Positions

Research Areas research areas

Overview

  • I study the nation as the product of collective cultural imagination and local action in South and Southeast Asia. My primary approach is ethnographic (i.e. based on fieldwork and personal immersion), and is informed by historical research and social theory. I have conducted long-term fieldwork in a community at the foot of Mt. Banahaw in the Philippines, where, for the past two centuries, people have built and circulated associations between the local landscape and Biblical places such as Christ’s road to Calvary. My writings on this subject comprise several essays and a book (in progress) that brings together a number of themes, from the role played by place-based attachments and identities in motivating citizen mobilization to the utopian resonances of a Philippine Holy Land assembled across local, national, and transnational scales. Currently, I’m expanding my contributions to the study of “everyday nationalism” to new topics and settings in the context of urban India. My ongoing projects include investigations of multilingual media, financial inclusion, and everyday money management amongst low and middle income residents of Delhi.
  • Selected Publications

    Academic Article

    Year Title
    2012 Winged Faith: Rethinking Globalization and Religious Pluralism through the Sathya Sai MovementAmerican Ethnologist.  39:465-467. 2012
    2007 Guru english: South Asian religion in a Cosmopolitan languageJournal of Asian Studies.  66:859-861. 2007
    2007 Rhetorical Indios: Propagandists and their publics in the Spanish PhilippinesComparative Studies in Society and History: an international quarterly.  49:243-275. 2007

    Chapter

    Year Title
    2013 The Philippines.  19-45. 2013
    2005 The Politician and the Priestess: Enunciating Filipino Cultural Nationalism at Mt. Banahaw.  20-41. 2005

    Teaching Activities

  • Global Issues Intrntnl Affairs Taught course 2023
  • International Perspectives Taught course 2023
  • Peoples & Cultures/SE Asia Taught course 2023
  • Exploring Intl Challenges Taught course 2022
  • International Perspectives Taught course 2022
  • International Perspectives Taught course 2022
  • Hon/Global Perspec:Intro Anth Taught course 2022
  • International Perspectives Taught course 2022
  • Peoples & Cultures/SE Asia Taught course 2022
  • Exploring Intl Challenges Taught course 2021
  • International Perspectives Taught course 2021
  • International Perspectives Taught course 2021
  • Core Concepts in Anthropology Taught course 2021
  • Core Concepts in Anthropology Taught course 2021
  • International Perspectives Taught course 2021
  • Peoples & Cultures/SE Asia Taught course 2021
  • Exploring Intl Challenges Taught course 2020
  • International Perspectives Taught course 2020
  • International Perspectives Taught course 2020
  • International Perspectives Taught course 2020
  • Peoples & Cultures/SE Asia Taught course 2020
  • Core Concepts in Anthropology Taught course 2019
  • International Perspectives Taught course 2019
  • International Perspectives Taught course 2019
  • Seminar Taught course 2019
  • International Perspectives Taught course 2019
  • Peoples & Cultures/SE Asia Taught course 2019
  • Rsrch Exp/Anthropology Taught course 2019
  • Core Concepts in Anthropology Taught course 2018
  • International Perspectives Taught course 2018
  • International Perspectives Taught course 2018
  • Seminar Taught course 2018
  • Global Perspectives:Intro Anth Taught course 2018
  • International Perspectives Taught course 2018
  • International Perspectives Taught course 2017
  • International Perspectives Taught course 2017
  • Peoples & Cultures/SE Asia Taught course 2017
  • International Perspectives Taught course 2017
  • SpTop:Culture & Citizenship Taught course 2017
  • International Perspectives Taught course 2016
  • International Perspectives Taught course 2016
  • Peoples & Cultures/SE Asia Taught course 2016
  • Education And Training

  • B.A., Bryn Mawr College
  • M.A., Cornell University
  • Ph.D. Anthropology, Cornell University
  • Full Name

  • Smita Lahiri