Anthony Cerulli
Credentials: Professor of South Asian Studies
Position title: 1232 Van Hise Hall
Email: acerulli@wisc.edu
Website: Anthony Cerulli's website
Phone: (608) 262-3915
Address:
Director, Center for South Asia
Director, Health and the Humanities Certificate
Education
PhD, University of Chicago
MA, Yale University
BA, Loyola University Chicago
Research Interests
My primary fields of research are medicine and religion. Many of my projects incorporate ethnography, history, and philology to explain how and why people study and use texts in South Asia to heal and promote well-being. My research also contributes to discussions in the medical humanities (in Asia and elsewhere), and in my photography exhibits and publications I explore links between art-making, ethnography, and history.
My research has been supported by fellowships and grants from the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation; Kluge Center; National Endowment for the Humanities; American Council of Learned Societies; Institut d’études avancées de Paris; European Institutes for Advanced Studies; Library of Congress Asian Division; and Fulbright-Hays. I have been Directeur d’études invité at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris, and currently I am editor of India Review; associate editor of Asian Medicine; and 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).
I welcome inquiries and applications from students interested in pursuing graduate degrees in the areas of history of medicine and medical anthropology in South Asia, religion in South Asia, and global medical and health humanities.
PUBLICATIONS & EXHIBITIONS
Visit my Humanities Commons page for a full list of publications (many downloadable) and exhibitions
- Books and edited volumes
2022, The Practice of Texts: Education and Healing in South India. Oakland: University of California Press (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 (since 2020)
2023, “Religion and Medicine in Sanskrit Literature: The Rāmāyaṇa 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’Arthaśāstra. 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, “Epilogue: Healing Concerns in South Asian Texts, Histories, and Societies.” Asian Medicine 15, no. 1: 183-196.
2020, “Introduction: Medicines and Memories in South Asia.” Co-authored with Lisa Brooks and Victoria Sheldon. Asian Medicine 15, no. 1: 3-9.
2020, “Archival Aesthetics: Framing and Exhibiting Indian Manuscripts and Manuscript Libraries.” South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 43, no. 3: 455-477.
- Photography exhibitions and publications (since 2020)
2023, “The Aesthetic Shape of History.” Roberta’s Art Gallery, University of Wisconsin–Whitewater, Whitewater, WI (solo exhibit: Nov–Dec, 47 pieces).
2023, “The Archive as Art.” Solarium Gallery at Houghton House, Hobart & William Smith Colleges (solo exhibit: Mar–Apr, 57 pieces).
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, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI (group exhibit: Jan–Aug, 4 pieces).
COURSES & SEMINARS
• REGULAR OFFERINGS
Ethnography in Asia (ASIAN 655)
Gateway to Asia: Trek and Encounter (ASIAN 100)
Health and Healing in South Asia (ASIAN 218)
Hinduism (ASIAN 306)
Perfectible Bodies in Religion, Medicine, and Politics (ASIAN 505)
Religion in South Asia (ASIAN 274)
• OCCASIONAL OFFERINGS
Buddhism (ASIAN 308)
The Mahābhārata
Theory and Method in the Study of Religion