FASS Staff Profile

DR MAUNAGURU SIDHARTHAN
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR (JOINT APPOINTMENT WITH DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY)
SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES PROGRAMME

Appointment:
DEPUTY HEAD
Office:
AS8/06-42
Email:
sasms@nus.edu.sg
Tel:
65167776
Fax:
Homepage:
http://profile.nus.edu.sg/fass/sasms/
Tabs

Brief Introduction

Sidharthan Maunaguru is an Associate Professor at Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and South Asian Studies Programme at National University of Singapore. His research focuses on anthropology of war, violence, migration, politics, religion, sovereignty, conscience, ethics and future/s. He was a Newton International Fellow awarded by the Royal Society and British Academy and was a senior fellow at Collegium Helveticum, ETH. He has published in number of peer-reviewed journals including Current Anthropology, American Anthropologist, Modern Asian Studies, Comparative Studies on Society and History, and Contributions to Indian Sociology. He is the author of Marrying for a Future: Transnational Sri Lankan Tamil Marriages in the Shadow of War, 2019 published by University of Washington Press. His anthropological research intersects with the disciplines of anthropology, history and philosophy. 

 


Teaching Areas

Modules taught / teach at NUS:

SN3274 South Asian Cinema

SN 2280 Marriage, Sex, Love in South Asia 

SC 4228 Making Sense of Violence 

SC 4221 Comparative Analysis of Human Rights 

SN2274 South Asian Cultures: An Introduction

SN 3275 Tamil Culture and Society 

 

Co taught the following classes:

SN 4101: Approaches to Study of South Asia

SN 1101: South Asian: People, Culture, Development

GEH1009: Framing Bollywood: Unpacking The Magic

 

Individual Study Modules (ISM) (Graduate level) 

SC 6660 Anthropology of Subjectivity

SN 6660 Diaspora and Transnationalism

SC 6660 Gender and Migration


Graduate Supervision

PhD Students (Supervision)

2021- to date Ranjita, Dilraj

                           “Gender, Displacement and Resilience: Understanding the Intersecting Identities in Women from Coastal Communities in Flood Affected Areas of Kerala”

2020- to date: Sandeepan Tripathy

                           “Precarity, Politics, and Labor: A Study of Interstate Migrant Workers in India”.

2019- to date: Priyam Sinha, 

                           “South Asian Cinema, Representations and Disabilities”.

 2019- to date:   Pavithra Menon          

                           "Gender in Diasporic Spaces:Tamil Muslim Women in Malaysia and Singapore" 

2015 to 2020:  Ranjana Raghunathan(Successfully completed PhD in May 2020)

                            “Inhabiting Intimate Worlds: Tamil Women and Belonging in Singapore”

2015  to 2019:  Shivani Gupta (Successfully completed PhD in December 2019)

                            “Mapping Women’s Worlds in Contemporary Urban Banaras”

 

PhD thesis committee member 

Radhika Mathrani Chakraborty (PhD thesis committee member), “Hindu Sindhis in Hong Kong: Exploring Translocal Diasporic Identity,” 2019-2023 (successfully completed PhD in 2023). 

Sanjay Sharma (PhD thesis committee member), “Invisible Counterparts’ of the ‘Warrior Gentlemen’: The Gendered Militarisation and Migration of the ‘Gurkhas,” 2019-2023 (successfully completed PhD in 2022). 

Shruti Gupta (PhD thesis committee member), “Gendered migration and transnational lives”, 2019-2024 (successfully completed PhD in 2023). 

Soontree Sirinntawon, (PhD thesis committee member), “Subject Formation and Selfmaking in the Everyday Lives of Stateless Shan Young People at the Thai-Burmese Borderland,” 2017-2021. (successfully completed PhD in 2022) 

Gopika Jadeja (PhD thesis committee member), “Dalit Literatures and Nationalism in Gujarat, India,” 2015-2019 (successfully completed PhD in 2019) 


Research Interests

My research interests revolve around Violence, Relatedness, Religion, Politics, Conscience, Temporalities, Marriage, and Migration.


Publications

BOOKS/MONOGRAPHS AUTHORED

EDITORIAL WORK ON BOOKS

  • 2020. (Co-edited with Amarasuriya, Kelly, Oustinova-Stjepanovic and Spencer) The Intimate Life of Dissent: Anthropological Perspectives. London: University College London Press.  

ARTICLES IN JOURNALS

  •  

    2021 'Homeless’ Deities and Refugee Devotees'. American Anthropologist, Vol 123 (3)

    2020 'Vulnerable Sovereignty'. Current Anthropology, Vol 61 (6) 

    2020: 'Thinking with Time:Reflections on Migration and Diaspora Studies Through Sri Lankan Tamil Marriage Migration '. American Behavioral Scientist, Vol 64 (10)

    2018 (with Bart Klem). ‘Public Authority Under Sovereign Encroachment: Leadership in Two Villages During Sri Lanka’s War’. Modern Asian Studies, Vol 52 (3)

    2018 (with Jonathan Spencer). ‘You Can Do Anything with a Temple’. Philanthropy and Politics in South London and Sri Lanka’. Modern Asian Studies, Vol 52 (1) 

    2017 (with Bart Klem).  ‘Mimicking Sovereign Rule: Governance, Kingship and Violence in Civil Wars’. Comparative Studies in Society and History. Vol 59 (3) 

    2015. “Amman as Social Auditor”. Contribution to Indian Sociology: 49 (4)

    2013 (with Jonathan Spencer). Temples and the Remaking of Tamil Society: Report from the field. Religion and Society, Vol 3 (1)

     

SHORTER ARTICLES/COMMENTS IN JOURNAL

  •  

    Short reflective article (with Bart Klem): ‘Being in the know’. Comparative Studies in Society and History website, Behind the Scenes, July 7, 2017 https://cssh.lsa.umich.edu/2017/07/04/being-in-the-know/

    “Transnational Sri Lankan Tamil marriages.” In Encyclopedia of Sri Lankan Diaspora by Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore,  2013.

CHAPTERS IN BOOKS

  •  

    2021: “(Un)certain Futures: Rhythms and Assemblages of Transnational Sri Lankan Tamil Marriages”, In Carsten, Janet (ed.), Marriage in Past, Present, and Future Tense: London:  University College London Press.

    2020: Co-authored (with Amarasuriya, Kelly, Stjepanovic and Spencer) “Introduction: The Intimate life of Dissent” In Amarasuriya et al., The Intimate Life of Dissent: Anthropological Perspectives. London: University College London Press.

    2020: “Friends with Differences” In Amarasuriya et al., The Intimate Life of Dissent: Anthropological Perspectives. London: University College London Press.

    2014: “Transnational Marriages: Documents, Wedding photos, Photographers and Jaffna Tamil Marriages”. In Rajni Palriwala, and Ravinder Kaur (ed.), Marrying in South Asia. Delhi: Orient Blackswan (Orient Longman). 

     2012:  (with Nichols Van Der Hear)“Transnational Marriages in Conflict Settings: War, Dispersal and Sri Lankan Tamil Marriages”. In Charsley, Katherine (ed): Transnational Marriage: New Perspectives from Europe and Beyond. London: Routledge.

    2010: “Brides as Bridges? Tamilness through Movements, Documents and Anticipations”. In Dr. R. Cheran (ed), Pathways of Dissent: Tamil Nationalism in Sri Lanka. Delhi, London: Sage Publications.

    2008: “Youth Voices: I Do Not Want Anything from Anybody, I Will Rebuild My Family”. In: Hettige, S.T. and M. Mayer (eds.): Youth, Peace and Development. Colombo: Center for Poverty Analysis.

    2003: “Negotiating Tamilness”. In Dr Marcus Mayer, Dr Yuvi Thangaraja and Dr. Darani Rajasingam (eds): Building Local Capacities for Peace: Rethinking Conflict and Development in Sri Lanka, MacMillan, India.

     

BOOK REVIEWS

  • Maunaguru, Sidharthan. 2015. Book review on Diana Dimitrova (ed.), ‘The Other in South Asian Religion, literature and Films: Perspectives on Others and Otherness’. Asia JournalSocial Science

Last Modified: 2023-06-05         Total Visits: 15548