
Associate Professor
Sociocultural Anthropologist
ctm22@email.unc.edu
919-962-1243
Alumni Building 409G
Website
Research Interests
Political Culture, Colonialism and Postcolonialism, Postindustrialism, Plantations, Empire and Medicine, the Politics of Recognition and Autonomy, Anxiety, Chokepoints, Postcolonial Theory, South Asia, Himalayas, India
Specializations
Political Anthropology, Sociocultural Anthropology, EthnographyResearch Background
I am a sociocultural anthropologist who works in the Himalayas of India. My research examines how colonial pasts shape contemporary life and politics. My most recent book, Quinine’s Remains: Empire’s Medicine and the Life Thereafter (University of California Press, 2024), explores the history and afterlives of the antimalarial quinine in India. Set in the crumbling cinchona plantations of the Darjeeling Hills, where the British Indian government grew the ‘fever tree’ that produces quinine, the book tells a broader story of how communities live and struggle in the remains of imperial and industrial pasts. My 2015 book, The Demands of Recognition: State Anthropology and Ethnopolitics in Darjeeling (Stanford University Press, 2015) focused on the politics of subnational autonomy, tribal recognition, and affirmative action in India.
I am an editor of the scholar-led, open access journal, Limn, which brings together scholars, artists, activists, and professionals to illuminate—or ‘limn’—problems emerging at the interface of technology, politics, and contemporary life. Prior to these projects, I co-edited the book, Darjeeling Reconsidered: Histories, Environments, Politics (Oxford University Press India, 2018). I’ve also co-led various projects on Chokepoints (National Science Foundation, Limn 2018), which examined sites of constriction like canals, tunnels, etc., and Fieldwork(ers), which brought together researchers and research assistants to reflect on ethnographic practice (published in Ethnography, 2014). More broadly, my essays have appeared in journals such as American Anthropologist, American Ethnologist, Cultural Anthropology, Ethnos, Ethnography, Political Geography, and Public Culture. Funding for my work has come from the National Science Foundation, the American Institute of Indian Studies, Fulbright, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and numerous sources at UNC.
I am presently involved with a variety of initiatives in scholar-led, open access publication. I continue to write on topics, including: affirmative action, anxiety, assassination, autonomy, belonging, colonialism, empire, labor, logistics, medicine, plantations, political culture and violence, popular culture, postcoloniality, postindustrialism, social theory, and South Asia.
Education
PhD, Cornell University, 2010; MA, University of Chicago, 2002; BA, University of Virginia, 1999
Current Courses
- ANTH 361 – COMMUNITY IN INDIA AND S. ASIA (TR, 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM)
- ANTH 706 – PROFESSIONALIZATION SEMINAR (M, 3:30 PM – 6:00 PM)
- ANTH 897 – PROFESSIONALIZATION SEMINAR (M, 3:30 PM – 6:00 PM)