Anand Vivek Taneja
AnandVivekTaneja CV
ANAND VIVEK TANEJA
Department of Religious Studies, Vanderbilt University
301C, Garland Hall, VU Box #351585
Nashville, TN 37235
Tel: 646-238-9589, Email:
Research Bio
I am a historically informed anthropologist working on Islam in urban South Asia. I locate the cultural and social life of urban north India in a complex of ethical orientations, relations to nature and remembered ways of being linked to the pre-colonial past. My book-project focuses on the ritual practices, dream-lives and social worlds that Hindu and Muslim communities have built around medieval Islamic ruins in contemporary Delhi, where jinns and “invisible” saints are venerated. In recent publications, I link the resurgence of jinn veneration in popular Islamic theology to the tenor of everyday life in post-Partition Delhi and understand the dreams and visions of saints seen at various medieval ruins as the imaginalembodiment of a certain historical experience of Islam in India. I have experience teaching and have developed syllabi for courses in Film Studies, the Anthropology of Religion, Islam, modern South Asian History and classic Western thought.
Areas of Specialization
Historical and Contemporary Islam in South Asia, Anthropology of Religion, Interfaith Relations, Everyday Life and Post-Colonial Urbanism, Urdu Antiquarian Literature, Bombay Cinema.
EDUCATION
2013PhD, Anthropology, Columbia University in the City of New York. Dissertation: Nature, History, and the Sacred in the Medieval Ruins of Delhi. UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF:ParthaChatterjee (chair), Brinkley Messick, Michael Taussig.
2004MA, Film and Mass Communication, JamiaMilliaIslamia, New Delhi.
2001BA (Honors), History, Ramjas College, Delhi University, New Delhi.
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
2013-Assistant Professor (Tenure Track), Islamic Traditions of South Asia, Department of Religious Studies, Vanderbilt University.
2012-13Preceptor,Columbia College Center for the Core Curriculum.
2004-06Research Scholar,Publics and Practices in the History of the Present, SARAI-Center for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi.
PUBLICATIONS
In Peer Reviewed Journals
2013“Jinnealogy: Everyday Life and Islamic Theology in Post-Partition Delhi,” under review.
2012“Saintly Visions: Other Histories and History’s Others in the Medieval Ruins of Delhi,” Indian Economic and Social History Review 49 (4), December 2012: 557-590.
In Edited Volumes
2013“Thursdays at Firoz Shah Kotla: Of Jinns and Justice in the Ruins of Delhi,” in Delhi’s Twentieth Century, edited by Ravi Sundaram. Delhi: Oxford University Press, under review.
2012“On the Ambivalence of Suddenly ‘Old’ Towards (Unexpectedly) ‘New’ Delhi: Reading Bashiruddin Ahmad’s Waqi’at-e DarulhukumatDehli,” The Book Review 36(1), January 2012: 8-10.
2009“Muslimness in Hindi Cinema,”in Seminar 598, “Circuits of Cinema,” edited by AartiSethi. Seminar, June 2009.
2008“History and Heritage Woven in the New Urban Fabric: The Changing Landscapes of Delhi's 'First City'. Or, Who Can Tell the Histories of LadoSarai?”in Patterns of Middle Class Consumption in India and China, edited by Christophe Jaffrelot and Peter van der Veer, 157-169.Los Angeles: Sage.
2008“Lost in La Mancha: Terry Gilliam, Holy Fools, Pirates, and the Mullah,”in Cervantes and Don Quixote: Proceedings of the Delhi Conference on Miguel de Cervantes, edited byVibhaMaurya and Ignacio Arellano, 393-414. Hyderabad: Emesco Books.
2005“Begum Samru and the Security Guard,” in Sarai Reader 05: Bare Acts, edited by JeebeshBagchi, Lawrence Liang, Geert Lovink, Monica Narula and ShuddhabrataSengupta, 287-296. Delhi: Centre for the Study of Developing Societies.
Book Reviews
2012Review of Christopher Pinney, Photography and Anthropology, in The Book Review 36 (3), March 2012: 53.
2011Review of Ravi Sundaram, Pirate Modernity: Delhi’s Media Urbanism, in Contemporary South Asia19(3): 347-48.
2010Review of Ira Bhaskar and Richard Allen, Islamicate Cultures of Bombay Cinema, in Economic and Political Weekly, 45(4), January 12, 2010: 30-32.
2009Review of RanjaniMazumdar, Bombay Cinema: An Archive of the City, in Contemporary South Asia, 17(2): 232-33.
PRESENTATIONS AND LECTURES
2012 “Jinnealogy: Everyday Life and Islamic Theology in post-Partition Delhi.” Invited talk at the Nehru Memorial Musuem and Library, Delhi.
2011 “The Vanishing of Memory: Everyday Life and Islamic Theology in post-Partition Delhi.” On panel, City Stories: The Spectral and Virtual Spaces of South Asia, chaired by Kamran Ali. 110th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Montreal.
2011“On the Ambivalence of the Suddenly ‘Old’ towards (Unexpectedly) ‘New’ Delhi: Reading Bashiruddin Ahmad’s Vaqi’at-e DarulhukumatDehli”. On panel, Urban Spaces and Emotions, chaired by MargritPernau. 40th Annual Conference on South Asia, Madison.
2011“Vanished Pirs and Absent Kings: Spirits, Saints and Stories around Delhi’s Medieval Monuments.” Public Lecture at the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, Delhi.
2010“Of Saints and Justice in the Ruins of Delhi.” On panel, Fractured Genres: The Afterlives of Medieval Indo-Persian Histories, chaired by A. Sean Pue. 39th Annual Conference on South Asia, Madison.
2009“’What Grace Lovers Find From Idols’: The Ambivalence of Idols in Indo-Muslim Poetics.” On panel, Iconoclash and the Archaeology of Violence Towards Images, chaired by SeverinFowles. 74th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Anthropology, Atlanta.
2008“’Muslimness’ in Hindi Cinema: The Ambiguity of the (Anti)National Self.” On panel, Talking Back: Muslims, Media and Marginalization in South Asia, chaired by Carla Bellamy. 107th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, San Francisco.
2007“The Commonwealth Games and the Ghosts of the Medieval: Delhi 2010.” Invited lecture at the Pratt Institute School of Architecture, New York.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Columbia University
2013Introduction to Islam. Designed and taught a historical and anthropological overview of Islamic traditions.
2012 Contemporary Civilization. Designed and taught an introductory two semester course to core texts in philosophy, religion and political theory from Plato to the Qur’an to Locke.
2011The Rise of Civilization. Assisted Prof. Terence d’Altroy in this survey course on early settled cultures from Mesopotamia to the Andes. Lead discussion sections with students.
2009Major Debates in the Study of Africa. Assisted Prof. MahmoodMamdani in a survey course onthe epistemology and politics of colonial and post-colonial Africa. Lead discussion sections with students, and gave an independent lecture on “Islamic” slavery and notions of personhood.
2009Pre-Columbian Histories of Native America. Assisted Prof.SeverinFowles in a course on the complex histories and philosophies of the pre-conquest Americas. Led discussion sections for students.
2008Religion in Modernity. Assisted Prof. Nathaniel Roberts in a course on the academic debates about the place of religion in the modern world from the early 20th century to the contemporary moment. Gave independent lectures on Possession.
2008Introduction to South Asian History and Culture. Assisted Prof. SmitaJassal in this course on modern India based largely on reading primary texts. Lead discussion sections with the students, and gave independent lectures on Muslim Reform Movements in 19th century India and Partition.
2007 The Interpretation of Culture. Assisted Prof. Ellen Marakowitz in this introductory course to anthropological theory and the history of anthropology. Led discussion sections with students.
Delhi University
2010Languages of the Media. Designed, coordinated and taught a graduate-level course on filmic language and film theory to MA students of the Department of Germanic and Romance Studies.
Teaching Syllabi/Courses Designed (available on request)
Introduction to Islam, Contemporary Civilization, Rethinking the Sacred in a Post-Secular World, Islamic(ate)Traditions of South Asia, The Modern Unmaking of India.
FELLOWSHIPS, AWARDS AND DISTINCTIONS
2012Columbia University Preceptorship for teaching Contemporary Civilization.
2011Moses Asch Fellowship in Cultural Anthropology.
2009 Dissertation Fieldwork Grant, Wenner-GrenFoundation for Anthropological Research.
2006Faculty Fellowship, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Columbia University, 5-year term.
2003Student Stipend for Research on The City, SARAI, Center for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi.
2001Principal’s Medal for Outstanding Student, Ramjas College, Delhi University.
PUBLIC OUTREACH: PRINT, ONLINE AND BROADCAST MEDIA
2012“Between Cultural Memory and History, the Jinn Lives On,” interview in The Sunday Guardian, Delhi, 23rd September, 2012.
2012“Sewer Gas,” The State Vol. 1, April 2012. A speculative essay on manholes, miasma and modernity.
2010“Delhi in the 1910’s,”commemorative issue of Time Out Delhi, “New Delhi Turns One Hundred,” Dec. 24-Jan. 6, 2010.
2010“Heavenly Verses,”Outlook Traveller, September 2010. A travelogue about Iran.
2010“Buraq and the Hauz-e Shamsi. Or, the Residue of Dreams.”Essay accompanying Vishal Rawley’s public art installation as part of the Beam Me Up collaborative art project.
2010“Two Overheard Conversations, Delhi 2010,”on the Kafila blog, April 8, 2010. A short essay on everyday speech and historical trauma.
2004Mongrel Cities, a video art project with AartiSethi, IramGhufran and TahaMehmood. Produced by the Sarai Media Lab, Delhi.
2003The Past is a Foreign Country, a documentary with Akshay Singh and Sakina Ali. Produced by the AJ Kidwai Mass Communication Research Center, JamiaMilliaIslamia, Delhi.
PANELS ORGANIZED
2011Heritage and The City, public panel with historians, conservationists, planners, religious leaders and journalists; with the Delhi Urban Platform and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, at Humayun’s Tomb, Delhi.
2009The Ruination of the Social and the Social Life of Ruins, interdisciplinary workshop co-organized with Darryl Wilkinson at Columbia University; with John Collins, Shannon Dawdy, Peter Fritzsche, VyjayanthiRao, Ann Stoler.
2008Negative Archaeology: Much Ado About Nothing, session co-organizer with SeverinFowles and SeemaGolestaneh, Theoretical Archaeology Group Conference, Columbia University.
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
2012Manuscript review for the journalsContributions to the History of Concepts(CHoC) and Anthropology and Humanism.
LANGUAGES
English, Hindi – Native Fluency and Superior Literacy.
Urdu – Fluency and Literacy.
Persian – Reading and Writing Comprehension.
Punjabi – Comprehension.
1