Romance, Religion, and the Problem of Migration in the Indian Himalaya

CASI Seminar

in partnership with the South Asia Center and Department of Anthropology

Radhika Govindrajan
Associate Professor, Anthropology and International Studies, University of Washington
Center for the Advanced Study of India
Ronald O. Perelman Center for Political Science & Economics
133 South 36th Street, Suite 230
Philadelphia PA 19104-6215

About the Seminar:
Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Uttarakhand, this seminar explores growing tensions around the presence of ethnic and religious outsiders, particularly migrants, in mountain villages. In particular, it examines how sexual anxieties about clandestine and unsanctioned romances become a fertile site for anxious debates about rural belonging and the identity of a village.

About the Speaker:
Radhika Govindrajan is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and International Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle. She is the author of Animal Intimacies: Interspecies Relatedness in India’s Central Himalayas, published by University of Chicago Press in 2018 and Penguin India in 2019. 

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The Nand & Jeet Khemka Distinguished Lecture Series is an endowed public program of the Center for the Advanced Study of India (CASI). Launched in the 2007-08 academic year, and made possible through the generous support of the Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation, the series brings renowned India specialists to the Penn community and serves as a critical forum for analyzing and understanding the complex economic, political, social, and cultural changes that the world’s largest democracy is experiencing, as well as the challenges that lie ahead.
The Saluja Global Fellows Program has been made possible by the generous gift from Vishal Saluja ENG’89 W’89. CASI was excited to launch the program during the 2022–23 academic year, coinciding with the Center’s 30th Anniversary. This new program enables CASI to invite eminent leaders and rising experts on contemporary India preferably from the fields of media, culture, law, and contemporary history to be in residence for one to two weeks at CASI.