Nita Kumar is an anthropologist. She completed her

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

History History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

and has taught at the

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

, and the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

among other places. She presently holds the Brown Family Chair of South Asian History at

Claremont McKenna College Claremont McKenna College (CMC) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It has a curricular emphasis on government, economics, public affairs, finance, and internat ...

, Claremont, California. Kumar studied

Anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

alongside

and has been productive in research and publishing in both fields. She has further moved on to include women's and

gender studies Gender studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analysing gender identity and gendered representation. Gender studies originated in the field of women's studies, concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics. The field n ...

literary criticism A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature's ...

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

and performance studies in her approach. From 1990, Kumar has been associated with NIRMAN, a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

that works for

and the

arts The arts or creative arts are a vast range of human practices involving creativity, creative expression, storytelling, and cultural participation. The arts encompass diverse and plural modes of thought, deeds, and existence in an extensive ...

Varanasi Varanasi (, also Benares, Banaras ) or Kashi, is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world.* * * * The city has a syncretic tradition of I ...

, India."Contributors", p. xiii in Carla Risseeuw & Marlein van Raalte (eds) 2017: ''Conceptualizing Friendship in Time and Place''. Leiden & Boston: Brill-Rodipi. On pp. 229–249 of this volume Kumar contributes with Chapter 10: "The Performance of Friendship in Contemporary India." Kumar's scholarship has included a questioning of the pursuit of agency and ‘justice’ in history, and the responsibilities of the

scholar A scholar is a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a termina ...

towards her subject(s) of study. At NIRMAN, Kumar has taught, written curricula, trained teachers, and worked on children's books and arts. She has worked with weavers’ children, working-class women, and village families. These are also subjects she has written the histories and anthropologies of. Kumar has presented her research on education,

democracy Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...

modernity Modernity, a topic in the humanities and social sciences, is both a historical period (the modern era) and the ensemble of particular Society, socio-Culture, cultural Norm (social), norms, attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of the ...

, and children in India at numerous places, and continues to do so.

Selected publications

* ''The Artisans of Banaras'' (Princeton, 1988) * ''Friends, Brothers and Informants: Fieldwork Memoirs of Banaras'' (Berkeley, 1992) * ''Women as Subjects'', ed. (Virginia and Calcutta, 1994) * ''Lessons from Schools'' (Sage, 2001) * ''Mai'', trans., by Geetanjali Shree (Kali for Women, 2001) * ''The Politics of Gender, Community and Modernities: Essays on Education in India'' (Oxford, 2007)

External links

Academic profile
at Claremont McKenna College

Blog

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kumar, Nita 20th-century Indian social scientists American anthropologists American educational theorists American people of Indian descent American social sciences writers Claremont McKenna College faculty Historians of South Asia Indian social sciences writers 20th-century Indian women educational theorists Living people University of Chicago alumni University of Michigan staff Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century Indian educational theorists