Akhil Gupta
{{Short description|Indian-American anthropologist (born 1959)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2023}}{{Use Indian English|date=May 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Akhil Gupta
| image = Akhil Gupta, 2020.jpg
| caption = Gupta in 2020
| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1959}}
| occupation = Anthropologist, professor
| known_for = Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles.
| spouse = Purnima Mankekar
}}
Akhil Gupta (born 1959) is an Indian-American anthropologist whose research focuses on the anthropology of the state, development, as well as on postcolonialism. He is a professor of anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is a former president of the American Anthropological Association.{{Cite web |title=AAA Past Presidents - Connect with AAA |url=https://www.americananthro.org/ConnectWithAAA/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=1628 |access-date=2023-02-17 |website=www.americananthro.org}}
Education
Gupta attended St. Xavier's School in Jaipur and graduated in 1974. Gupta completed his undergraduate studies in Mechanical Engineering from Western Michigan University, followed by a Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.{{Cite web |date=August 15, 2011 |title=Well-known Anthropologist visits UCT |url=https://humanities.uct.ac.za/articles/2011-08-15-well-known-anthropologist-visits-uct |access-date=May 21, 2024 |website=University of Cape Town}}
Career
=Research=
In 1992, while still at Stanford, Gupta along with fellow Stanford anthropologist James Ferguson wrote the often-cited essay, "Beyond 'Culture': Space, Identity, and the Politics of Difference."{{cite journal| last=Gupta| first=Akhil|author2=James Ferguson| title=Beyond "Culture": Space, Identity, and the Politics of Difference| journal=Cultural Anthropology|date=Feb 1992| volume=7| issue=1| pages=6–23| doi=10.1525/can.1992.7.1.02a00020| jstor=656518}} which argued that the analytic concept of culture had remained largely unproblematized by anthropological discourse, and that anthropologists of the day had failed to recognize and analyze the politics of cultural difference, how such differences were produced, and how such differences were used and abused by the state and by capital. The article argues for the examination of cultural anthropology as an unconscious mechanism of neo-imperialism.{{Citation needed|date=February 2023}}
Gupta is a leading figure in the anthropology of the state, and is the co-editor of a book of collected essays called The Anthropology of the State: A Reader.{{cite book| last=Aradhana Sharma| title=The anthropology of the state : a reader| year=2007| publisher=Blackwell| location=Malden| isbn=978-1-4051-1467-7| edition=[Nachdr.]|author2=Gupta, Akhil}}
=Tenureship controversy=
Gupta was unanimously approved for tenure in 1996 at Stanford, but was then denied tenure by Dean John Shoven. Following protests and mobilization by students, the dean's decision was overturned.{{Cite web|title=Tenure decision on anthropologist to be reconsidered (5/97)|url=https://news.stanford.edu/pr/97/970506gupta.html|access-date=2021-07-06|website=news.stanford.edu|archive-date=20 August 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220820000237/https://news.stanford.edu/pr/97/970506gupta.html|url-status=dead}}{{Cite web|title=Faculty Board grants tenure to anthropologist Gupta (8/97)|url=https://news.stanford.edu/pr/97/970814guptaten.html|access-date=2021-07-06|website=news.stanford.edu|archive-date=10 September 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220910161948/https://news.stanford.edu/pr/97/970814guptaten.html|url-status=dead}}Ann Gibbons, "Cultural Divide at Stanford", Science 20 June 1997: Vol. 276, Issue 5320, pp. 1783-1784.
Selected publications
- Postcolonial Developments: Agriculture in the Making of Modern India, 1997{{Cite book |last=Gupta |first=Akhil |year=1998 |title=Postcolonial Developments: Agriculture in the Making of Modern India |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv11smrzn |publisher=Duke University Press |pages=432|doi=10.2307/j.ctv11smrzn |jstor=j.ctv11smrzn |isbn=978-0-8223-2183-5 }}
- Editor, The Anthropology of the State: A Reader (with Aradhana Sharma), 2006
- Editor, Caste and Outcast (with Gordon Chang and Purnima Mankekar), 2002
- Editor, Culture, Power, Place: Explorations in Critical Anthropology (with James Ferguson), 1997
- Editor, Anthropological Locations: Boundaries and Grounds of a Field Science (with James Ferguson), 1997
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.stanford.edu/dept/anthroCASA/people/faculty/gupta.html Stanford page]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20070607055508/http://shc.stanford.edu/fellowships/0405gupta.htm Stanford Humanities Center Fellowship Profile Page for Akhil Gupta]
- [http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2006/june14/clayman-061406.html Iris F. Litt Award]
- [http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/1998/may20/anthro520.html Anthropology department splits in two over tenure ship]
{{authority control}}
{{American Anthropological Association presidents}}
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Category:Stanford University Department of Anthropology faculty
Category:Scientists from Jaipur
Category:Western Michigan University alumni
Category:Stanford University alumni
Category:University of California, Los Angeles faculty