Smita Lahiri

[email protected]
Department of Anthropology 17 Oyster River Road
Huddleston Hall 310 Durham, NH 03824
Durham, NH 03824 (617) 817-4431

Present Position Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of New Hampshire

Research Interests
Anthropology: Political Anthropology, Anthropology of Religion, Historical
Anthropology, Language and Culture, Anthropology of Space and Place
World Regions: Southeast Asia, South Asia
Interdisciplinary Fields: Nationalism and Citizenship, Utopian Theory, Popular
Catholicism, Postcolonial Theory, Language Ideology, Media and Publics

Education
Ph.D., Cornell University, Ithaca NY (2002) Dissertation Advisors: James T. Siegel,
Benedict R. OG Anderson, Andrew C. Willford, Theodore S. Bestor.
M.A., Cornell University (1997) Anthropology and Southeast Asian Studies.
B.A., Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA (1992) cum laude

Professional Experience
2016- Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of New Hampshire
2016 (Spring) Visiting Lecturer in Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge MA
2011-16 Research Associate (non-stipendiary), Department of Anthropology,
Harvard University
2006-11 Associate Professor of Anthropology (untenured), Harvard University
2002-06 Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Harvard University.

Publications
n.d. Transfiguring the Nation: Everyday Utopianism at the Foot of a Philippine
Mountain (in preparation)
2013 The Philippines (with Deirdre de la Cruz). In Figures of Southeast Asian
Modernity, ed. Joshua Barker, Erik Harms, and Johan Lindquist. Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press, 19-45.
2007 Rhetorical Indios: Propagandists and their Publics in the Spanish Philippines. In
Comparative Studies in Society and History, 49: 243-75.
2005 The Politician and the Priestess: Enunciating Filipino Cultural Nationalism at Mt.
Banahaw. In Andrew C. Willford and Kenneth George, eds. Spirited Politics:
Religion and Public Life in Contemporary Southeast Asia (Ithaca: Cornell
University SEAP Publications), 20-41.
1999 Writer, Hero, Myth and Spirit: The Changing Image of Jose Rizal. Cornell
Southeast Asia Program Bulletin, fall issue.
Book Reviews
2012 Srinivas, Tulasi. Winged Faith: Rethinking Globalization and Religious Pluralism
through the Sathya Sai Movement. In American Ethnologist 39 (2), 465-67.
2008 Aravamudan, Srinivas. Guru English: South Asian Religion in a Cosmopolitan
Language. In The Journal of Asian Studies 66 (3) :859-61.
2008 Anderson, Warwick. Colonial Pathologies: American Tropical Hygiene in the
Philippines. In The Journal of Asian Studies 66 (4): 1216-1218).
2006 Bel, Bernard, et al. Media and Mediation. Seminar (New Delhi), 561.
1992 Roy, Sumit. The Naxalite Movement in Bengal. Seminar (New Delhi; March): 8-9.

Honors and Awards

2017 UNH Writers Academy - participant
2007 Medium Faculty Research Grant (Weatherhead Center for International
Affairs, Harvard University). Project title: Anglophone Aspirations:
Language and Globalization in Indias National Capital Region
2007 Gordon Grey Faculty Grant for Writing Pedagogy. Developed A Students
Guide to Reading and Writing in Social Anthropology, a co-publication of
the Harvard Writing Project and Department of Anthropology, Harvard
University. PDF at http://writingproject.fas.harvard.edu/pages/disciplinary-
writing-guides
2006 Exploratory Seminar Awardee, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
Developed and co-chaired a two-day workshop attended by 12 scholars
from across the country (Title: Global Articulations: Realignments of
Language and Personhood
2004 Das Faculty Research Travel Grant for Faculty Research (South Asia
Initiative, Harvard University).
2003-06 Clarke-Cooke Faculty Grant (Harvard University).
2003-06 Asia Center Faculty Research Grant (Harvard University).
2003-06 Interdisciplinary Research Seed Money (South Asia Initiative, Harvard
University). Project Title: Sites of Translation
2002 Lauriston Sharp Dissertation Prize (Southeast Asia Program, Cornell).
2001-02 Short-Term Research Fellowship (Newberry Library, Chicago).
2000 Womens Studies Dissertation Fellowship (Cornell University).
1997-2000 Wenner Gren Foundation Predoctoral Grant.
1993-1998 Sage Graduate Fellowship (Cornell University).

Professional Presentations:
2017 The Biopolitics of Cash: Notes on Indias 2016 Demonetization. Brown Bag
Presentation, University of New Hampshire Anthropology Department, April 14
2014 Glimpses of Secularity. Response delivered at AAR Exploratory Seminar on
New Approaches to the Study of Philippine Religions. American Association for
the Study of Religion, November.
2010 Mystical Circulation: Following Mary of Agreda to New Spain and the
Philippines. American Anthropological Association, November.
2010 Mourning Bilingualism, Celebrating Translation: Tracking Movement Across
Indian Language/Media Space. Social Anthropology Seminar Series, Department
of Anthropology, Harvard, November.
2009 Mystical Transfers, Local and Global: The Modernity of 'Folk' Catholicism in the
Philippines. Deitchman Family Lecture on Religion and Modernity, Center for
Religion, Ethics, and Culture, College of the Holy Cross, September.
2007 Mystical Transfers, Spanish and Filipino: A Heretical Vision of Globalization.
Southeast Asia Program, University of Michigan, Sept.
2007 Mystical Transfers: Figuring the Local and the Global through a Spanish Nun in
the Philippines. Department of Anthropology, Brandeis University, April.
2007 Discussant on panel entitled Indigeneity and Cosmopolitanism within Nationalist
Imaginaries. American Ethnological Association, May.
2005 Discussant on panel entitled Christianity in/and Anthropological Thought.
American Anthropological Association, December.
2005 Rhetorical Natives: Moral Propaganda and its Publics in the Nineteenth Century
Philippines, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, Ateneo de Manila
University (Philippines), March
2005 Rhetorical Natives: Moral Propaganda and its Publics in the Nineteenth Century
Philippines, Seminar on Religion, Political Economy, and Society, Weatherhead
Center for International Affairs, Harvard University, March 9.
2004 Corporealizing Filipino Religion In Print and On Screen. Radcliffe Exploratory
Seminar on After Images: Media, Politics, and the Work of Imagination in
Southern Asia, June
2004 Commentator for seminar on States of Exception in the Departments of
Anthropology and Social Medicine, Harvard U., April.
2004 Authorial Subjects and Native Voices in the Late Spanish Colonial Philippines
(with Megan Thomas). Association for Asian Studies, March.
2003 Displacing Irrationality: Images of Religious Otherness in the Filipino Print
Media, American Anthropological Association, November.
2003 Popular Religion, Filipino Nationalism, and the Production of Locality at Mt.
Banahaw. Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Yale University, November.
2003 Guest Lecture for East Asia Language and Civilizations 97r: Imagining the
Colony: Photographs from the Scrapbooks of W. Cameron Forbes, Governor-
General of the Philippines (1909-13), Harvard Unversity.
2002 Faculty Research Presentation: Bones of Contention: Health and Superstition in
the Colonial Philippines, Anthropology Day, Department of Anthropology,
Harvard University, September 15.
2002 Converting a Landscape: The Politics of Pilgrimage at Mt. Banahaw, Philippines.
Social Anthropology Seminar Series, Harvard University, March 19.
2001 Space, Sentiment and Sociality in a Philippine Foothills Context. AAA Meetings,
November.
2001 Space, Place, and the Politics of the Spiritual in a Philippine Locality.
Anthropology Department, Franklin and Marshall College, November.
2000 Administrative Folklore? Culture as Political Practice in the Colonial
Philippines, AAA Meetings, November.
2000 Gender, Speech and Power at Mt. Banahaw. Institute of Philippine Culture,
Ateneo de Manila University (Philippines), May.
2000 Putting Power in its Place: Gender and Speech at Mt. Banahaw. Southeast Asia
Program Brown Bag Series, University of Hawaii at Honolulu, February.
2000 The Place of Power: Gender and Syncretism at Mt. Banahaw. Southeast Asia
Brown Bag Series, Cornell University, February.
 1999 Superstitions and Sitcoms: Lodging-Places of Memory in Everyday Life, AAA
Meetings, November.
1999 Patronage or Prowess? The Politics of the Spiritual in a Philippine Election. New
York Conference on Asian Studies (Hobart and William Smith College),
November.
1996 Filipino Migrant Workers and Household Transformation. Society for Economic
Anthropology Annual Meetings (Lehigh University). March.

Departmental and University Service at UNH

Editor of the Anthropology Departments online undergraduate journal, Spectrum (2016-2017).
(Duties included publicity, acquiring submissions, working with contributors, editing, and
preparing the issue for publication).
University Committee on International Studies, teaching faculty member (2016-).
Peer Review (2017). Letter of support (Kevin Healey, Teaching Excellence Award)

Departmental and University Service at Other Institutions

Harvard University
Department of Anthropology:
2008-09 Director of Undergraduate Study in Social Anthropology
2009-11 Curriculum Committee, Social Anthropology Program
2009 Junior Faculty Search Committee in Korean Studies
2009 Social Anthropology Ph.D General Exams Committee (Chair)
2010
2008-09, Social Anthropology Seminar Committee (Chair)
2004-7 Faculty Sponsor, Culture, Power, and History in Southeast Asia Graduate
Research Workshop.
2006-07 & Social Anthropology Seminar Committee
2002-03
2006-07 Ph.D. Generals Committee, Social Anthropology Wing
2005-06 & Social Anthropology Graduate Admissions,
2002-03
Harvard College:
2009-11 Standing Committee on Speaking and Writing
2009-10 Hoopes Prize Committee for Undergraduate Thesis Work
2005-6 Reviewer, Fulbright Fellowship Applications
2003-5 A.B. Committee for the Study of Religion.
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
2009-11 Asia Center Faculty Committee
2005-8 Standing Committee for the Study of Religion.
2002-5 Standing Committee for South Asian Studies.
South Asia Program (formerly South Asia Initiative)
2010-11 Faculty Sponsor, South Asia Graduate Research Workshop
2002-11 Faculty Affiliate (Duties included reviewing graduate and undergraduate
research grant applications, hosting speakers and organizing events.)
Committee for the Study of Religion
2002-11 Faculty Sponsor, Religious Ethnography Graduate Workshop, advised
students at Ph.D, masters and undergraduate levels, led seminars on
ethnographic research for thesis writers.
 Committee on Social Studies
2003-04 Advised undergraduate thesis and presented at seminars on qualitative
research for thesis writers.

Teaching and Advising at UNH

Lecture Courses: People and Cultures of Southeast Asia Fall 16; International
Perspectives Fall 16, Sp 17
Seminars: Culture and Citizenship Sp 17
Advising Responsibilities: Advising dual majors and minors in International Affairs Sp 17;
Mentoring IROP recipient Crystal Napoli Sp 17

Teaching and Advising at Other Institutions

Harvard University
Undergraduate Courses: Grounding the Global: Anthropological Approaches Sp 16;
Sophomore Tutorial: History and Theory in Anthropology) Sp 10, 07; Anthropology of
Religion Fall 08, 05, 02; Consuming Passions: Cultures of Materialism in Asia Sp 07, 04;
Ethnography as Genre and Practice Fall 09, 08; Does Lakshmi Speak English? The
Political Economy of Language in Globalizing India Sp 09; From Lost Eden to Perfumed
Nightmare: Themes in the Ethnography of the Philippines Sp 04, 03;

Graduate Courses: Culture (Graduate Proseminar) Sp 11; Power, Belief, and Practice Sp
10, Fall 05; Global Christianities Fall 06, Sp 04; Reorienting Southeast Asia Fall 03;
Postcoloniality and Ethnography Sp 03

Advising Responsibilities: Advising Undergraduate Majors; Advising Ph.D. Students,

Reading and Evaluating Ph.D. Theses; Advising Undergraduate Theses, Directing
Undergraduate Senior Thesis Workshops.

Doctoral Committee Member: Maria Aguilar, Tahmima Anam, Sepideh Bajracharya, David
Charles, Alireza Doostdar, Garner Gollatz, Hillary Kaell, Marc Loustau, Andrew McDowell,
Daniel Macjchrwicz, Ernesto Martinez, David Martinez, Noor ONeill, Anthony Shenoda,
Iliana Quimbaya, Tashi Rabgey, Emily Zeamer

Cornell University
Undergraduate Courses: Secrets and Lies (Fall 00); Bodies of Knowledge (Fall 99)

Professional Service
2015-19 Steering Committee, New Approaches to the Study of Philippine
Religions, Multi-year seminar sponsored by the American Academy of
Religion (AAR).
2011-13 Member at Large, Board of the Association for the Study of Political and
Legal Anthropology (APLA)
2008-10 Advisory Board, Center for the Study of World Religions (CSWR), Harvard
Divinity School.

Refereeing
Manuscript Reviewer for American Anthropologist, Cultural Anthropology, Journal of Southeast
Asian Studies, Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Journal of Material Religion, Australian Journal
of Anthropology; Oxford University Press.

References
Mary Steedly, Professor of Anthropology, Harvard University
Vicente Rafael, Professor of History, University of Washington
Steven Caton, Professor of Anthropology, Harvard University
Fenella Cannell, Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, London School of Economics
James Siegel, Professor of Anthropology (Emeritus), Cornell University