Bio

Sharika Thiranagama's work has consistently explored how political mobilization and domestic life intersect, focusing on highly fraught contexts of violence, inequality, and intense political mobilization. This work and broader comparative theorization rests on understanding how people actually live together, often in highly fractious and unequal ways, situating these processes in specific historical formations of vernacular “privates” and “publics” in South Asia.

Her work is based in Sri Lanka and in Kerala, South India. In Sri Lanka, her primary research (In My Mother’s House: Civil War in Sri Lanka 2011) was on civil war, political violence, home, displacement, militarization, family particularly intergenerational and gendered relations in wartime and post war life. This work takes these themes through the lives of Sri Lankan Tamil and Sri Lankan Muslim minorities. Other work includes the history of railways, the BBC world service, masculinity, leadership and popular militancy, etc.

Her work in Kerala focuses on the long-lasting legacy on enslavement and caste in the lives on contemporary agricultural Dalit laboring families, examining caste, gender, household economies, house and neighborhood spaces through their inheritance and future affordances. Articles examine the house, public and private in India, inheritance as inequality, and caste and neighborliness.

Her future work will take an examination of inheritance, caste and family back to Sri Lanka for new fieldwork in Jaffna with Tamils and Muslims after Sri Lanka’s recent economic collapse and postwar caste conflicts.

Academic Appointments

  • Associate Professor, Anthropology

Administrative Appointments

  • Associate Professor of Anthropology, Stanford University (2019 - Present)
  • Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Stanford University (2013 - Present)
  • Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Stanford University (2011 - 2013)
  • Assistant Professor of Anthropology, The New School for Social Research (2009 - 2012)
  • Visiting Research Fellow, Department of Social Anthropology, London School of Economics (LSE) (2007 - 2010)
  • Research Consultant, Open University (UK) and ASSR, University of Amsterdam (2007 - 2009)
  • Economic and Social Research Council of Great Britain (ESRC) Postdoctoral Fellowship, Edinburgh University (2005 - 2006)
  • Nancy L Buc Postdoctoral Fellow, Pembroke Center, Brown University (2005 - 2006)

Honors & Awards

  • Faculty Fellow, Feminist Gender and Sexuality Studies, Stanford (2023-2024)
  • Stanford Humanities Center Faculty Fellowship, Stanford Humanities Center (2021-2022)
  • Stanford Asian American Faculty Award for contributions to undergraduate and graduate community., Asian American Studies, Stanford (2021)
  • Founding Co-Director ( With Sylvia Yanagisako), Center for Global Ethnography,, Institute for Research in the Social Sciences (IRISS) and Dept. Anthropology (2019-2021)
  • Sakurako and William Fisher Family Faculty Scholar, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Stanford (2018-2019)
  • Grant for project: The Local Level Social Life of Global Ideologies (Kerala), The National Science Foundation. Cultural Anthropology Program (2015-2017)
  • Post PhD Research Grant, Wenner Gren Foundation (2015-2016)
  • Nancy L Buc Postdoctoral Fellowship, Pembroke Center, Brown University (2004-2005)
  • ESRC Overseas Award for study abroad - taken at Department of Anthropology Johns Hopkins University, Economic Social Research Council of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (2004)
  • ESRC Postgraduate Studentship, Economic Social Research Council of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (2001-2005)
  • Davidson Prize, St Johns College, Cambridge University (2000-2001)
  • Isaac Newton Trust Bursary, St Johns College, University of Cambridge (2000)
  • Rajiv Gandhi Commonwealth Travelling Scholarship, University of Cambridge (2000)
  • Scholar of St Johns, St Johns College, Cambridge University (2000)
  • Isaac Newton Trust Bursary, St Johns College, University of Cambridge (1999)
  • Rajiv Gandhi Commonwealth Travelling Scholarship, University of Cambridge (1999)

Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations

  • President ( elected twice), American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies (2017 - 2024)
  • Co-Director, Center for Global Ethnography, IRISS, Stanford (2018 - 2020)
  • President, American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies (2020 - Present)
  • Elected Director, Board of Directors, American Institute of Sri Lankan Studies (2013 - Present)
  • Elected Director, Board of Directors, American Institute of Sri Lankan Studies (2010 - 2013)
  • Institutional Representative, New School, Board of Directors, American Institute of Sri Lankan Studies (2010 - 2011)
  • Manuscript Reviewer, Stanford University Press, Routledge, Indiana University Press
  • Reviewer, Dialectical Anthropology Medical Anthropology, Anthropology and Education Quarterly,
  • Reviewer, Modern Asian Studies, American Ethnologist, Ethnography, JRAI,
  • Reviewer, Feminist Review, South Asia Diaspora, Contemporary South Asia, Culture Medicine and Pyschiatry,

Program Affiliations

  • Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Professional Education

  • Ph.D., University of Edinburgh, Social Anthropology (2006)
  • MSc by Research, University of Edinburgh, Social Anthropology (2002)
  • B.A. (Hons), St John's College Cambridge, Social Anthropology (2001)

Contact

  • Academic
    sharikat@stanford.edu
    University - Faculty Department: Anthropology Position: Assoc Professor
    • 450 Serra Mall, Building 50
    • Stanford,  California  94305 

Additional Info

  • Mail Code: 2034

Links

2024-25 Courses

Stanford Advisees

All Publications

  • The names of the leader: the political deification of prabhakaran RELIGION Thiranagama, S. 2022

    View details for DOI 10.1080/0048721X.2022.2094785

    View details for Web of Science ID 000826245700001

  • Figures of Menace: Militarisation in Post-War Sri Lanka SOUTH ASIA-JOURNAL OF SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES Thiranagama, S. 2022

    View details for DOI 10.1080/00856401.2022.2017231

    View details for Web of Science ID 000747573500001

  • Protestant Textuality and the Tamil Modern: Political Oratory and the Social Imaginary in South Asia (Book Review) ANTHROPOLOGICAL QUARTERLY Book Review Authored by: Thiranagama, S. 2021; 94 (4): 725-735

    View details for Web of Science ID 000753354900006

  • Afterword: A "Division of Laborers" ANTHROPOLOGY OF WORK REVIEW Thiranagama, S. 2020; 41 (2): 133–37

    View details for DOI 10.1111/awr.12200

    View details for Web of Science ID 000585327500008

  • The Leader as Image: Prabhakaran and the Visual Regimes of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam”. Thiranagama, S. Tasveerghar: A Digital Network of South Asian Popular Visual Culture . 2020
  • Respect Your Neighbor as Yourself: Neighborliness, Caste, and Community in South India COMPARATIVE STUDIES IN SOCIETY AND HISTORY Thiranagama, S. 2019; 61 (2): 269–300

    View details for DOI 10.1017/S0010417519000057

    View details for Web of Science ID 000466760200003

  • Rural Civilities: Caste, Gender and Public Life in Kerala SOUTH ASIA-JOURNAL OF SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES Thiranagama, S. 2019; 42 (2): 310–27

    View details for DOI 10.1080/00856401.2019.1582190

    View details for Web of Science ID 000469098800006

  • The civility of strangers? Caste, ethnicity, and living together in postwar Jaffna, Sri Lanka ANTHROPOLOGICAL THEORY Thiranagama, S. 2018; 18 (2-3): 357–81

    View details for DOI 10.1177/1463499617744476

    View details for Web of Science ID 000445712600009

  • Introduction: Whose civility? ANTHROPOLOGICAL THEORY Thiranagama, S., Kelly, T., Forment, C. 2018; 18 (2-3): 153–74

    View details for DOI 10.1177/1463499618780870

    View details for Web of Science ID 000445712600001

  • Making Tigers from Tamils: Long-Distance Nationalism and Sri Lankan Tamils in Toronto AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST Thiranagama, S. 2014; 116 (2): 265-278

    View details for DOI 10.1111/aman.12099

    View details for Web of Science ID 000337535600003

  • Sri Lanka's Lingering State of War CURRENT HISTORY Thiranagama, S. 2014; 113 (762): 163-164

    View details for Web of Science ID 000342187100006

  • The Self at a Time of War in Northern Sri Lanka JOURNAL OF HISTORICAL SOCIOLOGY Thiranagama, S. 2013; 26 (1): 19-40

    View details for DOI 10.1111/johs.12013

    View details for Web of Science ID 000316633500002

  • Reconciliation, Popular Aspirations, and the State Humanity: An International Journal of Human Rights, Humanitarianism, and Development Thiranagama, S., Biner, O. 2013; 4 (1):
  • Claiming the State: Reconciliation Processes in Sri Lanka Humanity: An International Journal of Human Rights, Humanitarianism, and Development Thiranagama, S. 2013; 4 (1)
  • 'A Railway to the Moon': The post-histories of a Sri Lankan railway line MODERN ASIAN STUDIES Thiranagama, S. 2012; 46: 221-248

    View details for DOI 10.1017/S0026749X11000631

    View details for Web of Science ID 000299715200010

  • Muslims, Ethnicity and Minority Identity in Sri Lanka Religion and Politics in South Asia Thiranagama, S. edited by Jaffrelot, C., Arif, A. Purushartha, Sciences Sociales en Asie du Sud. Paris: EHESS. 2012
  • Ethnic entanglements: The BBC Tamil and Sinhala services amidst the civil war in Sri Lanka JOURNALISM Thiranagama, S. 2011; 12 (2): 153-169

    View details for DOI 10.1177/1464884910388584

    View details for Web of Science ID 000208784200003

  • In My Mother's House: Civil War in Sri Lanka Obeysekere, G., Thiranagama, S. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2011
  • Spectres of Treason Traitors: Suspicion, Intimacy and the Ethics of State Building Kelly, T., Thiranagama, S. edited by Thiranagama, S., Kelly, T. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2010
  • Praise of Traitors: Intimacy, Betrayal and the Sri Lankan Tamil Community Traitors: Suspicion, Intimacy and the Ethics of State-Buildin edited by Thiranagama, S., Kelly, T. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2010
  • Traitors: Suspicion, Intimacy and the Ethics of State-Building edited by Kelly, T., Thiranagama, S. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2010
  • South Asian Diasporas and the BBC World Services: Contacts, Conflicts, and Contestations South Asian Diaspora edited by Gillespie, M., Thiranagama, S., Pinkerton, A., Baumann, G. 2010
  • Partitioning the BBC: From Colonial to Postcolonial Broadcaster South Asian Diaspora Thiranagama, S. 2010; 2 (1): 39-55
  • A New Morning? Reoccupying home in the aftermath of violence in Sri Lanka Struggles for Home: Violence, Hope, and the Movement of People Thiranagama, S. edited by Jansen, S., Löfving, S. Oxford and New York: Berghahn Books. 2009
  • The right of return to Jaffna Himal South Asian Thiranagama, S. 2008; 21 (1)
  • The Shadow Diaspora: Sri Lankan Tamils in Colombo Infochange Agenda Thiranagama, S. 2008
  • Review of Ritualizing on the Boundaries: Continuity and Innovation in the Tamil Diaspora by F.W. Clothey Religion Thiranagama, S. 2008; 30: 195-218
  • The Eviction of Tamils and Muslims from Jaffna Daily Mirror Thiranagama, S. 2008
  • Moving on? Memory, generation and home for displaced Northern Muslims in Sri Lanka Ghosts of Memory: Essays on Remembrance and Relatedness Thiranagama, S. edited by Carsten, J. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. 2007
  • A New Morning? Reoccupying home in the aftermath of violence in Sri Lanka Focaal: European Journal of Anthropology Thiranagama, S. 2007; 49 (1): 45-61
  • A Dream of Return: Northern Muslims in Sri Lanka ISIM Review Thiranagama, S. 2007; 20