Carol A. Breckenridge (1942–2009) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

anthropologist and associate professor of history at the

New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR) is a graduate-level educational institution that is one of the divisions of The New School in New York City, United States. The university was founded in 1919 as a home for progressive era thinkers. NSSR ...

, author of many books and articles on colonialism and the political economy of ritual; state, polity, and religion in South India; society and aesthetics in India since 1850; culture theory; and cosmopolitan cultural forms. In 1988 Breckenridge and fellow founding editor

Arjun Appadurai Arjun Appadurai (born 1949) is an Indian-American anthropologist recognized as a major theorist in globalization studies. In his anthropological work, he discusses the importance of the modernity of nation states and globalization. He is the fo ...

started ''

Public Culture ''Public Culture'' is a peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary academic journal of cultural studies, published three times a year—in January, May, and September—by Duke University Press. It is sponsored by the Department of Media, Culture, and Commu ...

'',''Public Culture'' masthead
/ref> a field-defining

academic journal An academic journal or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as permanent and transparent forums for the presentation, scrutiny, and d ...

in the areas of globalization and transnational cultural studies. Breckenridge received her Ph.D. from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

in 1976 and formerly taught in the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations at 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 ...

. She died of cancer on October 4, 2009. Her husband is the anthropologist

Recent publications

*(Co-edited with Peter van der Veer) ''Orientalism and the Postcolonial Predicament'' (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993) *(Editor) ''Consuming Modernity: Public Culture in a South Asian World'' (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995) *(with Arjun Appadurai), "Public Modernity in India," in ''Consuming Modernity: Public Culture in a South Asian World'', C.A. Breckenridge (Editor), Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995. *''The Aesthetics and Politics of Colonial Collecting: India at World Fairs'', Comparative Studies in Society and History, Spring 1989, 195–216.

Notes

External links

''Public Culture''
2009 deaths Anthropology educators The New School faculty University of Chicago faculty University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni 1942 births 20th-century American anthropologists {{indology-stub