Anthony Cerulli

Expert on the history and practice of medicines and religions in India.

Professor, Asian Languages and Cultures College of Letters and Science Work: 608-262-3915 acerulli@wisc.edu Home page

Topics

My research and teaching examines the interface of medicine, religion, and the body in South Asia.
I do ethnographic, historical, and philological research to understand how and why people do things with texts to heal and promote wellbeing.
I also produce and exhibit artwork that combines aesthetics and ethnography to probe the relationship of knowledge making, curation, and preservation.

In 2025-26, I am Artist-in-Residence at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin.
THE PRACTICE OF TEXTS (2022) was supported by an NEH grant and honored by the U. of California Press with the Philip E. Lilienthal imprint.
Multiple images from "Manuscriptistan" are featured in two French publications: MANUEL DU PRINCE INDIEN: L’ARTHAŚĀSTRA (2022) and LE BULLETIN DES BELLES LETTRES (2022).
In 2021-22, I was the Larson Fellow in Health and Spirituality at the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress.
In 2015, I was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in South Asian Studies.