Name
Dissertation or Research Interests
Email
Ahmed, Manan Manan Ahmed is working on his dissertation on the history and memory of Muhammad bin Qasim and the Arab conquest of Sindh from medieval to modern periods. mahmed@uchicago.edu
Bloch, Emily ebloch@uchicago.edu
Delacy, Richard My academic focus is on cultural commodities in the so-called vernacular languages of India, in particular Hindi/Urdu. I focus on the relationship between the vernacular and the language of global capital, English and how conceptions of these have shifted in the late twentieth century, in particular in regard to the shift in the idea of the vernacular as the language of the nation and its citizens to that of its consumers. In particular I interrogate the idea that commercial cinema indexes the nation and its citizens in the post-liberalization period, given the emphasis on consumption and the creation of consumers in the so-called vernaculars at this time. I am also interested in the historical evolution of the vernaculars as the languages of the nation in opposition to English in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. I currently also teach Hindi/Urdu and film courses at Harvard University while I am completing my Ph.D. delacyr@uchicago.edu
Dey, Arnab I work on the cultural history of the Assam tea plantations, roughly between 1840-1910 in India, with particular interest in its vernacular literature, namely in Assamese, Bengali and Hindi. Before coming to Chicago, I studied and taught in the department of English, St. Stephen's College at the University of Delhi. arnab@uchicago.edu
Dubrow, Jennifer Jennifer Dubrow is studying Urdu literature and literary culture, with special reference to late nineteenth-century novels and the shift to print. Her dissertation is on Fasana-e Azad, an early Urdu novel, and its reception in late nineteenth-century Lucknow. Other interests include: Urdu fiction; Islam in India; Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan's Aligarh movement; literary theory; Hindi/Urdu film. jdubrow@uchicago.edu
Fischel, Roy I am primarily interested in the history of Islam in pre-modern South Asia. Currently I am working on the Deccan prior to the Mughal conquest, focusing on the Qutb-Shahi dynasty of Golkonda/Hyderabad. fischel@uchicago.edu
Flummerfelt, Mark m-flummerfelt@uchicago.edu
Fuhrmann, Arnika

Arnika's dissertation, "Ghostly Desires: the aesthetics and politics of sexuality and loss in Thai cinema after 1997," traces current logics of sexual and ethnic minoritization through social and political crises as well as through the aesthetics of Thai popular cinema, independent film, and avant-garde video, supplementing the study of image and text with ethnographic data.

Further research and teaching foci include notions of social memory in Southeast Asia; Buddhist affect; contemporary social movements and questions of rhetorical strategy; the study of gender and sexuality in the framework of trauma theory; queer and trans-identitarian communities and politics in Asia; the politics of sexual regulation; Ratanakosin, modern, and contemporary Thai literary cultures; Southeast Asian religions; Sanskrit and Pali poetics; public affect.

 a-fuhrmann@uchicago.edu
Gandrota, Smita
Ghose, Rajarshi My research looks at Muslim communities of Bengal and northern India from the late-eighteenth to the mid-twentienth centuries. I am interested in theological thought, religious sectarianism, literary practices and colonial law. rghose@uchicago.edu
Ghosh, Abhishek Abhishek Ghosh did his undergraduate degree at Calcutta University and got his M.St in the Study of Religion at Oxford. He is presently a PhD student at SALC and plans to continue doing his research on Caitanya Vaishnava theology and history. abhishekg@uchicago.edu
Hamilton, Amanda I am writing a dissertation on the development of race categories in early 19th-century Bengal which focuses on the Eurasian community. These are the dis-inherited children of the so-called 'White Mughals.' What interests me is how ideas of race are used by all communities: White European, Indian, and Eurasian, to negotiate and contest changing visions of an evolving colonial polity. Other than that I study Race in Calcutta at the Calcutta racecourse. ahamilto@uchicago.edu
He, Xi My dissertation focuses on the literary aspects of the narrative the Lalitavistara, an early biography of the Buddha from around the second century C.E. Interested in Sanskrit literature and Sanskrit poetics, Buddhist narratives,early Buddhist history, and the textual transmission and translation of Buddhist texts in Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese and Tibetan. xihe@uchicago.edu
Heim, Steven hei2@uchicago.edu
Huntington, Eric Eric Huntington has a background in studio arts and philosophy, but he is currently interested in the arts and material culture of Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. At present, his studies include traditional artistic techniques and the iconography and philosophy of exoteric and esoteric ritual systems. erhuntin@uchicago.edu
Kinra, Rajeev Rajeev Kinra is currently nearing completion of his dissertation, "Secretary-Poets in Mughal India and the Ethos of Persian: The Case of Chandar Bhan 'Brahman'". In his years at Chicago he has studied a variety of materials in multiple languages, especially Persian, Urdu, and Sanskrit, and his present research focuses on early modern literary culture, politics, and historiography, primarily in the Mughal and early British periods. He is currently serving as a College Fellow in the history department at Northwestern University, where he will remain as an Assistant Professor beginning in 2008. r-kinra@uchicago.edu
Knutson, Jesse Ross Sanskrit literature; Bangla; Literary history; Medieval Period; Marxism. knutson@uchicago.edu
Kovacs, Hajnalka hajnal@uchicago.edu
Kroll, Ethan Ethan Kroll is writing a dissertation entitled, "The Sanskrit Philosophy of Property." His interests include Sanskrit, the History of Law in India, Indian Intellectual History, and Comparative Law. He is also pursuing a J.D. at Stanford Law School. kroll@uchicago.edu
Leavitt, Guy g-leavitt@uchicago.edu
Leonard, Spencer Spencer Leonard is a Ph.D. candidate for a joint degree in SALC and History. His dissertation, "A Fit of Absence of Mind? Illiberal Imperialism and the Founding of British India, 1757-1776," examines the earliest formation of the British colonial state in Bengal. Spencer has recently returned from nine months of research in the U.K. and will spent most of 2008 in India completing the research for his dissertation. saleonar@uchicago.edu
Loewy Shacham, Ilanit Interested in Sanskrit kavya literature. ilanits@uchicago.edu
Lyons, Ashley Interested in 8th through 15th century Muslim and Hindu devotional literature including Sanskrit and Persian poetry and early Isma'ili da'wa movements in India. anlyons@uchicago.edu
Momin, Wafi Wafi Momin from Pakistan joined the department in the autumn of 2006 to pursue his doctorate. Before joining the department he completed an M.A. in Islamic Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. His academic interests are in the fields of Islamic studies, Islam in South Asia, Religion and Philosophy. wamomim@uchicago.edu
O'Donnell, Erin eodonnel@uchicago.edu
Pazucha, Katarzyna kpazucha@uchicago.edu
Satpathy, Siddharth satpathy@uchicago.edu
Tiwari, Bulbul Bulbul Tiwari is a Ph.D. candidate in SALC. She teaches Hindi film, but her dissertation is on epic in performance. It looks at theatre, film, television, dance, art and sculpture in relation to The Mahabharata. tiwari@uchicago.edu
Vantine, Jessica Interests include Nepal's religious, particularly Hindu, cultures and traditions, historical and contemporary; Nepali and Newar religious literature; local, regional, and Sanskrit purana studies; women and/in religion in South Asia. jvantine@uchicago.edu
Wright, Samuel stwright@uchicago.edu