Veena Das

VEENA DAS, Krieger-Eisenhower Professor, is the author, editor or co-editor of nine books, including Critical Events: An Anthropological Perspective on Contemporary India and Structure and Cognition: Aspects of Hindu Caste and Ritual. Her latest book, Life and Words: Violence and the Descent into the Ordinary was published by the University of California Press in 2006. In 1995, Dr. Das received the Anders Retzius Gold Medal from the Swedish Society of Anthropology and Geography. She is an honorary foreign fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a recipient of an honorary doctorate from the University of Chicago. A scholar of comparative ethics, social theory, collective violence, and medical anthropology, Dr. Das serves on editorial boards and professional communities including the governing body of the International Center for Ethnic Studies at Columbo. She joined the faculty in anthropology in 2000.