Valentine Daniel

Valentine Daniel
Education	Amherst College University of Chicago
Occupation	Academic

Professor Errol Valentine Daniel is a Sri Lankan academic, anthropologist and author. He is currently Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Southern Asian Institute at Columbia University.[1][2]

Early life

Daniel is of Tamil descent on his father's side and of Burgher descent on his mother side.[3] He was educated at Jaffna College.[4][5] After school he joined Amherst College from where he received a B.A. degree.[6] He then received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago.[6]

Career

Daniel taught at the University of Washington (1978–90).[7] He then taught at the University of Michigan (1990–97), serving as Director of the Program in Comparative Studies in Social Transformation from 1995 to 1997.[6] He then joined Columbia University. Daniel has also been a visiting professor at the University of Amsterdam, University of Texas at Austin, Centre d’étude de l’Inde et de l’Asie Sud and United Nations University.[6]

Daniel was one of the recipients of the 1995 Guggenheim Fellowship.[6] He is proficient in Tamil, Sinhala, French and Malayalam.[6][8]

Works

Valentine has written several books:[1]

• Karma: An Anthropological Inquiry (1983, University of California Press. co-editor Charles F. Keyes)[9]
• Fluid Signs: Being a Person the Tamil Way (1984, University of California Press)[10]
• The Semeiosis of Suicide in Sri Lanka (1989, in Semiotics, Self, and Society by Benjamin Lee and Greg Urban, Mouton de Gruyter)
• Plantations, Proletarians, and Peasants in Colonial Asia (1992, Frank Cass & Co, co-editors Henry Bernstein and Tom Brass)
• Culture/Contexture: Essays in Anthropology and Literary Study (1996, University of California Press, co-editor Jeffrey M. Peck)[11]
• Mistrusting Refugees (1996, University of California Press, co-editor John Knudsen)[12]
• Charred Lullabies: Chapters in an Anthropography of Violence (1997, Princeton University Press)[13]
• Suffering Nation and Alienation (1997, in Social Suffering by Kleinman, Das and Lock, University of California Press)[14]
• The Limits of Culture (1998, in In Near Ruins: Cultural Theory at the End of the Century by Nicholas B. Dirks, University of Minnesota Press)
• The Refugee: A Discourse on Displacement (2002, in Exotic No More: Anthropology on the Front Lines by Jeremy MacClancy, University of Chicago Press)

References

1. "E Valentine Daniel". Columbia University. Archived from the original on 6 August 2015. Retrieved 8 August 2015.
2. Daniel, E. Valentine (17 October 1999). "But Neelan Tiruchelvam, I trusted". The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka).
3. Daniel, E. Valentine (1996). Charred lullabies: chapters in an anthropography of violence. Princeton studies in culture/power/history. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press. pp. 9–10. ISBN 978-0-691-02774-6.
4. "Jaffna College celebrates two centennials". Sunday Observer (Sri Lanka). 14 November 2004. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 8 August 2015.
5. Kanagsabapathipillai, Dushiyanthini (10 August 2013). "Jaffna College: Celebrating Excellence". Ceylon Today. No. 2/225. p. 5. Archived from the original on 17 August 2015. Retrieved 8 August 2015.
6. "About the Authors". Macalester College.
7. Keyes, Charles F.; Daniel, E. Valentine, eds. (1983). Karma: An Anthropological Inquiry. University of California Press. p. ix. ISBN 0-520-04429-0.
8. "E. Valentine Daniel". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
9. "Karma, an Anthropologoical Inquiry". University of California Press.
10. Fluid Signs: Being a Person the Tamil Way. University of California Press.
11. "Culture/Contexture: Explorations in Anthropology and Literary Studies". University of California Press.
12. Mistrusting Refugees. University of California Press.
13. Charred Lullabies: Chapters in an Anthropography of Violence. Princeton University Press. December 1996. ISBN 9780691027739.
14. Sivaguru, Puthu. "Book Review: Suffering Nation and Alienation". Ilankai Tamil Sangam.