Serena Nanda (born August 13, 1938) is an American author,

anthropologist An anthropologist is a scientist engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropologists study aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values ...

, and

professor emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

. She received the Ruth Benedict Prize in 1990 for her

monograph A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...

, ''Neither Man nor Woman: The Hijras of India''.

Biography

Serena Nanda was born on August 13, 1938, in New York City and received her

Doctor of Philosophy 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 Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

in anthropology from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

. She is the co-author of two anthropology textbooks: ''Culture Counts: A Concise Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (5th Edition)'' and ''Cultural Anthropology (12th edition)''. Among her areas of specialty was the topic of

gender diversity Gender diversity is equitable representation of people of different genders. It most commonly refers to an equitable ratio of men and women, but also includes people of non-binary genders. Gender diversity on corporate boards has been widely ...

, having written the major reference book on the hijras of India. As of August 2021, she was a professor emeritus at the

John Jay College of Criminal Justice The John Jay College of Criminal Justice (John Jay) is a public college focused on criminal justice and located in New York City. It is a senior college of the City University of New York (CUNY). John Jay was founded as the only liberal arts col ...

Awards

*1990, Ruth Benedict Prize, ''Neither Man nor Woman: The Hijras of India''

Selected works

*''Urban Systems Analysis: An Anthropological Perspective'', 1971 *''Social honor and informal social relationships : a study of kinship, friendship and neighbor relations in Bombay, India'', 1973 *''Teaching Nonanthropology Majors'', 1979 *''Cultural Anthropology.'' Van Nostrand, New York, New York, 1980, . *''More Dialogue on the "Bloodthirsty" Semai'', 1988 *''Neither Man nor Woman. The Hijras of India.'' Wadsworth, Belmont, California, 1990, . *''American Cultural Pluralism and Law: An Innovative Interdisciplinary Course'', 1990 *''Getting away with murder: Cultural diversity and the criminal justice system'', 1994 *''Trouble in paradise: Native Hawaiians V. The United States of America'', 1996 *''Goes With Everything'', 1999 *''Gender Diversity: Crosscultural Variations.'', 2000, Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, Inc. . *''North American Indian Jewelry and Adornment: From Prehistory to the Present '', 2002 *''Seeing Ourselves as Others See Us: Perceptions and Representations of “the West” by Other Peoples of the World '', 2003 *''South African Museums and the Creation of a New National Identity'', 2004 *with Joan Gregg and Beth Pacheco: ''40 Perfect New York Days. Walks and Rambles in and around the City.'' iUniverse, New York, New York, 2004, . *''Arranging a marriage in India'', 2006 *''The gift of a bride : a tale of anthropology, matrimony, and murder'', 2009 *''Assisted dying : an ethnographic murder mystery on Florida's gold coast'', 2011 *''Motivating New Students'', 2012 *''Gender diversity : crosscultural variations, second edition'', 2014, Long Grove, Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc. . *''Culture counts : a concise introduction to cultural anthropology'', 2015 *''Love and marriage : cultural diversity in a changing world'', 2019, Long Grove, Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc. .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nanda, Serena 1938 births Living people 20th-century American writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American writers 21st-century American women writers Writers from New York City Social scientists from New York City American anthropologists American anthropology writers John Jay College of Criminal Justice faculty American gender studies academics