South Asia Studies | Faculty

Jonah Blank
Adjunct Professor, South Asia Studies; Chief Policy Advisor for South Asia, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia, Committee on Foreign Relations (Majority Staff), U.S. Senate

Education
Ph.D, Harvard University (1998); M.A., Harvard University (1993); B.A., Yale University (1986)

Background
Jonah Blank is Chief Policy Advisor for South Asia, Central Asia, and Archipelagic Southeast Asia to the Democratic Staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  He was the first anthropologist to conduct ethnographic fieldwork in the community of Musta'li Ismaili Muslims, doing his research in Mumbai, Surat, Karachi, Lahore and other sites in India and Pakistan.  He received his doctorate from Harvard University, and has taught anthropology there and at Georgetown University. 

Publications
Mullahs on the Mainframe: Islam and Modernity Among the Daudi Bohras (1991).  

Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God: Retracing the Ramayana through India (1992).