Trained at the intersections of the human and social sciences, Anirban Gupta-Nigam is irreverent about disciplinary frames. In his scholarship and programmatic work alike, he aims to situate narrow expertise in its social context, striving to live up to the spirit of the fox that wants to know many things. This insistence on better understanding how people think (about their lives, about the world) guided a national, Mellon-funded research project he led as a postdoctoral scholar with the system-wide University of California Humanities Research Institute. Liberal Arts in a Future Tense—the illustrated, collaborative report produced by that multi-year initiative—makes the case for a liberal education unbeholden to artificial divisions between the natural, social, and human sciences. As Associate Director of the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere, Anirban Gupta-Nigam looks forward to building on the aspect of the project he enjoyed most: facilitating the work of others.
Between his own work, and offering logistical + research support to numerous research groups, Anirban Gupta-Nigam takes a natural interest in how people arrive at the questions that preoccupy their research. At UF, he looks forward to working with faculty, staff, students, and community partners in developing grants and related projects. On the side, he is developing two, interrelated projects on xenophobia, and Black (moral) philosophy.