Manuela Ciotti

Manuela Ciotti is a Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology of the Global South at the University of Vienna. Her research spans two interconnected strands: (1) inequality, identity politics, and modernity in India’s subaltern communities, and (2) the politics of art and materiality in global art circulation from India. She leads the research team Sedimented Visions and holds an ERC Advanced Grant for the project ANTHROFUTURE, focusing on the anthropology of the future through art world dynamics.

Her research integrates ethnographic fieldwork and archival analysis across diverse sites, including villages in India, museums in New York, and the Venice Biennale. Key themes include caste and race in global contexts, digital anthropology, and socio-political struggles around infrastructure and urbanization. She has published extensively, including monographs Retro-modern India (2010) and Unsettling the Archetypes (2017).

Recent projects examine the global south at the Venice Biennale (1950s-1980s) and the global life of caste and race, analyzing movements like #DalitLivesMatter. She collaborates with postdoctoral researchers such as Geoffrey Rathgeb Aung (Myanmar infrastructure studies, supported by NSF and Fulbright) and Evgenija Filova (Berlin art and racism research). Her team also includes PhD candidates Pierre Wenzel (Dakar urbanization) and Ankit (marriage dynamics in rural India). Ciotti’s work emphasizes ethical commitments to colonized peoples’ self-determination and critiques of systemic violence.