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Carla Bellamy
Assistant Professor in Anthropology

Baruch College, CUNY

Voice: 646 312-4438
Fax: 646 312-4461
Email: Carla_Bellamy@baruch.cuny.edu
Office: Room 4-251, 55 Lexington Avenue

Carla Bellamy’s current research is focused on religious healing centers in India, primarily Muslim saint shrines. Her work contributes to scholarship on religious identity in contemporary India, religion and healing, religion and gender, and spirit possession. Specifically, her current ethnographic project documents when, why, and how religion has been used as a primary category of identity by those who participate in the life of Muslim shrines, and it offers a geographically and historically grounded discussion of how religious communities in the subcontinent have influenced one another over time. Among her major theoretical influences are the writings of Hayden White, Emmanuel Levinas, and Walter Benjamin. She is fluent in Hindi/Urdu and delights in anything Bollywood produces.

Professor Bellamy is also a trained volunteer for Sakhi, a non-profit NYC-based organization that offers support and counseling to victims of domestic violence in the South Asian community.

Professor Bellamy is a graduate of Columbia University (M.Phil, Ph.D.), Harvard University (M.T.S.), and St. Olaf College (B.A.).

Her recent publications and presentations include:

• “Smoking is Good for You: Absence, Presence, and the Ecumenical Appeal of Indian Islamic Healing Centers,” International Journal for Hindu Studies, August 2006.
• “Got Loban? Effacement, Abundance, and the cross-tradition appeal of Indian Islamic healing centers,” American Academy of Religion, to be presented November 2006.
• “Who Died and Left You in Charge? Or: Possession, Power, and Religious Identity in Contemporary northwestern India,” American Academy of Religion, November 2004.
• “Praying Well with Others: The paradox of diversity and the unanimity of unity among the pilgrims of Husain Tekri,” Syracuse University/Cornell joint conference on South Asian Religion, April 2004, invited presenter.
• “Husain Tekri Kya Hai,” University of Wisconsin Annual Conference on South Asia, October 2001.

 

Carla Bellamy received a M.Phil. and Ph.D. in the department of Religion at Columbia University, her M.T.S. from the Divinity School at Harvard University, and her B.A. from St. Olaf College. Her major areas of interest include the construction of religious identity in India, religion and healing, and religion and the body.

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