Arjun Shankar
Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Kirner-Johnson 249315-859-4468
ashankar@hamilton.edu Website
Arjun Shankar’s work brings together theories in globalization and development, literary and visual ethnography, affect theory, and curiosity studies. In his current book project, How Development Feels, Shankar analyzes the changing nature of development work in postliberalization India.
His research has been published in Visual Anthropology Review, Anthropology and Humanism, and Visual Communication Journal. He is co-editing (with Perry Zurn) a manuscript to build the interdisciplinary field of curiosity studies. Shankar creates participatory films and has taught in schools and universities in the United States and India.
He completed his doctorate in anthropology and education at the University of Pennsylvania, where he currently holds a postdoctoral fellowship at the School of Social Policy and Practice.
He is on the board of the Society of Visual Anthropology, an editor for Cultural Anthropology’s “Writing with Light” photo-essay initiative, and the executive producer for American Anthropologist's flagship podcast, “Anthropological Airwaves.”
Recent Courses Taught
Globalization and the City: An Anthropological Interrogation
Distinctions
- Postdoctoral Fellowship, Curiosity: A Transdisciplinary Approach, University of Pennsylvania, 2015.
- Flaherty Film Fellowship, Wyncote Foundation, 2014 Flaherty Film Seminar, Colgate University, New York, 2014.
- Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) Grant, Fulbright-Hays, 2013.
Select Publications
- "A Critique of the Photovoice: Case Study from Karnataka, India." Visual Anthropology Review, 32:2, 157–166 (2016).
- "The Curious Case of the Curiosity Center." Anthropology and Humanism, 41:2, 233–242 (2016).
- Curiosity Studies: A Field of Inquiry. Eds. Perry Zurn and Arjun Shankar. University of Minnesota Press. (Forthcoming).
- Shankar, Arjun (2016, w/ Priya Shankar). "Hidden in Plain Sight: Mental Health in India." The Lancet, (March 2016).
- "Digital Parallax and Entanglements of Filmmaking." American Anthropologist, 117: 1, 162- 167. (2015).
- "Towards a Critical Visual Pedagogy: A response to the End of Poverty narrative." Visual Communication Journal, 13: 341-356. (2014).
Professional Affiliations
American Anthropology Association
American Educational Research Association
Comparative and International Education Society
Society for Anthropology of Consciousness
National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore
Society of Visual Anthropology
Cultural Studies Association
Appointed to the Faculty: 2017
Educational Background
Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
M.S.T., Pace University
B.A., Columbia University