Prof. Dr. Irfan Ahmad, 2017-2021
Curriculum Vitae
From 2018 until 2021, Irfan Ahmad was a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute. A political anthropologist, Ahmad has taught at the University of Amsterdam and Utrecht University in the Netherlands, and Monash University and Australian Catholic University in Australia. Interested in the dynamics of religion (Islam), politics, democracy, media, violence, anthropology of philosophy and history of anthropology - especially in South Asia - he has authored two monographs (Princeton University Press and University of North Carolina Press/Oxford University Press) and co-edited two books (Routledge and Oxford University Press). An edited volume, “Are Anthropology and Ethnography Equivalent?” is forthcoming from Berghahn in 2021. Ahmad’s contributions have appeared, inter alia, in Anthropological Theory, JRAI, Public Culture, HAU, Philosophy & Social Criticism, Modern Asian Studies, and Public Anthropologist. Founding Co-Editor of Journal of Religious & Political Practice, Ahmad is also on the editorial boards of Public Anthropologist, South Asia, and International Journal of Islam in Asia.
Research projects
- Disciplinary history: Indian anthropology/sociology, nationalism, and religion
- Muslims and/in Indian democracy
- What might an anthropology of terrorism look like?
Publications
Books
Ahmad, I. (2017). Religion as critique: Islamic critical thinking from Mecca to the marketplace. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. Link
Collected Editions
Ahmad, I., & Kang, J. (Eds.). (2022). The nation form in the global age: Ethnographic perspectives. Cham: Springer International Publishing. Link
Ahmad, I. (Ed.). (2021). Anthropology and ethnography are not equivalent: reorienting anthropology for the future. New York: Berghahn Books. Link
Ahmad, I., & Kanungo, P. (Eds.). (2019). The algebra of warfare-welfare. A long view of India's 2014 election. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Link
Ahmad, I., & Doyle, N. J. (Eds.). (2018). (Il)liberal Europe: Islamophobia, modernity and radicalization. London: Routledge. Link
Contributions to a Collected edition
Ahmad, I., & Kang, J. (2022). Introduction: Imagining alternatives to globalization of the nation form. In I. Ahmad, & J. Kang (Eds.), The Nation Form in the Global Age: Ethnographic Perspectives (pp. 3-44). Cham: Springer International Publishing. Link
Ahmad, I., & van der Veer, P. (2022). Muslim bare life in contemporary India. In I. Ahmad, & J. Kang (Eds.), The Nation Form in the Global Age: Ethnographic Perspectives (pp. 127-152). Cham: Springer International Publishing. Link
Ahmad, I. (2022). The oeuvre of Peter van der Veer. In I. Ahmad, & J. Kang (Eds.), The Nation Form in the Global Age: Ethnographic Perspectives (pp. 45-71). Cham: Springer International Publishing. Link
Ahmad, I. (2019). Democracy as rumour: media, religion, and the 2014 Indian elections. In I. Ahmad, & P. Kanungo (Eds.), The algebra of warfare-welfare. A long view of India's 2014 election (pp. 55-90). New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Link
Ahmad, I. (2019). Introduction: democracy and the algebra of warfare-welfare. In I. Ahmad, & P. Kanungo (Eds.), The algebra of warfare-welfare. A long view of India's 2014 election (pp. 1-54). New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Link
Ahmad, I. (2019). Unity in diversity: democracy and manifestos in the 2014 Indian elections. In I. Ahmad, & P. Kanungo (Eds.), The algebra of warfare-welfare. A long view of India's 2014 election (pp. 309-333). New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Link
Ahmad, I. (2018). In defense of ho(s)tels: Islamophobia, domophilia, liberalism. In I. Ahmad, & N. J. Doyle (Eds.), (Il)liberal Europe: Islamophobia, modernity and radicalization. London: Routledge. Link
Journal Articles
Ahmad, I. (2018). Is political anthropology dead? Anthropology News, 59. Link
Ahmad, I. (2018). Twentieth-century faces of anthropology’s holism. Anthropology News, 59(3). Link
Ahmad, I. (2017). Democracy in Jail: Over-representation of minorities in Indian prisons. Economic & Political Weekly, 52(44), 98-106. Link