RESEARCH STATEMENT
I am indebted to long term field work in diverse contexts which emphasizes dynamics of encounter, transference, and reflexivity. The ethnographic engagement includes a thorough reading of ethnographic and anthropological literature, as well as an engagement with social and cultural theory. I have conducted ethnographic research in rural and urban India, Gibraltar, the United States, and in Germany.
EDUCATION
1/06 Cornell University. Ph.D. 2006. Anthropology.
12/00 Cornell University. M.A. 2000. Anthropology
7/98 Freie Universität Berlin. Magister Artium (M.A.).
5/94 Freie Universität Berlin. Zwischenprüfung (B.A.).
BOOKS
2012. Pogrom in Gujarat: Hindu Nationalism and Anti-Muslim Violence in India. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press. 335 pages. ISBN 978-0-691-15177-9
2009, ed., Violence: Ethnographic Encounters. NYC: Berg Press. 164 pages. ISBN 978-1-84788-417-6.
2008. Muslimische Heilige in Gujarat: Sufismus, Synkretismus und Praxis im westlichen Indien. (in German). Berlin: ECA, 141 pages. ISBN 978-3-940842-61-9.
ARTICLES, BOOK CHAPTERS, AND MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS
2021. “Guilty dreams: Culpability and Reactionary Violence in Gujarat” ZiF, Katharina von Kellenbach and Matthias Buschmeier (eds.), In Guilt: A Force of Cultural Transformation. Oxford University Press
2021. “Pratikriya, Guilt and Reactionary Violence.” New Hindutva, Thomas Boom Hansen and Srirupa Roy (eds), In Saffron Republic: Hindu Nationalism and State Power in India. Cambridge University Press
2020. “The Erotic in Foreigner Incorporation: First Encounters between Germans and Syrians.” In Digesting Difference: Migrant Incorporation and Mutual Belonging in Europe. Ed. by Kelly McKowen and John Borneman. Palgrave Macmillan.
2019. “Reflections in the Crowd: Delegation, Verisimilitude, and the Modi Mask.” In Majoritarian State: How Hindu Nationalism is Changing India, Angana P. Chatterji, Thomas Blom Hansen and Christophe Jaffrelot (eds.), Hurst & Company
2017 "The concept of Stimmung: From Indifference to Xenophobia in Germany's refugee crisis" (co-author John Borneman). Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 7 (3): 1-17.
2017. “Syrian Refugees in Germany: Erotic Conflict and Foreigner Integration,” (co-author John Borneman). Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences XXII (1): 20-47. Shimla (Himachal Pradesh), India: Indian Institute of Advanced Studies (IIAS).
2017. In Conversation with Sindre Bangstad and Karin Kapadia while at the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies (IIAS), Himachal Pradesh, Shimla, India. October/November 2016. In Anthropology of Our Times, Palgrave Macmillan
2016. “Mimetic Failure: Politics, Prayer and Possession.” Journal of Religious and Political Practice. Vol. 2, 1, Special Issue, Prayer and Politics.
2015. “Macht des Anschaulichen: Fritz Kramer and Mimesis in Africa.” Erhard Schüttpelz und Martin Zillinger (Hrsg.). In Begeisterung und Blasphemie, Zeitschrift für Kulturwissenschaften, 2, pp. 165-186.
2015. “Urban thresholds: Crevices, Crossroads and Magic Remainders” (reprinted from Ethnography). In Cities of South Asia, Crispin Bates and Minoru Mio (eds.), Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-83276-3.
2013. “Naming and Omission,” In under Essays and Exchanges of Reverberations: New Directions in the Study of Prayer, online magazine: http://forums.ssrc.org/ndsp/2013/10/11/naming-and- omission/
2012. “The city threshold: Mushroom temples and magic remains in Ahmedabad.” Ethnography Vol. 13, No.1, pp. 12-27. ISSN 1466-1381. (Republished as “Urban thresholds: Crevices, crossroads and magic remainders” in book chapter, see above)
2012. Interview (video) at the Institut d'Études Avancée de Nantes, France: https://www.iea-nantes.fr/en/chercheurs/ghassem-fachandi-parvis_233
2011. “On the Political Uses of Disgust in Gujarat.” (Reprinted from South Asian History and Culture, see below) In Politics, Conflict and Society in Gujarat: Fifty Years of a Modern Indian State (1960-2010), edited by Nalin Mehta, Mona Mehta, and Boria Majumdar. ISBN-10: 0415556120. That volume was also published with the title Gujarat Beyond Gandhi: Identity, Society and Conflict, edited by Nalin Mehta, Mona Mehta ISBN: 978-0-415-55612-5.
2011. “Religious Synthesis in India: Delegation and Exchange at a Muslim Shrine.” In A Companion to the Anthropology of India. Edited by Isabelle Clark-Decès Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell Publishers, pp. 260-276. ISBN-13: 978-1-4051-9892-9.
2010. “On the Political Uses of Disgust in Gujarat,” (Reprinted as book chapter; see above). South Asian History and Culture (“Gujarat Special Issue”) Vol. 1, Issue 4, pp. 557-576. ISSN 1947-2498.
2010. “Ahimsa, Identification and Sacrifice in the Gujarat Pogrom.” Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale 18:155-175.
2009. “The Hyperbolic Vegetarian: Notes on a Fragile Subject in Gujarat.” In Being There: The Fieldwork Encounter and the Making of Truth. Edited by John Borneman and Abdellah Hammoudi. Berkeley: California University Press, pp. 77-112. ISBN 978-0-520-25776-4.
2009. “Bandh in Ahmedabad.” In Ghassem-Fachandi, Parvis (ed.). Violence: Ethnographic Encounters. (In “Encounters: Experience and Anthropological Insight” series.) New York: Berg Publishers, pp. 35-49. ISBN 978-1-84788-417-6.
2009. “Introduction,” In Violence: Ethnographic Encounters (In “Encounters: Experience and Anthropological Insight” series.) New York: Berg Publishers, pp. 1-13. ISBN 978-1-84788-417-6.
2009. “Guide to Further Reading.” In Violence: Ethnographic Encounters. (In “Encounters: Experience and Anthropological Insight” series.) New York: Berg Publishers, pp. 145-156. ISBN 978-1-84788-417-6.
2008. “Bridge over the Sabarmati: An Urban Journey into Violence and Back”. Journeys: The International Journal of Travel and Travel Writing Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 68-94. ISSN 1465-2609.
2007. “About Prayer: Abjection and Repetition in an American Holiness Church.” Ethnography Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 235-265. ISSN 1466-1381.
2005. “December 26, 2004, in Unawatuna near Galle, Southern Sri Lanka,” Anthropology News 46(3): 10-11.
AWARDS, FELLOWSHIPS AND GRANTS
2018 – 2019 Fellowship at Zentrum für Interdisziplinäre Forschung (ZiF - Center for Interdisciplinary Research), Universität Bielefeld, Germany
2017 Research Scholarship of Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), Germany (EURO 6000)
2016 Visiting Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies (IIAS), Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India
2014 The Board of Trustees Fellowship for Scholarly Excellence. Rutgers University
2012 – 2014 Social Science Research Council, New Directions in the Study of Prayer (SSRC NDSP)
2012 – 2013 Fellowship at Institut d' Études Avancées de Nantes (IEA - Inst. of Adv. Studies), France
2011 Rutgers University Faculty Research Grant (FRG), Rutgers University ($15,000)
2008 Rutgers Global Opportunity Award (GOA) for International Research Projects, Rutgers ($4000)
2006 – 2007 Center for Religion and Media Postdoctoral Fellowship, New York University (NYU)
2006 Princeton Institute for International & Regional Studies (PIIRS), declined
2005 – 2006 Wenner-Gren Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, ($14,250.00)
2003 Cornell Sage Fellowship for Graduate Studies at Cornell University
2001 – 2002 Social Science Research Council, International Pre-dissertation Fellowship (SSRC IPDF)
2000 Cornell University Graduate School Grant
1999 Cornell University Department of Anthropology Endowment Fund Grant
1999 Cornell University South Asia Program Travel Grant
1999 Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies Travel Grant, Cornell University
1998 – 1999 Cornell University Sage Fellowship for Graduate Studies
1996 Grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). Research Assistant to Dr. Dieter Haller. Prof. Schiffauer (Viadrina Universität, Frankfurt/Oder)
1995 Grant from the Freie Universität Berlin (DFG), research in Gujarat, India
1994 Erasmus stipend for studying at the Université St. Denis, Paris (Paris VIII.), declined
COURSES OFFERED
Undergrad
101 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
220 The Politics of Food and Sex in South Asia
244 Inequality in South Asia (South Asian Ethnography)
293 Guest, Enemy, Neighbor: Xenophobia and the Other in Europe Today
297 Sacrifice, Sorcery, Society
308 Magic, Witchcraft, Reason
380 Trauma, Memory, Loss
Grad
505 The History of Anthropological Theory
519 Authority, Power, and Political Form
522 Sacrifice, Violence, and Immortality
603 Dream, Recall, Disavowal
