Photo courtesy of UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance
Performance Studies Alum Anurima Banerji (Ph.D. '10) was named the 2020 recipient of the prestigious de la Torre Bueno Prize® for her book Dancing Odissi: Paratopic Performances of Gender and State (Seagull Books/University of Chicago Press, 2019).
Anurima Banerji is an Associate Professor in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance at UCLA. She is the author of the monograph Dancing Odissi: Paratopic Performances of Gender and State (Seagull Books/University of Chicago Press, 2019) and co-editor, with Dr. Violaine Roussel, of How to Do Politics with Art. Currently she is working on a new book project, The Impossibility of Indian Classical Dance, as well as co-editing The Oxford Handbook of Indian Dance with Dr. Prarthana Purkayastha (Royal Holloway University of London). Her research concerns critical historicizations of Indian dance and its relationship to the state, with an interest in exploring conversations between dance history and political theory, since each area shares a common concern with the body as it moves through space. Banerji’s work is informed by an intersectional and interdisciplinary approach based on the insights of postcolonialism, critical race theory, performance studies, feminist and queer philosophy, and discourses of class, regionalism, and religion in India.
The de la Torre Bueno Prize® is awarded annually to a book published in the English language that advances the field of dance studies. Named after José Rollin de la Torre Bueno, the first university press editor to develop a list of titles in dance studies, the de la Torre Bueno Prize has recognized scholarly excellence in the field since 1973.
Congratulations Dr. Banerji!