Anthony Cerulli

Education
PhD, University of Chicago
MA, Yale University
BA, Loyola University Chicago

UW Experts ORCiD

RESEARCH  •  ARTWORK
Anthony’s teaching and research address questions in the global health humanities and routinely combine ethnography, philology, and history to explore intersections of health and spirituality and science and religion in South Asia. He also exhibits and publishes artwork from Manuscriptistan, his ever-evolving project exploring the interplay of art-making, aesthetics, and knowledge curation. Check it out on Instagram @manuscriptistan and Bluesky @manuscriptistan.bsky.social

Organizations that have supported Anthony’s artwork and research include the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (Berlin); Kluge Center; NEH; Guggenheim Foundation; ACLS; Institut d’études avancées de Paris; EURIAS; SSRC; Library of Congress (Asian Division); and Fulbright-Hays. He has been Directeur d’études invité at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris and Scholar-in-Residence at the Rochester Zen Center.  He is Editor of India Review (since 2009), and he currently serves on the editorial boards of two book series: “Global Histories of Premodern Health and Disease” (Edinburgh UP) and “Ancient Cultures of Knowledges and Sciences” (Mohr Siebeck).

Anthony welcomes inquiries and applications from students considering graduate studies on medical anthropology and/or the history of medicine in South Asia; the study of religion in South Asia; global health humanities; and art-making as academic inquiry.

PUBLICATIONS  •  EXHIBITIONS

Visit Anthony’s Knowledge Commons for further information and many downloadable publications.

• Books and Edited Volumes

2024, Suhrdayasamhita: A Compendium of Studies on South Asian Culture, Philosophy, and Religion Dedicated to Dominik Wujastyk. Co-edited with Philipp Maas. Studia Indological Universitatis Halensis, vol. 28. Halle: Universitätsverlag Halle-Wittenberg (OA @ Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing).

2022, The Practice of Texts: Education and Healing in South India. Oakland: University of California Press (OA @ Luminos OA).

2020, Time, Continuity, and Rupture: Medicines and Memories in South Asia. Co-edited with Lisa Brooks and Victoria Sheldon. Asian Medicine 15, no. 1.

2018, The Gift in India in Theory and Practice. Co-edited with Miriam Benteler. International Journal of Hindu Studies 22, no. 2.

2013, Medical Texts and Manuscripts in Indian Cultural History. Co-edited with Dominik Wujastyk and Karin Preisendanz. New Delhi: Manohar Press.

2012, Somatic Lessons: Narrating Patienthood and Illness in Indian Medical Literature. Albany: State University of New York Press.

• Articles, Chapters, and Essays  (select since 2020)
  

2024, “Always Already Theorizing … in the Field, Elsewhere, All at Once.” In Suhrdayasamhita: A Compendium of Studies on South Asian Culture, Philosophy, and Religion Dedicated to Dominik Wujastyk, edited by Anthony Cerulli and Philipp Maas. Studia Indological Universitatis Halensis, vol. 28: 302-317. Halle: Universitätsverlag Halle-Wittenberg.

2023, “Religion and Medicine in Sanskrit Literature: The Ramayana and the Politics of an Epic Plant.” In Situating religion and medicine in Asia: Methodological insights and innovations, edited by Michael Stanley Baker, 165–197. Manchester: Manchester University Press. 

2023, “Shaping the Study of South Asia: The Annual Conference on South Asia at UW–Madison.” Co-authored with Sarah Beckham and Andrea Fowler. In Wisconsin in the World: Internationalization at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, edited by Elise Ahn, 293–300. Charlotte: Information Age Publishing.

2022, “Vies et renaissances des manuscrits en Asie du Sud.” Le Bulletin des Belles Lettres 2022, nº3, “Science si humaine,” 18–23. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.

2022, “L’art dans l’archive: Manuscrits dans l’histoire de l’Inde.” In Manuel du Prince Indien: L’Arthasastra. Introduction et extraits par Marinette Dambuyant et photographies et postface par Anthony Cerulli, 251–268. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.

2022, “Pedagogy, Philology, and Procedural Medical Knowledge.” South Asian History and Culture 13, no. 1: 135–155.

2021, “Disease: Discourse and Interpretation in Premodern South Asia.” Religion Compass 15, no. 12: 1–10.

2021, “Allegory and History, Life and Embodiment.” In Body and Cosmos: Studies in Early Indian Medical and Astral Sciences in Honor of Kenneth G. Zysk, edited by T. Knudsen, J. Schmidt-Madsen, and S. Speyer, 209-232. Leiden: Brill.

2020, “Healing Concerns in South Asian Texts, Histories, and Societies.” Asian Medicine 15, no. 1: 183-196.

2020, “Archival Aesthetics: Framing and Exhibiting Indian Manuscripts and Manuscript Libraries.” South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 43, no. 3: 455-477.

• Artwork:  Exhibits and Publications  (since 2020)
  

2025, “This is not a Manuscript.” GlouGlou Gallery, Madison, WI (solo exhibit: Oct-Nov, 15 images).

2025, “Inverse Testaments of Creation.” Overture Center for the Arts, Madison, WI (duo exhibit: Mar-Jun, 14 images).

2024–25, “Framing the Archive.” Fluno Center Gallery, Madison, WI (solo exhibit: Oct–Jan, 29 images).

2024, “Knowledge Sits in Places.” Pyle Center Gallery, Madison, WI (solo exhibit: May–Jun, 48 images).

2023, “The Aesthetic Shape of History.” Roberta’s Art Gallery, Whitewater, WI (solo exhibit: Nov–Dec, 47 images).

2023, “The Archive as Art.” Solarium Gallery at Houghton House, Geneva, NY (solo exhibit: Mar–Apr, 57 images).

2023, “Manuscriptistan 18” and “Manuscriptistan 53.” In Old Stacks, New Leaves: The Arts of the Book in South Asia by Sonal Khullar. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

2022, Le Bulletin des Belles Lettres, nº3, “Science si humaine” (6 photographs). Paris: Les Belles Lettres

2022, L’Arthaśāstra. Introduction et extraits par Marinette Dambuyant et photographies et postface par Anthony Cerulli (17 photographs). Paris: Les Belles Lettres.

2021, “Manuscriptistan 18.” In Sosio-ekologi kelapa laut by Firuza Begham Binti Mustafa. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.

2020, “Manuscriptistan.” Chazen Museum of Art, Faculty 2020 Exhibition, Madison, WI (group exhibit: Jan–Aug, 4 images).

COURSES  •  SEMINARS

• REGULAR OFFERINGS
Ethnography in Asia
History of Medicine in South Asia
Hinduism
The Perfectible Body in Religion, Medicine, and Politics
Religion in South Asia

• OCCASIONAL OFFERINGS
Buddhism
The Mahābhārata
Theory and Method in the Study of Religion