Wikipedia

Tulasi Srinivas

Tulasi Srinivas is an Indian religious studies scholar and anthropologist. She was a 2025 Guggenheim Fellow. Her work includes Winged Faith (2010) and The Goddess in the Mirror (2024). She is Professor of Anthropology, Religion and Transnational Studies at the Emerson College Marlboro Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies.[1]

Tulasi Srinivas
Occupations
  • Religious studies scholar
  • anthropologist
FatherM. N. Srinivas
AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship (2025)
Academic background
Alma mater
Thesis'Divine enterprise': An ethnographic study of popular Hinduism (2001)
Peter L. Berger
Academic work
Discipline
  • Religious studies
  • anthropology
InstitutionsEmerson College

Biography

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Srinivas was born to M. N. Srinivas, a sociologist,[2] and Rukmini Srinivas, a geography professor and cookbook writer.[3] A native of Bangalore, she obtained a BA in architecture from Bangalore University and an MA in urban studies from the University of Southern California.[1] She obtained a PhD in religious studies and anthropology from Boston University's University Professors Program;[1] her doctoral dissertation ‘Divine enterprise’: An ethnographic study of popular Hinduism was supervised by Peter L. Berger.[4]

Srinivas originally taught at Wheaton College and the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, before she started working at Emerson College, where she eventually became a full professor.[1] She won Emerson's 2015 Helaine and Stanley Miller Award for teaching excellence.[1]

Srinivas specializes in religious studies, with her work centering on comparative ethics, Hinduism, and the anthropology of several aesthetical aspects like beauty and wonder.[1] She has written several books, including Winged Faith (2010), Curried Cultures (2012), The Cow in the Elevator (2018), Wonder in South Asia (2023), and The Goddess in the Mirror (2024).[1] She is currently working on an upcoming book called The Runaway Goddess: Water and Women in a Millennial City.[1] In addition to books, she has written a few dozen book chapters and articles.[1] In 2025, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Religion.[5] She is also a fellow of the Indian Sociological Society and the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.[1]

Srinivas has written articles for The Conversation[6] and The Wire,[7] and she has frequently appeared as an expert on NPR[8][9][10] and NBC News.[11] In April 2011, she provided an obituary of the mystic Sathya Sai Baba to The American Magazine.[12] She has criticized the Michelin Guide as "Eurocentric and elitist", citing a lack of representation of African and Indian restaurants.[13] She has also worked as an advisor to climate justice non-profit Bhumi and as an expert in global inequality and faith for the World Economic Forum.[1]

Srinivas lives in Arlington, Massachusetts.[14] Her sister Lakshmi is a sociologist who works at UM Boston.[3]

Works

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  • Winged Faith: Rethinking Globalization and Religious Pluralism (2010)[a]
  • Curried Cultures: Food, Globalization and South Asia (2012)[1]
  • The Cow in the Elevator: An Anthropology of Wonder (2018)[b]
  • Wonder in South Asia: Politics, Aesthetics, Ethics (2023)[1]
  • The Goddess in the Mirror: An Anthropology of Beauty (2024)
  • The Runaway Goddess: Water and Women in a Millennial City (TBA)[1]

Notes

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  1. ↑ Reviews of this book: [15][16][17][18]
  2. ↑ Reviews of this book: [19][20][21][22]

References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 "Tulasi Srinivas". Emerson College. Retrieved 7 May 2026.
  2. ↑ Bearak, Barry (3 December 1999). "M. N. Srinivas Is Dead at 83; Studied India's Caste System". New York Times. p. C23:1. ProQuest 431324093.
  3. 1 2 Gopal, Sena Desai (16 December 2015). "She reconstructs the tastes of an Indian childhood". The Boston Globe. p. G5.
  4. ↑ Srinivas, Tulasi (2001). ‘Divine enterprise’: An ethnographic study of popular Hinduism (Thesis). Boston University. OCLC 53341366.
  5. ↑ "Announcing the 2025 Guggenheim Fellows". Guggenheim Foundation. Retrieved 7 May 2026.
  6. ↑ "Tulasi Srinivas". The Conversation. 28 March 2019. Retrieved 7 May 2026.
  7. ↑ "Tulasi Srinivas". The Wire Science. Retrieved 7 May 2026.
  8. ↑ "Millions Mourn Indian Guru Sathya Sai Baba | The Takeaway". WNYC Studios. Retrieved 7 May 2026.
  9. ↑ "Dr. Fauci Says No More Handshakes. Some Never Liked Them To Begin With". NPR. 16 April 2020. Retrieved 7 May 2026.
  10. ↑ Singh, Maanvi (26 March 2015). "How Snobbery Helped Take The Spice Out Of European Cooking". KERA News. Retrieved 7 May 2026.
  11. ↑ "Bon Appétit controversy shows hypocrisy of American food culture, experts say". NBC News. 11 June 2020. Retrieved 7 May 2026.
  12. ↑ Clooney, Francis X. (2011). "Death of a God-man? Sai Baba Dies at 85". America Magazine. Retrieved 7 May 2026.
  13. ↑ Bilger, Micaiah (3 June 2025). "'A side of racism with the boeuf bourguignon,' professor says of Michelin restaurant guide". The College Fix. Retrieved 7 May 2026.
  14. ↑ Feeney, Mark (16 April 2025). "11 in Greater Boston win Guggenheim Fellowships". The Boston Globe. p. C12.
  15. ↑ Huffer, Amanda (2011). "Review of Winged Faith: Rethinking Globalization and Religious Pluralism through the Sathya Sai Movement". The Journal of Asian Studies. 70 (3): 894–896. ISSN 0021-9118.
  16. ↑ Lahiri, Smita (2012). "Review of Winged Faith: Rethinking Globalization and Religious Pluralism through the Sathya Sai Movement". American Ethnologist. 39 (2): 465–467. ISSN 0094-0496.
  17. ↑ Kent, Alexandra (2011). "Review of Winged faith: rethinking globalization and religious pluralism through the Sathya Sai movement". The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 17 (2): 428–429. ISSN 1359-0987.
  18. ↑ Upadhyay, Surya Prakash (2013). "Review of Winged faith: rethinking globalization and religious pluralism through the Sathya Sai movement". Indian Anthropologist. 43 (1): 106–106. ISSN 0970-0927.
  19. ↑ Devarajan, Arthi (30 October 2018). "The cow in the elevator: an anthropology of wonder". Anthropology Book Forum. Retrieved 11 May 2026.
  20. ↑ Gold, Ann Grodzins (2019). "The Cow in the Elevator: An Anthropology of Wonder". American Ethnologist. 46 (3): 360–361. doi:10.1111/amet.12814. ISSN 0094-0496.
  21. ↑ Sethi, Manisha (2019). "Book Review: Tulasi Srinivas. 2018. The Cow in the Elevator: An Anthropology of Wonder". Contributions to Indian Sociology. 53 (3): 441–443. doi:10.1177/0069966719860336. ISSN 0069-9659.
  22. ↑ Venkatesan, Soumhya (2020). "The Cow in the Elevator: An Anthropology of Wonder by Tulasi Srinivas". Anthropological Quarterly. 93 (1): 1677–1681. doi:10.1353/anq.2020.0013. ISSN 1534-1518.
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