In 1992, while still at Stanford, Gupta along with fellow Stanford anthropologist James Ferguson wrote the often-cited essay, "Beyond 'Culture': Space, Identity, and the Politics of Difference."[3] which argued that the analytic concept of culture had remained largely unproblematized by anthropological discourse, and that anthropologists of the day had failed to recognize and analyze the politics of cultural difference, how such differences were produced, and how such differences were used and abused by the state and by capital. The article argues for the examination of cultural anthropology as an unconscious mechanism of neo-imperialism.[citation needed]
Gupta is a leading figure in the anthropology of the state, and is the co-editor of a book of collected essays called The Anthropology of the State: A Reader.[4]
Tenureship controversy
Gupta was unanimously approved for tenure in 1996 at Stanford, but was then denied tenure by Dean John Shoven. Following protests and mobilization by students, the dean's decision was overturned.[5][6][7]
Selected publications
Postcolonial Developments: Agriculture in the Making of Modern India, 1997[8]
Editor, The Anthropology of the State: A Reader (with Aradhana Sharma), 2006
Editor, Caste and Outcast (with Gordon Chang and Purnima Mankekar), 2002
Editor, Culture, Power, Place: Explorations in Critical Anthropology (with James Ferguson), 1997
Editor, Anthropological Locations: Boundaries and Grounds of a Field Science (with James Ferguson), 1997
