Naisargi Dave

Naisargi N. Dave is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto, specializing in sociocultural anthropology with a focus on India. Her work bridges queer theory, animal studies, affect, and ethics, exploring radical relationality and the politics of indifference.

• Education: PhD, University of Michigan (2006)
• Affiliations: Centre for South Asian Studies, Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies (steering committee), Jackman Humanities Institute

Her research interrogates interspecies ethics, the social life of violent death, and inventive activism. The book Indifference (2023) analyzes human-animal relations through care, violence, and ethical indifference. Current work Murder (funded by SSHRC Insight Grant, AIIS, QTRL, JHI) examines murder as a lens for social boundaries in 21st-century India.

Publications reveal trends in animal studies, queer theory, and anthropological ethics across South Asia. Her articles span topics like elephant captivity, affective politics, and the tyranny of consistency in ethical practice.

Scientific awards:

• 2024 Gregory Bateson Prize (Society for Cultural Anthropology)
• 2024 Victor Turner Prize 2nd Prize (Society for Humanistic Anthropology)
• 2024 Ruth Benedict Prize Honorable Mention (Association for Queer Anthropology)
• 2013 Ruth Benedict Prize (Association for Queer Anthropology)

As a mentor, she advises graduate students such as Elliott Tilleczek and Ridhima Sharma. Her teaching includes courses on animality, queer anthropology, and literary anthropology. She advocates for decolonial methodologies and intersectional approaches to activism, emphasizing the need to move beyond reactive politics toward radical invention.