department, Jadavpur University, January 1996

Invited lecture in Historical Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz, February 1996.

Organizer, discussant, SSRC conference, Violence Against Women in South Asia, Colombo, Sri Lanka, March 1996.

“G.S Ghurye and the Politics of Caste,” lecture, conference, Ethnicity, National-Building, and Pluralism, University of Bombay, December 1995.

“Film and Politics in India,” paper, conference, Popular Culture and Cultural Studies, International Institute of Asian Studies, Leiden, Holland, November 1995.

“The Politics of Caste,” paper, conference, Political Violence in India, Amherst, Massachusetts, September 1995.

“Discriminating Difference,” paper, conference, Minorities, Maison de Science de l’Homme, Paris, June 1995

“The Home and the Nation,” paper, conference, perspectives in Indian popular culture, School for Oriental and African Studies, the University of London, June 1995.

“Postcolonial Criticism and the Politics of Location,” paper, International Conference on Cultural Analysis, Amsterdam, July 1995.

“The future of area studies,” discussant, Duke University, March 1995

“The Home and the Nation,” and “Real to Reel,” papers, University of California, May 1995.

“The Music Room,” paper, conference, Cinema of Satyajit Ray, University of California at Santa Cruz, May 1994.

“On Ethnographic Translation,” lecture, American Anthropological Association annual meeting, Atlanta, December 1994.

“The Sovereignty of History: Music Rooms and Chess Players,” paper, conference, Culture of Consumption, International Institute of Asian Studies, Amsterdam, December 1994.

Invited lecture, conference, Conversion, University of Amsterdam, June 1994.

Invited lecture, conference, Unwriting Empire, Leiden University, April 1994.

Invited lecture, symposium, Orientalism, University of Amsterdam, April 1994.

“Reel to Real: The Cinematics of Tamil Political Culture,” lecture, M.I.T., March 1993; University of Pennsylvania, March 1994; Columbia, April 1994; Minnesota, April 1994.

Invited Participant, conference, Beyond Orientalism, University of California, Santa Cruz, November 1993.

“The Invention of Modernity in India,” lecture, Tufts University, March 1993.

“Colonial Anthropology and Popular Religion in India,” Cornell University, April 1993.

Invited participant, SSRC conference, Nationalism and Modernity in India, Goa, India, May 1993

Invited participant, SSRC conference, Comparative Modernities in the Middle East and South Asia, Cairo, May 1993.

Invited participant, conference, Caste Today, London School of Economics, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, July 1993.

“Colonial Anthropology and India,” lecture, Heidelberg University, January 1992; Edinburgh University, April 1992; Johns Hopkins University November 1992; University of Washington, January 1993.

“Beyond the Fringe (II): Hyper-myth and the Cinematics of Tamil Political Culture,” lecture, American Anthropological Association annual meeting, San Francisco, November 1992.

“Subaltern Intellectuals and Postcolonial Politics: India,” paper, American Anthropological Association annual meeting, San Francisco, November 1992.

“Home and the World: The Invention of Modernity in Colonial India,” lecture, University of Pennsylvania, November 1992; University of California, Berkeley, December 1992.

“The Biography of an Archive” presented at conference, Myth, Memory and History, University of Virginia, April 1992.

Papers delivered at the Ethnology Seminar, Heidelberg University, January 1992; the London School of Economics, April 1992; the University of Edinburgh, April 1992.

“Myth, Memory, and History in India,” paper, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, April 1992.

“Caste and Race in Tamil India,” presented at the Ethnohistory Workshop, University of Pennsylvania, November 1991.

“Sanskritization and the transformation of Hinduism,” presented at the American Anthropological Association annual meeting, Chicago, November 1991.

“Colonialism and European Identity,” panel discussant, American Anthropological Association annual meeting, Chicago, November 1991.

“The Policing of Tradition,” lecture and seminar, Agrarian Studies Program, Yale University, December 1991.

“The Emergence of Tamil Identities,” presented to the South Asian Seminar, Harvard University, February 1991.

“Comments on History, Experience, and Anthropology: A paper by Joan Scott,” presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, November 1990.

“Castes of Mind,” presented at the Institute for Advanced Study and Harvard University, February 1990; University of Toronto, October 1990; American Anthropological Association annual meeting, November 1990.

“The Policing of Tradition: Anthropology and the Police in Colonial India,” presented to the Ethnohistory Workshop, University of Pennsylvania, November 1989; Subaltern Studies Conference, Calcutta, December 1989; Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago, October 1990.

“History as a Sign of the Modern,” presented at the American Anthropological Association annual meeting, Washington, November 1989.

“Glorious Spoliations: Colin MacKenzie and the Colonial Surveying of India,” presented at a conference on the uses of the Indian Past, Banaras, India, December 1989.

Invited lecture, Forms of Resistance in South Asia, University of Texas, Austin, January 1989.

“Does Social Theory Need History,” presented at the Social Science History Association, Chicago, November 1988.

“Rituals of Colonialism and the Colonialism of Ritual,” presented at the Association for Asian Studies annual meeting, San Francisco, March 1988.

Invited lectures on Caste in India at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, December 1987; University of Washington, Seattle, March 1988; University of Southern California, April 1988; University of Pennsylvania, October 1988.

VITA

NICHOLAS BERNARD DIRKS

ACADEMIC TRAINING

The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 1972-1978
Ph.D. 1981, Department of History
Fields: South Asian History (Modern, Ancient, Medieval); Anthropology
M.A. 1974, Department of History

Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, 1968-1972
B.A. Major Program: African and Asian Studies in the College of Social Studies

CURRENT POSITION

Executive Vice President and Dean of the Faculty of the Arts and Sciences, 2009-
(see www.columbia.edu/cu/vpas/)

Vice President and Dean of the Faculty of the Arts and Sciences, 2004-2009

As Executive Vice President, I am responsible for the academic administration, operational and financial management, long-term academic and financial planning, and overall direction of the Arts and Sciences, the central unit of the University, including twenty-nine departments (covering the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences), fifty institutes and centers, and five schools (Columbia College, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the School of the Arts, the School of General Studies, the School of Continuing Education, and until last July, the School of International and Public Affairs). The five deans of these schools report directly to me, along with the chairs and directors of the departments, institutes, and centers of the Arts and Sciences. I oversee and manage an independent budget of over $600 million (including close to $100 million of sponsored research), and have primary responsibility for academic and financial planning, as well as for fundraising in the Arts and Sciences (we have raised over $900 million towards our goal of $1.4 billion for the Arts and Sciences, in a $5 billion campaign to be completed in 2013). As EVP, I work directly with the President and the Trustees. As Dean of the Faculty, I preside over the review, promotion, recruitment, and retention of all faculty in the Arts and Sciences, while also overseeing reviews of schools, departments and programs. The Arts and Sciences have over 800 full-time faculty, and over 13,000 students (including all six schools). I am also responsible for all decisions regarding space and facilities in the Arts and Sciences, and have worked on the design of and planning for various major renovations as well as the construction of a large new interdisciplinary science building on the Morningside campus (as well as on plans to build a new campus in Manhattanville). During my time in office, I have recruited four new deans from outside Columbia, and put in place a new structure of administration for the Arts and Sciences and governance for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. I have led a major diversity initiative, and served as a key senior administrator working on the development of global outreach for the University as well.

ACADEMIC POSITIONS

Franz Boas Professor of Anthropology and History, Columbia University, February 2000-

Professor of Anthropology and History, Columbia University, July 1997-February 2000

Professor of History and Anthropology, University of Michigan, May 1990-June 1997

Directeur D’Études Associé, at L’École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris, January-April 1992

Associate Professor of History, the University of Michigan, September 1987-May 1990

Associate Professor of History, Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, January 1986-August 1987

Academic Visitor, Department of Anthropology, London School of Economics and Political Science, January-December 1986

Assistant Professor of History, California Institute of Technology, September 1980-December 1985

Instructor in Asian History, California Institute of Technology, September 1978-August 1980

Part-time Instructor in Cultural Anthropology, George Williams College, autumn 1973

OTHER PROFESSIONAL POSITIONS

Chair, Department of Anthropology, Columbia University, 1997-2003

Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations, 2005-

Trustee, Board of Trustees, Columbia University Press, 2003-

Series Editor, “Cultures of History,” Columbia University Press, 2002-

Chair, Faculty Publications Board, Columbia University Press, 2003-2006

Director, Advanced Study Center of the International Institute, University of Michigan, 1995-1997

Director, Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan, 1992-1995

Co-founder and Director, Interdepartmental Program in Anthropology and History, University of Michigan, 1988-1997

Director, Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan, 1992-1995
SCHOLASTIC AWARDS, HONORS AND FELLOWSHIPS

Old Dominion Fellow, The Humanities Council and the Department of History, Princeton University, spring 2005

Lionel Trilling Award for Best Book (Castes of Mind), 2002

Franz Boas Professor, Columbia University, 2000-

Mellon Foundation, Sawyer Seminar Convener, Columbia University, 1999-2002

Senior Fellow, Michigan Society of Fellows, 1995-1997

Invited Member, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford

Mellon Foundation, Sawyer Seminar Co-Convener, University of Michigan, 1996-1997

Julia Lockwood Certain Award, University of Michigan, 1995

University of Michigan Faculty Recognition Award, 1994

AIIS grant for travel research in India, summer 1993

Guggenheim Fellow, 1989-1991

John and Catherine D. MacArthur Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 1989-1990

AIIS short term grant, travel and research in India, summer 1989

NEH Summer Stipend, 1985

AIIS short term grant, travel and research in India, summer 1991

Social Science Research Council Postdoctoral Grant, 1985-1986

Senior Research Fellow, American Institute of Indian Studies, Smithsonian Institution, 1980

Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellow, 1975-1976

Doctoral Dissertation Grant from Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies, 1975-1977

American Institute of Indian Studies Summer Language Fellow, 1974

Kent Fellow, The Danforth Foundation, 1974-1978

NDEA Title VI, 1972-1973, 1973-1974

Honors in Social Studies, Wesleyan University

Cum Laude in General Scholarship, Wesleyan University

PUBLICATIONS

Books:

The Scandal of Empire: India and the Creation of Imperial Britain. Cambridge: Belknap Imprint, Harvard University Press, 2006.

Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001; New Delhi: Permanent Black, 2002.

In Near Ruins: Cultural Theory at the end of the Century. Ed. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998.

The Hollow Crown: Ethnohistory of an Indian Kingdom, New Edition, 406 pages. University of Michigan Press, 1993.

Colonialism and Culture. Ed. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1992 (with introduction entitled “Colonialism and Culture,” and article, “From Little King to Landlord: Colonial Discourse and Colonial Rule”).

Culture/Power/History: A reader in contemporary social theory. Eds. Eley, Geoff and Ortner, Sherry. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993.

The Hollow Crown: Ethnohistory of an Indian Kingdom. 1st ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.

Articles:

“Franz Boas and the American University: A Personal Account,” in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. vol. 154, no. 1, March 2010.

Foreward in, Fringes of Empire: Peoples, Places and Spaces in Colonial India, Agha, Sameetah and Kolsky, Elizabeth. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.

“Autobiography of an Archive,” in The Madras School of Orientalism. Ed. Trautmann, Thomas R. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.

“Imperial Sovereignty,” in Imperial Formations. Eds. McGranahan, Carole; Perdue, Peter, and Stoler, Ann Laura. Santa Fe, N.M.: School for Advanced Research Press, 2007.

“The Ethnographic State,” in The State in India: Past and Present. Eds. Kimura, Masaaki, and Tanabe, Akio. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

“South Asian Studies: Futures Past,” in The Politics of Knowledge: Area Studies and the Disciplines. Ed. Szanton, David. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2004.

“Colonial and Postcolonial Histories: Comparative Reflections on the Legacies of Empire,” in Building Inclusive Societies, Global Background Paper for the Human Development Report. New York: United Nations Publications, 2004.

“Colonial Amnesia and the Old Regime in the Photographs of Linnaeus Tripe,” in Traces of India: Photography, Architecture, and the Politics of Representation, 1850-1900. Ed. Pelizzari, Maria Antonella. Montreal: Canadian Centre for Architecture YEAR?; New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, 2003.

“Annals of the Archive: Ethnographic Notes on the Sources of History,” in From the Margins: Historical Anthropology and its Futures. Ed. Axel, Brian. Durham: Duke University Press, 2002.

“Discriminating Difference: The Postcolonial Politics of Caste in India,” in The Construction of Minorities: Cases for Comparison Across Time and Around the World. Eds. Burguiere, Andre, and Grew, Raymond. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001.

“Postcolonialism and its Discontents: History, Anthropology, and Postcolonial Critique,” in Schools of Thought: Twenty-five Years of Interpretive Social Science. Eds. Scott, Joan, and Keates, Debra. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.

“The Home and the Nation: Consuming Culture and Politics in Roja,” in Pleasure and the Nation: The History, Politics and Consumption of Public Culture in India. Eds. Pinney, Christopher, and Dwyer, Rachel. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001.

“The Sovereignty of History: Culture and Modernity in the Cinema of Satyajit Ray,” in Questions of Modernity. Ed. Mitchell, Timothy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000.

“The Crimes of Colonialism: Anthropology and the Textualization of India,” in Colonial Subjects: Essays on the Practical History of Anthropology. Eds. Pels, Peter, and Salemink, Oscar. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999.
“In Near Ruins,” Introductory essay in, In Near Ruins: Cultural Theory at the End of the Century.Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998.

“The Policing of Tradition: Colonialism and Anthropology in Southern India,” in Comparative Studies in Society and History. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

“Différence et discrimination. La politique des castes dans l’Inde post-coloniale,” in Annales HSS. Vol. 52, no. 3. 1997

“The Conversion of Caste,” in Conversion to Modernity (Zones of Religion). Ed. van der Veer, Peter. New York: Routledge Press, 1995.

“Reading Culture: Anthropology and the Textualization of India,” in Culture/Contexture: Explorations in Anthropology and Literary Studies. Eds. Daniel, E. Valentine, and Peck, Jeffrey. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.

“Recasting Tamil India: The Politics of Caste and Race in Contemporary Southern India,” in Caste Today. Ed. Fuller, C.J. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

“The Home and the World: The Invention of Modernity in Colonial India,” in Visual Anthropology Review. vol. 9, no. 2, fall 1993, pp. 19-31, revised version in Revisioning History: Film and the construction of a new past. Ed. Rosenstone, Robert. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995.

“Glorious Spoliations: Picturesque Beauty, Colonial Knowledge, and Colin Mackenzie’s Survey of India,” in Perceptions of India’s Visual Pasts. Eds. Asher, Catherine Ella Blanshard, and Metcalf, Thomas R. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Introduction in, “Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge,” Cohn, Bernard S. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995.
“Colonial Histories and Native Informants: Biography of an Archive,” in Orientalism and the Postcolonial Predicament: Perspectives on South Asia. Eds. Breckenridge, Carol and van der Veer, Peter. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993.

“Is Vice Versa? Historical Anthropologies and Anthropological Histories,” in The Historic Turn in the Human Sciences. Ed. McDonald, Terrence. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1993.

“Castes of Mind,” in Representations. no. 37, winter 1992.

“From Little King to Landlord: Property, Law, and the Gift Under the Madras Permanent Settlement,” in Comparative Studies in Society and History. vol. 28, no. 2, April 1986. Republished in revised form, “From Little King to Landlord: Colonial Discourse and Colonial Rule,” in Colonialism and Culture. Ed. Dirks, Nicholas. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992.

“Ritual and Resistance: Subversion As a Social Fact,” in Contesting Power: Resistance and everyday social relations in South Asia. Eds. Haynes, Douglas and Prakash, Gyan. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1991; Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.

“History as a Sign of the Modern,” in Public Culture. vol. 2, no. 2, spring 1990.

“The Invention of Caste: Civil Society in Colonial India,” in Social Analysis, vol. 29, Autumn 1989.

“The Original Caste: Power, History, and Hierarchy in South Asia,” in Contributions to Indian Sociology, vol. 23, no. 1, Jan.-June 1989. Also in India Through Hindu Categories. Ed. Marriott, McKim. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1990.

“Beyond the Fringe: The Nation State, Colonialism, and the Technologies of Power,” in Journal of Historical Sociology (with Cohn, Bernard S.). vol. I, no. 2, 1988.

“Terminology and Taxonomy; Discourse and Domination: From Old Regime to Colonial Regime in South India,” in Studies of South India: An Anthology of Critical Essays on Recent Scholarship. Eds. Frykenberg, R.E., and Kolenda, P. Madras: New Era Publications, 1986.

“The Pasts of a Palaiyakarar: The Ethnohistory of a South Indian Little King,” in Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 41, no. 4, August 1982, pp. 655-683. Reprinted in Temples, Kings, and Peasants: Perceptions of South India’s Past. Ed. Spencer, George W. Madras: New Era Publications, 1986.

“Indian Socio-Economic Development,” in Pacific Affairs, vol. 53, no. 4, winter 1980-1981.

“The Structure and Meaning of Political Relations in a South Indian Little Kingdom,” in Contributions to Indian Sociology, vol. 13, no. 2, July-December 1979.

“Political Authority and Structural Change in Early South Indian History,” in The Indian Economic and Social History Review, vol. 13, no. 2, April-June 1979.

Miscellaneous Reviews on Books and Films in The American Historical Review, the New York Times, The Journal of Asian Studies, etc.

CURRENT WORK

Book project on the nature of global knowledge in the twenty-first century and the challenges of globalization for universities.

Book project on the role of India in the emerging interests of the United States in and after World War II, beginning with an account of the role of the Office of Strategic Services in the development of area studies.

INVITED LECTURES AND CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION

“Scholars and Spies: Worldly Knowledge and the Predicament of the University,” University Lecture, Columbia University, February 2012.

“The Rise of South Asian Area Studies: From the OSS to the challenges of the Twenty-first Century,” lecture, University of Virginia, November 2011, and Distinguished Lecture at the Mumbai Global Center, Mumbai, India, March 2012.

“Scholars and Spies: The Emergence of Area Studies in the United States,” lecture, Sciences Po, Paris, November 2010; Stanford University, January 2011; Free University, Berlin, May 2011.

“The Liberal Arts and Global Higher Education,” plenary speech, Conference on Global Education, Beijing, China, October 2010.

“Postcolonial Studies and the Question of Sovereignty,” lecture, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, June 2010.

“The British Empire in India: Beginnings and Endings,” lecture, University of Illinois, March 2010.

“Ghurye and the Anthropology of Caste,” inaugural G.S. Ghurye Lecture, Mumbai University, January 2010.

“The Historical Politics of Caste Studies,” lecture and seminar, Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India, January 2010.

“Caste after Ambedkar,” keynote lecture, Columbia University conference on the life and work of B.R. Ambedkar, April 2009.

“Scholars and Spies,” lecture, Mellon conference on disciplinary innovation, Cambridge University, April 2009.

“The Modern University and the Challenge of Global Education,” keynote lecture, Reinventions Conference, Washington D.C., November 2008.

“Empire on Trial,” keynote lecture, British Studies Group, Rutgers University, October 2008.

“Franz Boas,” keynote lecture, American Philosophical Society annual meeting, Philadelphia, May 2008.

“On the Passion of Edmund Burke,” lecture, University of Michigan, November 2008.

“The New India: A Colonial History of the Present,” keynote lecture, India Shining conference in Copenhagen, October 2007.

“Autobiography of an Archive: The Collection of Colin Mackenzie,” lecture, conference, University of Michigan, May 2007.

“Sovereignty and Nationalism: The Nation out of Empire,” keynote address, International Conference, Keio University, Kyoto, Japan, March 2007.

“On Imperial Sovereignty,” lecture, Postcolonialism Seminar, New York University, November 2006.

“Culture and Empire,” lecture, Tata Institute for Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India, December 2005.

“Empire and Sovereignty,” lecture, Conference on Utopias and Dystopias, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands, October 2005.

“Burke and Sovereignty,” lecture, Heyman Center for the Humanities, Columbia University, November 2004.

“Imperial Sovereignty,” lecture, Graduate Faculty Seminar, the New School University, September 2004.

“The Ethnographic State: Reflections on Castes of Mind,” keynote lecture, Heidelberg University, July 2004.

Conference Co-organizer, Empire and Terror, Institute for Southern Asian Studies, Columbia University, May 2004.

Lecture, Special Roundtable on Caste and Democracy, University of Delhi, January 2004.

Conference Member, Sixth Subaltern Studies Conference, Delhi, India, January 2004.

“Sovereignty and Empire,” paper and conference member, Research Seminar on Empire, School of American Research, Santa Fe, New Mexico, November 2003.

“The Trial of Warren Hastings,” paper and conference member, Scotland and Empire, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, September 2003.

“Corruption and Empire,” lecture, International Conference on Empires: Past and Present, University of Thessaloniki, Volos, Greece, June 2003.

Respondent, Special Panel on the Scholarly Impact and Significance of “Castes of Mind,” Association for Asian Studies annual meeting, March 2003.

“The Colonial Context of Midnight’s Children,” lecture, Columbia University Humanities Festival, March 2003.

“The Scandal of Empire,” lecture, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, February 2003.

“The Ethnographic State: History, Anthropology, and Empire,” Society for South Asian Studies annual lecture, the British Academy, November 2002.

“The Scandal of History,” paper, conference, Clio in the Colonies, University of Michigan, October 2002.

“Caste and Colonialism,” lecture, Institute for Southern Asian Studies, Columbia, October 2002.

“The Ethnographic State,” keynote lecture, conference, Knowledge and its Objects in South Asia, Columbia University, November 2001.
“Caste and Identity in India Today,” plenary address, South Asia annual meetings, University of Wisconsin, Madison, November 2001.

“Historical Anthropology,” and “The Ethnographic State,” lectures, European University, Florence, Italy, April 2001.

“The Ethnographic State: Indirect Rule and Colonial Difference,” keynote lecture, Conference on Indirect Rule in Africa and India, Yale University, March 2001.

“Annals of the Archive,” paper, History and the Archive, American Historical Association annual meeting, January 2001.

“Dreams Chairs Dream,” roundtable, Future of Anthropology, Panel of Anthropology Chairs, American Anthropological Association annual meeting, November 2000.

“Tribute to Bernard S. Cohn,” paper and co-organizer of panel to commemorate the work of Bernard S. Cohn, American Anthropological Association annual meeting, November 2000.

“Violence, Religion, Critique: The Examples of B.R. Ambedkar, and E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker,” presented at Conference on Religion and Violence, University of Amsterdam, May 2000.

“Gandhi against the Grain,” presented at Wellesley College, February 2000.

“Slouching Towards Ambivalence: History, Anthropology, and Postcolonial Critique,” plenary address, Conference in the Human Sciences, George Washington University, April 2000; special lecture, University of Rochester, March 2000; University of Iowa, April 2000.

“The Ethnographic State,” presented at International Conference on the State in India, Kyoto University, December 1999 (published in volume of conference proceedings).

“Ambedkar, Nationalism, and the Problem of Governance,” presented to conference on Governance in South Asia, sponsored by the Social Science Research Council, Muree, Pakistan, August 1999.

“Historical Anthropology and the Archive,” presented to Department of Anthropology, New York University, October 1998; for a special seminar on historical anthropology at Emory University, February 1999.

“Homo Politicus: The Politics of Caste,” presented to the Department of Anthropology, City University of New York, November 1998; the Social Science Seminar, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, February 1999.

“Casting the Minority,” presented to Conference on Minorities, Department of History, Princeton University, April 1999.

“Anthropology and the Archive,” presented to Department of Anthropology, Princeton University, February 1998.

“The Crisis in Cultural Theory and the Echo of Postcoloniality,” paper, Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, November 1997.

“Subaltern Studies and African History,” discussant at conference, Problematizing History and Agency, University of Capetown, South Africa, October 1997.
“Annals of the Archive: Ethnographic Notes on the Sources of History,” presented at conference, History After Braudel, Bellagio, Italy, June 1997; South Asia Lecture Series, Columbia University, September 1997.

“Homo Hierarchicus: Colonial Histories and Postcolonial Politics,” lecture, History Department, Princeton University, February 1996.

Invited papers at the Center for Studies in Social Science, Calcutta, January 1996; Film Studies Department, Jadavpur University, January 1996.

Invited lecture in Historical Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz, February 1996.

Organizer, discussant, SSRC conference, Violence Against Women in South Asia, Colombo, Sri Lanka, March 1996.

“G.S Ghurye and the Politics of Caste,” lecture, conference, Ethnicity, National-Building, and Pluralism, University of Bombay, December 1995.

“Film and Politics in India,” paper, conference, Popular Culture and Cultural Studies, International Institute of Asian Studies, Leiden, Holland, November 1995.

“The Politics of Caste,” paper, conference, Political Violence in India, Amherst, Massachusetts, September 1995.

“Discriminating Difference,” paper, conference, Minorities, Maison de Science de l’Homme, Paris, June 1995.

“The Home and the Nation,” paper, conference, perspectives in Indian popular culture, School for Oriental and African Studies, the University of London, June 1995.

“Postcolonial Criticism and the Politics of Location,” paper, International Conference on Cultural Analysis, Amsterdam, July 1995.

“The future of area studies,” discussant, Duke University, March 1995.

“The Home and the Nation,” and “Real to Reel,” papers, University of California, May 1995.

“The Music Room,” paper, conference, Cinema of Satyajit Ray, University of California at Santa Cruz, May 1994.

“On Ethnographic Translation,” lecture, American Anthropological Association annual meeting, Atlanta, December 1994.

“The Sovereignty of History: Music Rooms and Chess Players,” paper, conference, Culture of Consumption, International Institute of Asian Studies, Amsterdam, December 1994.

Invited lecture, conference, Conversion, University of Amsterdam, June 1994.

Invited lecture, conference, Unwriting Empire, Leiden University, April 1994.

Invited lecture, symposium, Orientalism, University of Amsterdam, April 1994.

“Reel to Real: The Cinematics of Tamil Political Culture,” lecture, M.I.T., March 1993; University of Pennsylvania, March 1994; Columbia, April 1994; Minnesota, April 1994.

Invited Participant, conference, Beyond Orientalism, University of California, Santa Cruz, November 1993.

“The Invention of Modernity in India,” lecture, Tufts University, March 1993.

“Colonial Anthropology and Popular Religion in India,” Cornell University, April 1993.

Invited participant, SSRC conference, Nationalism and Modernity in India, Goa, India, May 1993.

Invited participant, SSRC conference, Comparative Modernities in the Middle East and South Asia, Cairo, May 1993.

Invited participant, conference, Caste Today, London School of Economics, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, July 1993.

“Colonial Anthropology and India,” lecture, Heidelberg University, January 1992; Edinburgh University, April 1992; Johns Hopkins University November 1992; University of Washington, January 1993.

“Beyond the Fringe (II): Hyper-myth and the Cinematics of Tamil Political Culture,” lecture, American Anthropological Association annual meeting, San Francisco, November 1992.

“Subaltern Intellectuals and Postcolonial Politics: India,” paper, American Anthropological Association annual meeting, San Francisco, November 1992.

“Home and the World: The Invention of Modernity in Colonial India,” lecture, University of Pennsylvania, November 1992; University of California, Berkeley, December 1992.

“The Biography of an Archive” presented at conference, Myth, Memory and History, University of Virginia, April 1992.

Papers delivered at the Ethnology Seminar, Heidelberg University, January 1992; the London School of Economics, April 1992; the University of Edinburgh, April 1992.

“Myth, Memory, and History in India,” paper, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, April 1992.

“Caste and Race in Tamil India,” presented at the Ethnohistory Workshop, University of Pennsylvania, November 1991.

“Sanskritization and the transformation of Hinduism,” presented at the American Anthropological Association annual meeting, Chicago, November 1991.

“Colonialism and European Identity,” panel discussant, American Anthropological Association annual meeting, Chicago, November 1991.

“The Policing of Tradition,” lecture and seminar, Agrarian Studies Program, Yale University, December 1991.

“The Emergence of Tamil Identities,” presented to the South Asian Seminar, Harvard University, February 1991.

“Comments on History, Experience, and Anthropology: A paper by Joan Scott,” presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, November 1990.

“Castes of Mind,” presented at the Institute for Advanced Study and Harvard University, February 1990; University of Toronto, October 1990; American Anthropological Association annual meeting, November 1990.

“The Policing of Tradition: Anthropology and the Police in Colonial India,” presented to the Ethnohistory Workshop, University of Pennsylvania, November 1989; Subaltern Studies Conference, Calcutta, December 1989; Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago, October 1990.

“History as a Sign of the Modern,” presented at the American Anthropological Association annual meeting, Washington, November 1989.

“Glorious Spoliations: Colin MacKenzie and the Colonial Surveying of India,” presented at a conference on the uses of the Indian Past, Banaras, India, December 1989.

Invited lecture, Forms of Resistance in South Asia, University of Texas, Austin, January 1989.

“Does Social Theory Need History,” presented at the Social Science History Association, Chicago, November 1988.

“Rituals of Colonialism and the Colonialism of Ritual,” presented at the Association for Asian Studies annual meeting, San Francisco, March 1988.

Invited lectures on Caste in India at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, December 1987; University of Washington, Seattle, March 1988; University of Southern California, April 1988; University of Pennsylvania, October 1988.

“Ritual and Resistance in South Indian Village Rituals,” at the American Historical Association annual meeting, December 1987.

“Forms of Inversion in Modern South Asia,” panel discussant, Annual Meetings on South Asia, University of Wisconsin, Madison, November 1987.

“Ethnography in the Colonial Mirror,” lecture, American Anthropological Association annual meeting, Chicago, November 1987.

“Beyond the Fringe” and “Castes of Mind,” presented at the Mellon Workshops on Cultural Colonialism, California Institute of Technology, April-May, 1987.

Comments on the Subaltern Project, University of California, Santa Cruz, April 1987.

“History and Anthropology,” presented at L’École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris, November 1986.

“Ethnohistory and the Indian Eighteenth Century,” presented to a special symposium at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, June 1986.

“Ethnohistory of an Indian Kingdom,” presented at Cambridge University, March 1986; University of Michigan, March 1986; London School of Economics and Political Science, June 1986; École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, November 1986; Oxford University, December 1986; University College, London, December 1986.
“Gifts and Kingship,” presented at the Association for Asian Studies annual meeting, March 1986.

“Marriage and Rank in Tamil Kinship,” presented to the Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin, November 1985.

Discussant on the position of culture in Indian historiography, workshop on the Indian Eighteenth Century, Warwick University, Coventry, August 1985.

“Caste and Kingship: Power, Hierarchy and Social Relations in a Tamil Little Kingdom,” presented at the Association for Asian Studies annual meeting, March 1985.

“Commodity Fetishism and Political Form: Money and the Old Regime in South India,” presented to Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin, November 1984.

“Power, Territory, and Hierarchy: The Kallars of Pudukkottai,” presented to Workshop on Ethnosociology of South Asia at Madison, Wisconsin, November 1984.

“Orthodoxy in the Chinese Tradition and in China Today,” discussant, Southern California Colloquium in Chinese Studies, Anthropological Perspectives in Chinese History, California Institute of Technology, March 1984.

“Ritual Kingship and Civilization: The Political Dynamic of Cultural Change in Medieval South Indian History,” presented to conference, The Historical Experience of Change and Patterns of Reconstruction in Selected Axial Age Civilizations, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, December 1983-January 1984.

“Lineages and Subcastes in a Tamil Little Kingdom: Ethnosociology in a Historical Dimension,” presented to American Anthropological Association annual meeting, Chicago, November 1983.

“Gifts and Kingship,” presented to the 12th Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison, November 1983.

“Culture and Comparison in South Asian History,” presented to Workshop on Modern South Asian History, University of California at Santa Cruz, June 1983.

“The Structure of Social and Political Relations in a South Indian Little Kingdom,” presented to South Asian Anthropologist’s group meeting, London School of Economics, May 1983.

“The Origins of Local Administration in Ancient China,” discussant, workshop on the political economy of pre-industrial society, Caltech-Weingart Conference, May 1983.

“Land as Political Relation in the Little Kingdoms of Southern India,” presented to Annual Meeting of the Association of Asian Studies, Toronto, March 1981.

“The Moral Economy of a Little Kingdom in South India,” presented to South Asia Colloquium on Regional States in South Asia, University of Washington, Seattle, February 1981.

“Topics in Indian Social and Economic History,” paper, Western Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, Salt Lake City, autumn 1980.

“Peasant Rebellion in South India,” presented to Western Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, Salt Lake City, autumn 1980.

“Myth and History in Southern India,” presented to Anthropology Colloquium, State University of New York, Stonybrook, May 1980.

“Indian Socio-Economic Development: Theoretical Surprises and Practical Lessons,” paper, Association for Asian Studies annual meeting, Washington D.C., March 1980.

“Becoming a King in South India,” presented to special seminar on Kingship in Asia at the University of Chicago, January 1980.

“State Ceremonial in Late Imperial China,” paper, Association for Asian Studies annual meeting, Los Angeles, April 1979.

“The Ritual State in Medieval South India,” Anthropology, University of Southern California, February 1979.

OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Visiting Committee, Asian Studies, Harvard University, spring 2004.

Visiting Committee, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, spring 2004.

Visiting Committee, Department of History, Princeton University, 2003-2008.

Co-Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation Grant for new Digital Technologies and Learning Anthropology, developed with the Joint Information Systems Committee and the Department of Anthropology at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Member of Review Committee, Department of Anthropology, University of Southern California, November 2002.

Special Consultant for the Development of South Asian Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, May 2001.

Member of Review Committee, Program in Asian Studies, State University of New York at Stony Brook, April and September 1998.

Member of Review Committee, Department of History, University of California, Los Angeles, February 1998.

Member, South Asia Regional Area Committee, Social Science Research Council, 1997-1999.

Editor-in-Chief, Comparative Studies in Society and History, July 1996-1997.

Treasurer, Society for Cultural Anthropology, 1995-1996.

Senior Fellow, Michigan Society of Fellows, 1995-1999.

Honorary Associate, Center for the Comparative Study of Religion and Society, University of Amsterdam, 1994-

Organizer of Conference on Culture, sponsored by Program in Comparative Study of Social Transformations, University of Michigan, October 1993.
Core member, Midwest Consortium, Center for Psychosocial Studies Chicago.

Member, Joint Committee on South Asia, Social Science Research Council, 1993-1996.

Co-organizer of Conference on “Nationalizing the Past,” sponsored by the Social Science Research Council, Goa, India, May 1993.

Co-editor of Series on Culture/Power/History with Princeton University Press, 1989-2000.

Manuscript Reviews for University of Pennsylvania Press, University of Minnesota Press, Cornell University Press, Princeton University Press, Cambridge University Press, University of Chicago Press, University of California Press, University of Michigan Press, Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Editor of volume and organizer of conference on colonialism for Comparative Studies in Society and History.

Organizer of Mellon Workshops on culture and colonialism, California Institute of Technology, April-May 1987.

Co-organizer of Workshop on the Social History and Relations of Money, Annual South Asia Meetings, University of Wisconsin, Madison, November 1984.

Co-organizer of Workshop on Modern South Asian History, University of California at Santa Cruz, June 3-5, 1983.

Organizer of Panel: “Ethnohistorical Landscapes: Concepts of Land in Southern India,” Association for Asian Studies, spring 1981.

Consultant on A.I.D. sponsored project, coordinated by Professor Jeffrey Nugent, University of Southern California, “Old-Age Pensions and Human Fertility in Rural Areas of Developing Countries (Guatemala, India, Malaysia),” spring 1980.

Editorial Board, Interventions, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Contributions to Indian Sociology.

Member, Advisory Council, Satyajit Ray Film and Study Collection, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Member of the Board of Trustees, American Institute of Indian Studies.

Book Review Editor, Comparative Studies in Society and History.

FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Tamil, French

UNIVERSITY SERVICE (Michigan)

Director, Advanced Study Center of the International Institute, 1995-1997.

Member of Executive Committee, the Program in Film & Video Studies, 1994-1996.

Member, Search Committee and Director, Film and Studies Program, 1993-1994.

Co-Founder and Permanent Member of Directorial Board, The Interdepartmental Program in History and Anthropology, The University of Michigan.

Member, Search Committee for Political Science Department, 1992-1993.

Director, Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, 1992-1995.

Member, Divisional Board for Social Sciences and Education, 1991-1993.

Member, Review Committee for Institute for the Humanities, 1991.

Member, Executive Committee, History Department, 1990-1993.

Chair, Search Committee, Anthropology, 1988-1989.

Member, Latino Studies Evaluation Committee, 1988-1989.

Member, Promotion Committee, Anthropology, 1988-1989.

University Senate Member, 1988-1991.

Chair, Publications Committee, Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, September 1987-1992.

Member, Graduate Admissions and Fellowship Committee, History Department, 1987-1988.

Member, Comparative Studies Committee, History Department, 1987-

Member, Steering Committee, Program in the Comparative Study of Social Transformations, September 1987-

Member, Media Services Committee, 1987-1988.

Member, Review Committee, Anthropology Department, 1987-1988.

Member, Mitchell Teaching Award Committee.

UNIVERSITY SERVICE (Columbia)

Executive Vice President and Dean of the Faculty of the Arts and Sciences, 2009-

Vice President and Dean of the Faculty of the Arts and Sciences, 2004-

Trustee, Board of Trustees, Columbia University Press, 2003-

Member, Executive Committee for Institute for Southern Asian Studies.

Chair, Review Committees, Department of History, 2003-2004.

Member, Executive Committee for the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, 2003-

Member, Presidential Task Force on Globalization, 2003-

Member, Presidential Task Force for Planning, Columbia University, 2003-

Chair, Columbia University Press Board, 2003-2006.

Member, Columbia University Press Director Search Committee, 2003.

Chair, Heyman Center Review Committee, 2003.

Member, Curriculum Reform Committee, History Department, 2002.

Member, Search Committee for Senior European Historians, 2001-

Member, Columbia University Press Board, 2001.

Traveler’s Fellowship Committee, GSAS.

Member, Academic Review Committee, 2001-2004.

Convener, Mellon Seminar on the Production of History, 1999-00; 2002-2003.

Ad Hoc Reviews, etc.

Personnel Committee, History Department, 1999-2000; 2001-

Area Chair, World Group, History Department, 1999-2000; 2001-

Advisory Committee, History Department, 1998-1999.

Member, Provost’s Committee on Libraries and Information Services, 1997-2003.

Chair, Department of Anthropology, 1996-2003.