Professor & Chair
Socio-cultural anthropology, ethnic identities, globalization, environmentalism, South Asia (Sri Lanka and Nepal)

guneratne@macalester.edu

Office Hours: MW 2:15-4:15, T 1:15-4:15; walk-ins welcome at any time. Also by appointment, email me at guneratne@macalester.edu

Fall 2012
Anth 111 Cultural Anthropology
Anth 194 Cultural Anthropology FYC

Spring 2013 (Expected)
Anth 230 Ethnographic Interviewing
Anth 490 Senior seminar

Arjun Guneratne is a socio-cultural anthropologist whose research focuses on two areas of inquiry: firstly, the emergence of an ethnic identity among the Tharu of Nepal and its relationship to processes of state formation, and secondly, the relationship between environmentalism and globalization in Sri Lanka. His research in Nepal since 1989 has led to a number of published articles and a book, Many Tongues, One People: The Making of Tharu Identity in Nepal,published by Cornell University Press in 2002. Since then, he has turned his attention to the study of environmental issues in South Asia. He has edited a book, Culture and the Environment in the Himalaya, (Routledge, 2010) which examines how different socio-cultural groups in the region, ranging from scientists and policy makers to cultivators and foragers, understand the concept of environment. He is also working on a longer-term project that examines the emergence of an environmental movement in Sri Lanka, its roots in the period of British colonialism and the way Sri Lankan environmentalism has been shaped by contemporary globalizing processes.

Dr. Guneratne was educated at the University of Colombo, where he studied for one year in the Faculty of Law, and at Dartmouth College (A.B., 1985). He received his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Chicago in 1994. He taught at Cornell University before coming to Macalester in 1995. He serves as a Director of the American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies and is on the faculty board of the Intercollegiate Sri Lanka Education (ISLE) program. He is the editor of Himalaya, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies (ANHS). He teaches a broad range of courses, including the methods course Ethnographic Interviewing, A History of Anthropological Ideas, Peoples and Cultures of South Asia, Environmental Anthropology, and the Anthropology of Law.