Bio:
Uthara Suvrathan (MA, MPhil: JNU; PhD: Univ. of Michigan) works at the intersection of archaeology and history to examine the organization of polities and places on the margins of larger states and empires in pre-modern South Asia. She is also interested in archaeological approaches to landscape studies and in issues of pre-modern trade and contact across the Indian Ocean. In addition, she works on issues of museum education, public outreach and the digital humanities, with a particular interest in the sharing of information among researchers, as well as between academics and the wider public.
TEACHING AND RESEARCH INTERESTS
South Asian History and Archaeology; Ancient and Medieval periods; Indian Ocean studies; Urbanism; Complex societies; Asian Religious Traditions; State formation; Geographic Information Systems (GIS); Landscape Studies; Regional Archaeological Survey; Museum Studies; Digital Humanities.
EDUCATION
2013 PhD, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
2011 Master of Arts (Anthropology), Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
2004 Master of Philosophy (Ancient Indian History), Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India.
2002 Master of Arts (with a specialization in Ancient Indian history), Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India.
2000 Bachelor of Arts (Hons.), Department of History, St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University, Delhi, India.
ONGOING RESEARCH PROJECTS
2017 – Current Principal Investigator and Co-Director. Pre-modern landscapes of Karnataka.
2017 Founding Editor. http://www.southasian-archaeology.com.
2015 – Current Director. Archaeological and Cartographic Landscapes of the Deccan: Mapping regional organization.
PAST RESEARCH PROJECTS
2009 – 2014 Co-Director, Banavasi-Gudnapura Regional Survey Project, Karnataka, India. In collaboration with Dr. Rajaram Hegde, Director, Centre for the Study of Local Cultures, Kuvempu University, Karnataka, India. (Funding: NSF, Trehan Fund, University of Michigan)
PUBLICATIONS
In Preparation (drafts available)
Persistent Peripheries: Archaeological and historical landscapes of an early city in peninsular India, 3rd c. BCE- 18th c. CE. Book manuscript.
Under Review
‘Who curates? Control, politics and display of archaeological artifacts’. Museum Anthropology.
Articles and Book Chapters (Peer-reviewed)
2018 ‘The Multivalence of Landscapes: Archaeology and heritage’. In Himanshu Prabha Ray (ed.), Preserving Plurality: Heritage in South and Southeast Asia. Routledge.
2018 ‘ The Archaeology of Roof Tiles: A preliminary chronology from Karnataka’. Man and Environment, Vol. XLII, No. 1.
2015 ‘The City in the State’. In Geoff Emberling (ed.), Social Theory in Archaeology and Ancient History: The Present and Future of Counternarratives. Cambridge: University Press. Second author with Carla M. Sinopoli.
2014 ‘Spoiled for Choice?: The sacred landscapes of ancient and early medieval Banavasi’. South Asian Studies, Vol. 30.2.
2014 ‘Regional Centres and Local Elite: Studying peripheral cores in peninsular India’. Indian History (The Annual Journal of the Archive India Institute), Vol. 1.
2013 ‘A Fragmentary Brahmi Inscription from Banavasi’. Puratattva, No. 43, pp. 247-251.
2009 ‘Landscapes of Life and Death: Considering the Region of Vidarbha’. In Upinder Singh, Nayanjyot Lahiri (eds.), Ancient India: New Research. Oxford University Press: New Delhi.
Fieldwork Reports and Theses
2013 Complexity on the Periphery: a study of regional organization at Banavasi, c. 1st – 18th c. AD. PhD Dissertation. Department of Anthropology: University of Michigan.
2012 Complex societies on the periphery: regional networks in South India, 1st – 14th c. AD: Report on the Banavasi-Gudnapura Regional Survey. Report submitted to the NSF for Grant ID #1038445.
2009, 2010, 2012 Report on the Banavasi-Gudnapura Regional Survey, Karnataka, India. Vols. I-III. Submitted to the Archaeological Survey of India.
2011 Bullion, Baubles and Bowls: another look at reconstructing networks of exchange in the Indian Ocean. Predoctoral Thesis. Department of Anthropology: University of Michigan.
2004 Archaeology and Text: A Study of the Landscape in Vidarbha. MPhil Thesis. Centre for Historical Studies: Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Reviews
2016 Genealogy, Time and Identity: Historical Consciousness in the Deccan, Sixth Century CE – Twelfth Century CE, by Aruna Pariti (Primus Books, 2016). In South Asian Studies, Vol. 32 (2).
2014 Craft Specialization, Technology and Social Change: A study of material culture in Iron Age and Early Historic South India (c. 1200 BCE – 400 CE), by Gwendolyn Ida Ortner Kelly (Dissertation, University of Madison Wisconsin, 2013). In www.dissertationreviews.org (http://dissertationreviews.org/archives/10023).
Non Peer-Reviewed articles
2017 Tracing the Many Lives of Religious Structures. Web blog post. Material Religions. http://materialreligions.blogspot.com/2017/10/tracing-many-lives-of-religious.html
2017 On blogging and archaeology: Why it matters. Web blog post. Southasian-archaeology. http://www.southasian-archaeology.com/2017/10/on-blogging-andarchaeologywhy-it.html
RESEARCH GRANTS AND AWARDS (SELECTED)
2014-16 Department of Anthropology research funds, Cornell University.
2011 National Science Foundation, Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant. Grant ID #1038445.
2011 Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Dissertation Research Grant, supplemental funding.
2010 Rackham International Research Award, University of Michigan.
2009-10 Trehan Indian Research Fellowship, Centre for South Asian Studies, University of Michigan.
2010 – 2011 Barbour Fellowship (for women of the highest academic and professional calibre from the area formerly known as the Orient), University of Michigan.
2000 Asha Chatterjee Prize for academic excellence and leadership, St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, India.
