Bhrigupati Singh

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Bhrigupati Singh

Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, Ashoka University

Ph.D. Johns Hopkins University
bhrigupati.singh@ashoka.edu.in

Bhrigupati Singh is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Sociology at Ashoka University, Visiting Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Brown University, and a Research Fellow at the Carney Institute for Brain Science. He studied at Delhi University, SOAS (London) and completed his PhD in anthropology at Johns Hopkins University in 2010. Prior to joining Ashoka, he taught at Brown University, King’s College (London), and worked as a researcher at Sarai-CSDS (Delhi).

His first book, Poverty and the Quest for Life: Spiritual and Material Striving in Rural India (University of Chicago Press, Oxford University Press 2015) was awarded the Joseph Elder Prize in the Indian Social Sciences by the American Institute of Indian Studies, an Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion by the American Academy of Religion, and was a finalist for the Clifford Geertz Book Prize. He is a co-editor of The Ground Between: Anthropologists Engage Philosophy (Duke University Press, 2014), and serves as co-editor of a book series, Thinking from Elsewhere (Fordham University Press). He has published articles on issues of religion, mental health, media, and popular culture, in journals including Cultural Anthropology, American Ethnologist, Medical Anthropology Quarterly, Transcultural Psychiatry, and Contributions to Indian Sociology.

At present he is working on two related book projects: a book of essays on concepts of the psyche titled Waxing and Waning Life: Essays at the Threshold of Mental Illness and Health, and an anthropological monograph titled Life Unsettled: Hindu and Muslim Neighbours in Delhi, set in the “resettlement colony” of Trilokpuri in East Delhi. These projects emerge from research he has been conducting over the past five years, beginning with a year-long Visiting faculty position in 2015-16 at the Department of Psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS, Delhi). In 2018-19 he received a writing fellowship from the Institute for Advanced Study (Berlin) for his current work on mental health and illness.  In collaboration with psychiatrists at AIIMS, he is developing new research methods and courses at the intersection of anthropology and social psychiatry, as well as innovative forms of longitudinal research on mental health and urban poverty.

Alongside his core focus on poverty, mental illness and wellbeing, he has also consistently pursued a related research theme, focused on moving beyond a critique of Eurocentrism, and what it would mean to “decolonize” social and critical theory, or philosophy, not as a form of nativism, but in finding new ways of thinking about how concepts and genealogies of thought cross regions, disciplines, and religious and secular formations. He has pursued this thought process in collaborative projects including The Ground Between (2014), in a special issue of HAU titled A Joyful History of Anthropology (2016) and in a recent special issue of Sophia, titled Steps to a Global Thought (2023).

 

Single authored monograph/s:

2015  Poverty and the Quest for Life: Spiritual and Material Striving in Rural India

University of Chicago Press (US, UK) and Oxford University Press (South Asia Edition)

Awarded the Joseph W. Elder Book Prize; American Academy of Religion Book Award; Finalist, Clifford Geertz Prize

Reviewed in the following venues:

American Anthropologist, Journal of South Asian Studies, Pacific Affairs, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Contributions to Indian Sociology, Student Anthropologist, Seminar, The Book Review 

Somatosphere Book Discussion Forum. Featuring essays in response to the book by Lisa Stevenson, Naveeda Khan, Swayam Bagaria, William Mazzarella, and William E. Connolly

 

Edited Volumes:

2014  The Ground Between: Anthropologists Engage Philosophy. Duke University Press.

Co-edited with Arthur Kleinman, Michael D. Jackson and Veena Das.

 

2024    “A Decolonial Birth for Anthropology”, American Ethnologist, 51(1), pp.104-110.

2023     “What comes after postcolonial theory?”, Sophia, 62(3), pp.577-606. Special Issue on “Steps to a Global Thought: Thinking from Elsewhere”, co-edited with Sudipta Kaviraj and Veena Das.

2022    “The Contagion of Mental Illness: Insights from a Sufi Shrine”, Transcultural Psychiatry, p.13634615221078131(co-authored with Dr. Pratap Sharan, Professor, Department of Psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi)

2021    “Can a Neighborhood Fall Sick? Opioid Addiction, Collective Violence and Currents of Death in Contemporary India”, Medical Anthropology Quarterly, Vol. 35, Issue 2, pp. 159–189

2021    “Schizophrenia as a Problem of Other Minds”, Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology, Volume 28, Number 3, pp. 259-275

2021    “Is there an Opioid Epidemic in India?” Oxford Journal of Public Health, Vol. 43, Supp. 2, pp. ii42–ii49, (co-authored with Dr. Ravindra Rao, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi)

2020    “An Uncritical Encounter between Anthropology and Psychiatry”, in Medicine Anthropology Theory, Issue 4, No. 3, September 2017, pp. 153-165

2019    “Anthropological Investigations of Vitality: Life-force as a Dimension distinct from Space and Time”, HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 8 (3), pp. 550-565. Part of a Themed Collection titled The Turn to Life

2015    “On the Killing and Killability of Animals: Non-moral Thoughts for the Anthropology of Ethics”, Co-authored with Naisargi Dave, in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Vol. 35, No.2, September 2015, pp. 232-245.

2012    “The Headless Horseman of Central India: Sovereignty at Varying Thresholds of Life”, Cultural Anthropology, Vol. 27, Issue 2, May 2012, pp. 383-407.

2011    “Agonistic Intimacy and Moral Aspiration in Popular Hinduism: A Study in the Political Theology of the Neighbor”, American Ethnologist, Vol. 38, No. 3, August 2011, pp. 430-450.

2008    “Aadamkhor Haseena (The Man-Eating Beauty) and the Anthropology of a Moment”, Contributions to Indian Sociology, 42, 2, pp. 249-279.

2006    “Narrating Injustice: British Cultural Studies & its Media”, Television and New Media. Vol. 7, No.2, pp. 135-153.

2023  Steps to a Global Thought: Thinking from Elsewhere

Special Issue of Sophia, 62(3). Co-edited with Sudipta Kaviraj and Veena Das with a co-authored Introduction

2020  An Uncritical Encounter between Anthropology and Psychiatry, Special issue of MAT: Medicine Anthropology Theory (4)3, 2020

2018  Book Forum on The Mana of Mass Society by William Mazzarella, with contributions by Jean Comaroff, Leela Gandhi, Bhrigupati Singh and Michael Taussig. Public Books (August 2018).

2016  A Joyful History of Anthropology, Special issue on rethinking “decolonial” approaches to the history of anthropology and social theory (eds.) Bhrigupati Singh and Jane Guyer, HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory Vol.6, No.2, 201.

2003 Unsettling Cinema, Edited and contributed to special issue of the journal Seminar on Cinema Studies in India. Issue 525.

2023    “Why a Sufi approach to healing mental illness is so powerful”, Psyche/Aeon, November 27, 2023

2023    “Introduction: A sense of disquiet”, Sophia, 62 (3), pp.577-606. Special Issue on “Steps to a Global Thought: Thinking from Elsewhere”, co-authored with Sudipta Kaviraj and Veena Das.

2022   “A Portrait of Two Artists: On Bharti Kher and Subodh Gupta”, Seminar, Issue 749, December

2021    “Ethnographic Portraiture: Adjusting to Light and Dark.” Theorizing the Contemporary, Fieldsights, September 30, Society for Cultural Anthropology

  1. “Is the Opioid Epidemic a Global Phenomenon?” Bulletin of the Carney Institute for Brain Sciences

2018    “Foreword” to the new edition of Critical Events: An Anthropological Perspective on Contemporary India by Veena Das. Oxford University Press.

2015    “Hunger and Thirst: Crisis at Varying Thresholds of Life”, in Living and Dying in the Contemporary World: A Compendium. (Eds.) Clara Han and Veena Das. University of California Press: Berkeley.

2015    “Botched Enlightenment”, E-flux: Journal of Contemporary Art, Culture and Theory, Special Issue for the 56th Venice Biennale, 2015. (co-authored with Leela Gandhi).

2014    “How Concepts make the World Look Different: Affirmative and Negative Genealogies of Thought” in The Ground Between: Anthropologists Engage Philosophy. (eds.) Arthur Kleinman, Michael D. Jackson & Veena Das and Bhrigupati Singh. Duke University Press: Durham, NC.

  1. “One Week in Aman Chowk: On the Aftermath of Collective Violence in Gujarat, India”,Seminar, Issue 517, September 2002. pp. 78-85.

2018-19.  Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin (Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin), Fellowship

2016.  American Institute of Indian Studies, Senior Research (Faculty) Fellowship (PI). For ethnographic research conducted in 2015-16 at the psychiatry department at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi.

2015-16.  Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, Faculty research Grant (PI). For ethnographic research conducted in 2015-16 at AIIMS-Delhi.

2016. Winner, Book Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion, American Academy of Religion.

2015. Winner, Joseph W. Elder Book Prize for the Indian Social Sciences, American Institute of Indian Studies.

2015.  Finalist, Clifford Geertz Book Prize for the Anthropology of Religion, Society for the Anthropology of Religion, American Anthropological Association.

2008.  Dean’s Teaching Fellowship Prize, Johns Hopkins University.

2007.  Nominated for Excellence in Teaching Award, Johns Hopkins University.

2005-06.  Andrew Mellon International Dissertation Research Fellowship, Social Science Research Council (SSRC).

2003.  Graduate Research Fellowship, Institute for Global Studies in Culture, Power and History, Johns Hopkins University.

2001. School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, UK Taught Masters Prize

Anthropology of Mental Health

Monsoon 2020, 2021, 2023, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ashoka University

Monsoon 2016, 2018, Department of Anthropology, Brown University

Disciplinary Pasts: Decolonial Approaches (Graduate Seminar)

Monsoon 2021, Fall 2022, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ashoka University

Indian Civilization: Liberal Arts Foundation Course

Monsoon 2022, 2023 Ashoka University

History of Ethnological Theory (Graduate Seminar)

Fall 2016, 2019, Department of Anthropology, Brown University

Life Itself: Examining Concepts of Vitality in Anthropology and Philosophy (Graduate Seminar)

Fall 2022, Ashoka University; Fall 2017, Department of Anthropology, Brown University

Anthropology of State Power and Powerlessness (Graduate Seminar)

Fall 2016, Fall 2014, Department of Anthropology, Brown University.

Writing India (Graduate Seminar). Co-taught with Ian Jack, Former Editor, Granta.

Fall 2013, King’s India Institute, King’s College London

Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (Undergraduate entry level course)

Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Department of Anthropology, Brown University

Anthropology of Religion (Undergraduate)

Spring 2017, Spring 2015, Fall 2014, Department of Anthropology, Brown University

History of Anthropology (Undergraduate)

Fall 2014, Fall 2012, Department of Anthropology, Brown University

The Politics of Religion and Secularism (Undergraduate)

Fall 2011, Watson Institute, Brown University.

Religion and Moral Economy (Undergraduate)

Fall 2007, Program for the Study of Women, Gender & Sexuality, Johns Hopkins University.

Book Series, Editor:

2017 onwards. Thinking from Elsewhere. Cultural Anthropology book series for Fordham University Press.  Co-edited with Clara Han (Johns Hopkins University) and Andrew Brandel (University of Chicago)

Published 14 books so far with manuscripts from both senior and junior scholars.

Organized book workshops for prospective authors prior to the peer-review process and post-publication book events bringing together scholars across different subfields and regions of the world.

Madison South Asia Dissertation into Book Workshop, Faculty Mentor

2020, 2021, 2022.  Mentoring postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty in transforming dissertations into book manuscripts

Other Editorial Positions:

2018-onwards.  Member, International Advisory Board, MAT: Medicine Anthropology Theory

2013-2017.  Associate Editor, HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory.

Reviewer for Cultural Anthropology, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (JRAI), Critique of Anthropology, American Anthropologist, Asian Ethnology, Political Theory, Journal of Cultural and Religious Theory

 

PHD PRIMARY ADVISOR/CO-ADVISOR

 Current PhD Candidates:

Ahona Palchoudhuri (Brown University),

Katyayni Seth (Brown University)

Nomaan Hasan (Brown University)

 

Ajayant Katoch (Ashoka University)

Benna Fathima (Ashoka University)

C.Venkatraman (Ashoka University)

 

PHD DISSERTATION COMMITTEE MEMBER

Current PhD Candidates:

Anabelle Suitor (Brown University)

Anirudh Raghavan (Ashoka University)

Deepti Sriram (Ashoka University)

Mohona Roy (Ashoka University)

Tanja Luchsinger (University of Zurich)

 

PHDs successfully defended:

Yana Stainova (Brown Anthropology, 2017) currently Assistant Professor, McMaster University

Andrea Wright (Brown Anthropology, 2018) currently Lecturer, Harvard University

Brian Horton (Brown Anthropology, 2019) currently Assistant Professor, Brandeis University

Malay Arora (Brown Anthropology, 2020) currently Assistant Professor, Arizona State University

Jessica Katzenstein (Brown Anthropology, 2021) currently Assistant Professor, Arizona State University

Thalia Gigerenzer (Princeton Anthropology, 2021) currently Lecturer, Princeton University

2024    “Apasmara (The Negation of Memory): Ethnographic Recollections of the Covid-19 Pandemic in India”, Richardson Seminar on the History of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medicine, DeWitt Wallace Institute of Psychiatry, New York, March 2024

2023     “What can and cannot be quantified”, Panel on “Concepts of the Psyche: Ontological Traversals”, Annual Conference of South Asian Studies, Madison, WI.

2023    Organized Book Salon on Gregory Bateson’s Steps to an Ecology of Mind, Annual meeting, American Ethnological Society, Princeton University

2022   “What is an Ethnographic Interview: Thinking besides Psychiatry”, Annual lecture of the Edinburgh Centre for Medical Anthropology (EDMCA), University of Edinburgh

2022    “Vitality as an Anthropological Concept”, Invited Lecture, Institute for Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies (ISEK), University of Zurich. ISEK Graduate student workshop on “Waxing and Waning Life”

2022    “Depression and the Mutuality of Being” Osher IM Network Continuing Medical Education on Integrative Medicine, Harvard Medical School/Brigham and Women’s Hospital

2022    Neighborhoods a Unit of Analysis for Anthropology and Social Psychiatry” Continuing Medical Education (CME) All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS Delhi)

Member, Organizing committee on AIIMS Social Psychiatry CME

2022    “Heroes and Heroin”, La Sapienza University, Rome, Conference on “A New Alliance between Anthropology and Philosophy”

2021   “Can a Neighborhood Fall Sick? Opioid Addiction, Collective Violence and Currents of Death in Contemporary India”, Critical Humanities Series, Invited Lecture, Center for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG2bIZQkk8c&t=10s

2021    “What is the Anthropology of Addiction?” Plenary Lecture at the First National Conference of the Addiction Psychiatry Society of India (APSI) & National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre (NDDTC, India)

2019    “Is there an Opioid Epidemic in India?” Conference on Mental Health in India, Oxford University, Department of Public Health

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmn4vfwdbJU

2019    “Detail as a Bridge Between the Everyday and the Metaphysical”, Conference on the Idea of Detail in Anthropology and Philosophy, College de France/Sorbonne Paris-1, May 2019

2019    “Opium for the Masses”, Invited Lecture, Center for the History of Emotions, Max Planck Institute Berlin.

2019    “Is Mental Illness Contagious?” Invited Lecture, Medical Anthropology Lecture Series, Heidelberg University,

2019    “Concepts of the Psyche”, Berliner Abend Public Lecture, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin/Institute for Advanced Study Berlin,

2018    “Skepticism as a Concept for Mental Illness and Health”, Invited Lecture, Sorbonne Paris-1, Department of Philosophy, Wittgenstein Seminar.

2017      “Healing Intimate Doubts”, Benson Saler Annual Lecture in the Anthropology of Religion, Brandeis University

2017    “The Contagion of Mental Illness: Psychiatric Insights from a Sufi Shrine”, London School of Economics, Department of Anthropology, Colloquium series

2015     “Poverty and the Quest for Life: Spiritual and Material Striving in Rural India”, Invited lecture, Azim Premji University Colloquium Series

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d_bdKbM-30

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