Miki Chase

Miki Chase is an Assistant Professor of South Asian Studies and holder of the Śrī Anantnāth Endowed Chair in Jain Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She holds a PhD (2022) and MA (2018) in Anthropology from Johns Hopkins University. Her research focuses on intersections of religion, law, and gender in death-related practices in India, particularly analyzing the Jain ritual fast-until-death (sallekhanā/santhāra) through lenses of modernization, urbanization, and women's moral agency.

• Expertise: Jainism, medical/legal anthropology, feminist theory, bioethics, biopolitics, kinship studies
• Awards: 2024 Best Dissertation Prize from Mohini Jain Presidential Chair
• Funding: Wenner-Gren Foundation, American Institute for Indian Studies (Rachel F. & Scott McDermott Fellowship)

Teaching includes courses on South Asian anthropology, animal ethics in Asia, contemporary Indian society, and Jain religious culture. Affiliated with Gender & Women’s Studies, Anthropology, Religious Studies, and the Center for South Asia. Former postdoc: Bhagwan Munisuvrata Swami Fellowship at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (Religion Department).