Serena Nanda is an American author, anthropologist, and

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

. She received the Ruth Benedict Prize in 1990 for her monograph, ''Neither Man nor Woman: The Hijras of India''.

Biography

Serena Nanda was born on August 13, 1938 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

and received her PhD in anthropology from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

. She is the co-author of two anthropology textbooks: ''Culture Counts: A Concise Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (5th Edition)'' and ''Cultural Anthropology (12th edition)''. Among her areas of specialty was the topic of

gender diversity Gender diversity is equitable or fair representation of people of different genders. It most commonly refers to an equitable ratio of men and women, but may also include people of non-binary genders. Gender diversity on corporate boards has be ...

, having written the major reference book on the hijras of India. As of August 2021, she was a professor emeritus at the

John Jay College of Criminal Justice The John Jay College of Criminal Justice (John Jay) is a public college focused on criminal justice and located in New York City. It is a senior college of the City University of New York (CUNY). John Jay was founded as the only liberal arts ...

Awards

* 1990, Ruth Benedict Prize, ''Neither Man nor Woman: The Hijras of India''

Selected works

* ''Urban Systems Analysis: An Anthropological Perspective'', 1971 * ''Social honor and informal social relationships : a study of kinship, friendship and neighbor relations in Bombay, India'', 1973 * ''Teaching Nonanthropology Majors'', 1979 * ''Cultural Anthropology.'' Van Nostrand, New York, New York, 1980, . * ''More Dialogue on the "Bloodthirsty" Semai'', 1988 * ''Neither Man nor Woman. The Hijras of India.'' Wadsworth, Belmont, California, 1990, . * ''American Cultural Pluralism and Law: An Innovative Interdisciplinary Course'', 1990 * ''Getting away with murder: Cultural diversity and the criminal justice system'', 1994 * ''Trouble in paradise: Native Hawaiians V. The United States of America'', 1996 * ''Goes With Everything'', 1999 * ''Gender Diversity: Crosscultural Variations.'', 2000, Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, Inc. . * ''North American Indian Jewelry and Adornment: From Prehistory to the Present '', 2002 * ''Seeing Ourselves as Others See Us: Perceptions and Representations of “the West” by Other Peoples of the World '', 2003 * ''South African Museums and the Creation of a New National Identity'', 2004 * with Joan Gregg and Beth Pacheco: ''40 Perfect New York Days. Walks and Rambles in and around the City.'' iUniverse, New York, New York, 2004, . * ''Arranging a marriage in India'', 2006 * ''The gift of a bride : a tale of anthropology, matrimony, and murder'', 2009 * ''Assisted dying : an ethnographic murder mystery on Florida's gold coast'', 2011 * ''Motivating New Students'', 2012 * ''Gender diversity : crosscultural variations, second edition'', 2014, Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, Inc. . * ''Culture counts : a concise introduction to cultural anthropology'', 2015 * ''Love and marriage : cultural diversity in a changing world'', 2019, Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, Inc. .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nanda, Serena Living people 1938 births People from New York City American anthropologists American anthropology writers 20th-century American writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American writers 21st-century American women writers City University of New York faculty Gender studies academics