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Biography
Nicholas B. Dirks is the Franz Boas Professor of History and
Anthropology at Columbia University, where since September 2004 he has
been Vice President for the Arts and Sciences and Dean of the Faculty.
Dirks came to Columbia in 1997 when he was asked to chair and rebuild
the department of Anthropology. Before coming to Columbia, Dirks was
Professor of History and Anthropology at the University of Michigan,
where he had also been the founding Director of the Interdepartmental
Ph.D. Program in Anthropology and History, Director of the Center for
South and Southeast Asian Studies, and Director of the Advanced Study
Center of the International Institute.
Dirks did his undergraduate degree in Asian and African Studies in
the College of Social Studies at Wesleyan University, graduating in
1972. He then joined the Ph.D. program in the department of History at
the University of Chicago, where he received his Ph.D. in 1981. He
taught in the Division of Humanities at the California Institute of
Technology between 1978 and 1987, when he accepted a professorial
position at the University of Michigan. He has also taught at the Ecole
des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and has held a visiting
appointment at the London School of Economics.
His major works include The Hollow Crown: Ethnohistory of an Indian Kingdom (Cambridge University Press, 1987); Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India (Princeton University Press, 2001); and The Scandal of Empire: India and the Creation of Imperial Britain (Harvard University Press, 2006). He has edited several books, including Colonialism and Culture, (University of Michigan Press, 1992), Culture/Power/History: A Reader in Contemporary Social Theory (Princeton University Press, 1994), and In Near Ruins: Cultural Theory at the end of the Century
(University of Minnesota Press, 1999), and published more than forty
articles on subjects ranging from the history and anthropology of South
Asia to social and cultural theory, the history of imperialism,
historiography, cultural studies, and globalization. He has done
extensive archival and field research in India as well as in Britain.
He is currently working on a book concerning imperial sovereignty with
special reference to the historical relationship between Britain and
India.
Dirks has held numerous fellowships and scholarships and received
several scholar honors, including a residential fellowship at the
Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and
the Lionel Trilling Award for his book Castes of Mind. He has directed
book series at Princeton and Columbia University Presses. He also
serves on numerous national and international bodies, as advisor or
member of the board, and is a Fellow at the Council on Foreign
Relations. As Vice President for Arts and Sciences and Dean of the
Faculty at Columbia, he is responsible for the academic administration
and direction of 29 departments (covering the humanities, social
sciences, and natural sciences), 27 institutes and centers, and 6
schools (Columbia College, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences,
the School of International and Public Affairs, the School of the Arts,
the School of General Studies, and the School of Continuing Education).
In addition, he oversees the operational and financial management of
the Arts and Sciences in conjunction with long-term academic and
financial planning.
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