Stine Simonsen Puri

Stine Simonsen Puri is a Teaching Associate Professor in the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies at the University of Copenhagen, with additional affiliation to the Department of Political Science. Her academic work bridges anthropology, cultural studies, and regional expertise on India, exploring how movement shapes our understanding of the world through both personal embodiment and external observation.

Education:

• 2021: Diploma in dance and dance pedagogy (eurythmy), Institute of Inspired Movement, Copenhagen/Goetheanum
• 2020: Research Leadership Course, LEAD and Copenhagen University
• 2019: Visiting Scholar at Stanford University, Department of Anthropology
• 2014: PhD in Humanities, Centre for Comparative Cultural Studies, Department of Cross-cultural and Regional Studies, Copenhagen University
• 2012: Visiting Scholar, Institute for Public Knowledge, New York University
• 2006: M.Sc. in Social and Cultural Anthropology, Department of Cross-cultural and Regional Studies, Copenhagen University

Professor Puri's research centers on movement - of bodies, minds, money, clouds, and stars - as a lens for understanding how we know and speculate about the world. Her methodological approach of 'radical participation' involves personally engaging in practices like dancing and gambling as primary research methods. She has extensive field experience in both rural and urban India, where she has studied gambling, climate forecasting, and temple dance. Analytically, she combines phenomenological, hermeneutic, and critical approaches to situate phenomena within kinesthetic, cultural, and historical contexts.

Her scholarly output reveals consistent interdisciplinary engagement across anthropology, economics, and philosophy, with particular attention to speculative practices in Indian contexts. The research demonstrates how people navigate uncertainty through gambling, climate prediction, and dance, connecting embodied experience with broader social and economic systems.

Scientific Awards:

• Ung Eliteforsker (2011)
• Danish Research Council for Independent Research fellowships
• Indian Council of Cultural Research scholarship

Professor Puri has been actively involved in multiple international research groups including Escalations, Futures of Finance at NYU, and the Gambling Research Network. Her recent activities include presentations on Indian elections (2024), cultural encounters (2024), and the International Eurythmy Conference (2024), demonstrating ongoing scholarly engagement and public outreach. Her teaching philosophy emphasizes multimodal methods that incorporate movement to develop students' flexible understanding of cultural diversity.