Anuj Misra

Anuj Misra serves as Professor of the History of Science and the History of Knowledge at Freie Universität Berlin while leading the Max Planck Research Group 'Astral Sciences in Trans-Regional Asia' (ASTRA) at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) in Berlin since April 2024. He maintains adjunct affiliations as Senior Researcher at the University of Canterbury's School of Mathematics and Statistics and as Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Copenhagen's Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies.

His educational background includes a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Canterbury (2016), following doctoral research on seventeenth-century Sanskrit spherical geometry. Prior postdoctoral appointments include the Observatoire de Paris (2017–18) and MPIWG's Department I (2018–19).

Misra specializes in the history and philosophy of pre-modern Islamicate and Sanskrit astronomy, with research spanning sociohistorical, philosophical, linguistic, and mathematical dimensions of astral sciences in early-modern India. His work examines knowledge transmission across Asian contexts through three core frameworks: Transmission (cross-cultural knowledge flow), Translocation (geographical movement of ideas), and Transcreation (adaptive transformation of knowledge systems). Current projects investigate astrological practices in Islamic courts, manuscript traditions in the Zysk Collection, and performative aspects of knowledge production.

His recent publications demonstrate consistent focus on Sanskrit astronomical table texts, manuscript philology, and digital approaches to historical scientific practices. Key trends include computational reconstruction of historical astronomical calculations, comparative analysis of numerical table traditions, and interdisciplinary methodologies bridging history, philology, and digital humanities.

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship (2019–21) for 'Early Modern Exchanges in Sanskrit Astral Sciences' (EMESAS)
• Gerda Henkel Research Fellowship (2021–23) for 'Changing Episteme in Early Modern Sanskrit Astronomy' (CEEMSA)

Misra directs the ASTRA research group at MPIWG, coordinating multiple international projects including 'Celestial Counselors' (Islamicate court astrology), 'Paging the Heavens' (Zysk manuscript collection), and 'Performative Philology'. His research receives institutional support through Max Planck Society funding, with collaborative grants enabling manuscript digitization initiatives and cross-institutional workshops across Europe and Asia. Future work focuses on comparative studies of Persian nativity manuscripts and diagrammatic knowledge systems in historical astral sciences.