Faculty Fellows

Safwan Amir is a social anthropologist with a keen interest in histories of the present. He specialises in anthropology of religion and sociology of caste with a focus on Muslim lifeworlds. Prior to joining Ahmedabad University, he was at Krea University as a Senior Research Associate for the World Humanities Report – India/South Asia, a joint initiative by the CHCI and CIPSH, in collaboration with UNESCO, and supported by the Andrew W Mellon Foundation. He was a Fulbright Visiting Doctoral Fellow at the Department of Anthropology, Columbia University in New York between 2017 and 2018.

He is trained in a variety of disciplines that include sociology/anthropology, history, literature, and Islamic studies. He holds a Masters in sociology from the Delhi School of Economics and a Bachelors in English Honours from Ramjas College, Delhi University. Professor Amir is currently working on a manuscript which is a revision of his PhD dissertation titled The Muslim Barbers of Malabar: Histories of Contempt and Ethics of Possibility. As an Assistant Professor at the School of Arts and Sciences, Ahmedabad University, he contributes to building linkages between humanities and social sciences intellectually.
 

Safwan Amir’s research area broadly covers Islam and South Asia across premodern and modern eras. He is particularly interested in questions around embodiment, time, and work. His work is primarily ethnographic research and utilises sources as varied as novels, poems, supplications, songs, jurisprudence manuals, ethical booklets, oral narratives, rejected articles, and writings on water. Professor Amir’s PhD, a historical anthropology, looks at how the barber, from a position of possibilities in the past, comes to be the subject of contempt in the contemporary. It is an intervention in the domains of “Caste and Islam” and “Anthropology of Islam”.

• Amir, S. Forthcoming 2024. ‘Temporary Sisterhoods: Thinking Ethics Through Postnatal Care Among South Asian Muslims’ in Care(ful) Relationships Between Mothers and the Caregivers They Hire, eds. Katie B. Garner and Andrea O’Reilly, Demeter Press.
• Amir, S. 2023. ‘The Ethical in the Transmission of Sunnah: Rethinking the ‘Ulama-Qussas Conflict’’ in Hadith and Ethics Through the Lens of Interdisciplinarity, ed. Mutaz al-Khatib, Brill. 
• Amir, S. (In review) 2022. ‘Publishing Margins in India: Staying Committed, Staying Relevant’, The World Humanities Report, India/ South Asia, ed. Bishnu Mohapatra.    
• Amir, S and Mital, I. 2021. ‘The Anatomy Of Obesity: Cartman And The Economy Of Consumption In South Park’ in Food Culture Studies in India: Consumption, Representation and Mediation, Springer Nature.
• Amir, S. 2019. ‘Contempt and Labour: An Exploration through Muslim Barbers of South Asia’ in Religions 10 (11), 616 (https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10110616)
• Amir, S. 2014. ‘History of Kathakali: Of art, agency, and aesthetics’ in Literophile, Issue 3, Volume 7: ‘History: Writing/Re-Writing - Manipulation?’ 
• Amir, S and Mital, I. 2013. “I’m Not Fat! I’m Big Bones: Cartman’s Diet and Appetite for Authority” in Literophile, Issue 3, Volume 6: ‘Consumerism, and Cultures in Consumption’
   

• Self and Society in the Study of Religion
• Historical Anthropology
• Ethics and the Everyday
• Anthropology of Islam
• Qualitative Research Methods
• Ethnography
• Sociology of India
   

• “Formations of the South Asian Muslim Elite: A Modern History of Caste and Islam” in ‘Caste among Muslims’ panel, British Association for South Asian Studies Annual Conference, University of Southampton on 1st April 2022
• “Rethinking Caste Studies In/Via The Islamic Tradition: The Case Of A Muslim Barber’s Rejected Article” Invited speaker, International Webinar on Caste among Non-Hindus, Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi on 11th November 2021
• “Young Minorities: Concerns and Hope” Invited speaker, Vidyajyoti College of Theology, Delhi on 30th September 2021
•  “Tracing Islamic Pasts From Field: Towards A Vestigial Approach” in the 13th Annual Anthropology in Transit Conference by Department of Anthropology, University of California, Irvine on 10th April 2021
• “The Caste Conundrum: Marriage in the Islamic Tradition” in international conference on Islamic Traditions and Practices in South India by Department of Historical Studies, The New College, Chennai, India on 2nd March 2020
• “The Ethical Dimension of Absence/Presence in Transmitting Sunnah: Rethinking the ‘Ulama-Qussas Conflict” in Hadith and Ethics: Concepts, Approaches and Theoretical Foundations by Research Centre for Islamic Legislation and Ethics, Hamad bin Khalifa University, Doha, Qatar on 30th April 2019
• “‘To Sit and Tell Stories’: Islamic Preaching Practices in Early Malabar” in Raw.Con Annual National Conference by Centre for Comparative Literature, University of Hyderabad on 28th February 2019
• “Caste and Islam” Invited speaker, panel discussion by Compass Foundation for Academic Networking, Chair for Islamic Studies & Research, University of Calicut on 19th August 2017
• "Research and its nuances: Scope in Arts and Social Sciences" Invited speaker, department of English, Farook college, Calicut on 1st August 2017
• "Studying the Mappila: the inevitable past, present, and future" in 6th French Network on Asia conference by GIS ASIE, Sciences Po, Paris - France on 28th June 2017
• "Historicizing Fields, Rethinking Archives: Of Genealogies and Ethnographies" in '1st National Level Young Researchers Workshop; sponsored by UGC-SAP, Department of Sociology, University of Hyderabad on 22nd January 2015
• “I’m Not Fat! I’m Big Bones!: Cartman’s Diet and Appetite for Authority” in Food for Thought; seminar by Outreach Programme, Jamia Millia Islamia University on 18th April 2013
• “Going Down South Park: Goin Outta line” in Coming Apart at the seams: Interrogating Madness; seminar by Grub Street, Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi on 3rd March 2012
• “Depoliticization” Invited speaker, Politics in Delhi University, Ramjas Literary Society, Ramjas College, University of Delhi on 1st September 2009
   

• 2017 – 2018: Fulbright Nehru Doctoral Fellowship, Education and Cultural Affairs, U. S. Department of State.
• 2016 – 2017: MIDS Institute Fellowship, Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai
• 2013 – 2015: ICSSR Doctoral Fellowship, Indian Council for Social Sciences Research, Delhi