Nita Kumar completed her

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

and has taught at the

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

, and the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

among other places. She presently holds the Brown Family Chair of South Asian History at

Claremont McKenna College Claremont McKenna College (CMC) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It has a curricular emphasis on government, economics, public affairs, finance, and internat ...

, Claremont, California. Kumar studied

Anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

alongside

and has been productive in research and publishing in both fields. She has further moved on to include women's and

gender studies Gender studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analysing gender identity and gendered representation. Gender studies originated in the field of women's studies, concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics. The field ...

literary criticism Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...

and performance studies in her approach. From 1990, Kumar has been associated with NIRMAN, a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

NGO that works for

and the arts in

Varanasi Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. * * * * The city has a syncretic t ...

, India."Contributors", p. xiii in Carla Risseeuw & Marlein van Raalte (eds) 2017: ''Conceptualizing Friendship in Time and Place''. Leiden & Boston: Brill-Rodipi. On pp. 229–249 of this volume Kumar contributes with Chapter 10: "The Performance of Friendship in Contemporary India." Kumar's scholarship has included a questioning of the pursuit of agency and ‘justice’ in history, and the responsibilities of the

scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researche ...

towards her subject(s) of study. At NIRMAN, Kumar has taught, written curricula, trained teachers, and worked on children's books and arts. She has worked with weavers’ children, working-class women, and village families. These are also subjects she has written the histories and anthropologies of. Kumar has presented her research on education,

democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...

modernity Modernity, a topic in the humanities and social sciences, is both a historical period (the modern era) and the ensemble of particular socio-cultural norm (social), norms, attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of the Renaissancein the " ...

, and children in India at numerous places, and continues to do so.

Selected publications

* ''The Artisans of Banaras'' (Princeton, 1988) * ''Friends, Brothers and Informants: Fieldwork Memoirs of Banaras'' (Berkeley, 1992) * ''Women as Subjects'', ed. (Virginia and Calcutta, 1994) * ''Lessons from Schools'' (Sage, 2001) * ''Mai'', trans., by

Geetanjali Shree Geetanjali Shree ( hi, गीतांजलि श्री; born 12 June 1957), also known as Geetanjali Pandey, is an Indian Hindi-language novelist and short-story writer based in New Delhi, India. She is the author of several short stories ...

(Kali for Women, 2001) * ''The Politics of Gender, Community and Modernities: Essays on Education in India'' (Oxford, 2007)

External links

Academic profile
at Claremont McKenna College

Blog

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kumar, Nita 20th-century Indian social scientists 20th-century Indian women American anthropologists American educational theorists American people of Indian descent American social sciences writers Claremont McKenna College faculty Historians of South Asia Indian social sciences writers Indian women educational theorists Living people Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Prize for Translation University of Chicago alumni University of Michigan staff Year of birth missing (living people)