Constantine Valenzuela Nakassis
Department of Anthropology, The University of Chicago
1126 E. 59th Street, Chicago, IL 60637 USA
email : cnakassi@uchicago.edu
Employment
• Assistant Professor (2012–) in the Department of Anthropology, Associate Faculty in Cinema and Media Studies and Comparative Human Development, The University of Chicago,
• Mellon Post-doctoral Fellow (2010–2012)
Department of Anthropology, The University of Chicago
Education
• PhD 2010 University of Pennsylvania, Department of Anthropology
• BA 2001 Magna Cum Laude, University of Pennsylvania, Double Major with distinctions — Psychology and Anthropology (concentration in Human Biology)
Research interests
Linguistic and cultural anthropology; Semiotics; Mass media; Film theory; Intellectual property law, brands, counterfeiting; youth culture; Tamil Nadu, India.
Books
• Nakassis, C. n.d. Onscreen/Offscreen, manuscript in preparation.
• Nakassis, C. 2016. Doing Style: Youth and Mass Mediation in South India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Published April 2016); Hyderabad, India: Orient Blackswan (Published June 2016).
* *– Read the introduction here.
* * – Interview for CaMP Anthropology (5.16.2016).
* * – தி இந்துயில் ஒரு செய்தி/பேட்டி (7.25.2016)
* * – Review by Kathryn Hardy, Anthropological Quarterly 89(3):910–916 (Summer 2016)
* * – Review by Maitrayee Deka, Hong Kong Review of Books (8.4.2016)
* * – Review by Sneha Annavarapu, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 40(1):200–202 (Winter 2017)
* * – Review by Nalini Rajan, The Book Review (2.2.2017)
* * – Review by Shakuntala Banaji, Economic and Political Weekly 52(16):27–28 (April 21, 2017)
* * – Review by Adrian Athique, Visual Anthropology Review 33(2):207–208 (Fall 2017).
* * – Review by Veena Hariharan, Contributions to Indian Sociology 52(1):99–102 (Winter 2018).
Articles
• Nakassis, C. 2020 (In press). “The Hero’s Mass and the Ontological Politics of the Image.” Journal of Cinema and Media Studies (formerly, Cinema Journal).
• Nakassis, C. and E. Annamalai. 2020 (In press). “Linguistic Diversity in South Asia, Reconsidered.” In J. Stanlaw, ed. The International Encyclopedia of Linguistic Anthropology. Wiley.
• Nakassis, C. 2019 (in press). “The Ontological Politics of the Spoof Image in Tamil Cinema.” New Review of Film and Television Studies 17(4).
• Nakassis, C. 2019. “Poetics of Praise and Image-Texts of Cinematic Encompassment.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 29(1):69–94.
• Nakassis, C. and Amanda Weidman. 2018. “Vision, Voice, and Cinematic Presence.” differences 29(3):107–136.
• Nakassis, C. 2018. “Indexicality’s Ambivalent Ground.” Special Issue – (Meta)Semiosis and Social Life: Essays in Honor of Michael Silverstein, Signs and Society 6(1):281–304.
• Nakassis, C. 2017. “Rajini’s Finger, Indexicality, and the Metapragmatics of Presence.” Signs and Society 5(2):201–242.
• Nakassis, C. 2016. “Scaling Red and the Horror of Trademark.” In E. Summerson Carr and Michael Lempert, eds. Scale: Discourse and Dimension in Social Life. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, pp. 159–184. *** The entire volume is available for download here.***
• Nakassis, C. 2016. “Linguistic Anthropology in 2015: Not the Study of Language.” American Anthropologist 118(2):330–345.
• Nakassis, C. 2015. “A Tamil-speaking Heroine.” Bioscope 6(2):165-186.
• Nakassis, C. 2014. “Suspended Kinship and Youth Sociality in Tamil Nadu, India.” Current Anthropology 55(2):175–199. JSTOR
• Nakassis, C. 2014. “Realism, On and Off the Screen.” In Anand Pandian, ed. Subramaniyapuram: The Tamil Film in English Translation. Chennai: Blaft Publications, pp. 217–223.
• Nakassis, C. 2013. “Materiality, Materialization. A Comment on Hull, Matthew. 2012. Government of Paper. Berkeley: University of California Press.” HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 3(3):399–406. pdf
• Nakassis, C. 2013. “The Quality of a Copy.” In T. Kuldova, ed. Fashion India: Spectacular Capitalism. Trondheim: Akademika forlag, pp. 142–165.
• Nakassis, C. and Llerena Searle. 2013. “Introduction: Social value projects in post-liberalisation India.” Contributions to Indian Sociology 47(2) (June):169-183,special issue, Social Value Projects in Post-liberalisation India (edited by C. Nakassis and Llerena Searle).
• Nakassis, C. 2013. “Youth Masculinity, ‘Style’, and the Peer Group in Tamil Nadu, India.” Contributions to Indian Sociology 47(2) (June):245-269, special issue, Social Value Projects in Post-liberalisation India (edited by C. Nakassis and Llerena Searle).
• Nakassis, C. 2013. “Para-s/cite, Part I. The Parasite.” The Semiotic Review (N.S.) 1 (May 2013). PDF
• Nakassis, C. 2013. “Para-s/cite, Part II. The Paracite.” The Semiotic Review (N.S.) 1 (June 2013). PDF
• Nakassis, C. 2013. “Citation and Citationality.” Signs and Society 1(1) (April):51-78.
• Nakassis, C. 2013. “Brand and Their Surfeits.” Cultural Anthropology, theme issue Brand Neoliberalism (edited by C. Nakassis), 28(1):111-126.
• Nakassis, C. 2013. “Introduction: Brand Neoliberalism.” Cultural Anthropology, theme issue Brand Neoliberalism (edited by C. Nakassis), 28(1):110.
• Nakassis, C. 2012. “Brand, Citationality, Performativity.” American Anthropologist 114(4):624-638.
• Nakassis, C. 2012. “Counterfeiting What? Aesthetics of Brandedness and BRAND in Tamil Nadu, India.” Anthropological Quarterly 85(3):701-722, Special Collection – Pirates and Piracy, Broadly Conceived.
• Nakassis, C. 2010. Youth and Status in Tamil Nadu, PhD thesis, University of Pennsylvania, Department of Anthropology.
• Nakassis, C. 2009. “Theorizing Realism Empirically.” New Cinemas 7(3): 211-235.
• Nakassis, C. and Dean, Melanie. 2007. “Desire, Youth, and Realism in Tamil Cinema.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology. 17(1): 77-104.
• Nakassis, C. and Snedeker, Jesse. 2002. “Beyond Sarcasm: Intonation and Context as Relational Cues in Children’s Recognition of Irony.” In Proceedings-of-the-Annual-Boston-University-Conference-on-Language-Development. 26(2): 429-440.
• Nakassis, C. 1982. Solution, 6321. Amer. Math. Monthly, 89:505.
Translations
• Hart, Kausalya, Nakassis, C, and Pandian, Anand. 2014. “Subramaniyapuram: The Screenplay (by M. Sasikumar).” In Anand Pandian, ed. Subramaniyapuram: The Tamil Film in English Translation. Chennai: Blaft Publications, pp. 1–205.
Book Reviews
• Nakassis, C. 2015. Review of LaDousa, C. (2014) Hindi Is Our Ground, English Is Our Sky. New York: Berghahn Books. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 25(3):358-360.
• Nakassis, C. 2015. Review of Clark- Decès, I. (2014) The Right Spouse: Preferential Marriages in Tamil Nadu. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Journal of Anthropological Research 71(2):268-270.
• Nakassis, C. 2012. Review of Annamalai, E. (2011) Social Dimensions of Modern Tamil. Chennai, India: Cre-A: . Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 22(3):261-263.
• Nakassis, C. 2012. Review of Sharma, N. (2010) Hip Hop Desis. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 22(3):277-279.
• Nakassis, C. (2005) “Formalizing Context.” Review of Gauker, C. (2003) Words without Meaning. Cambridge, MA : MIT Press. Theory and Psychology . 15(1): 128-131.
Working Papers (email cnakassi@uchicago.edu for a copy of these papers)
• Nakassis, C. “Poetics of Praise and Cinematic Encompassment.” Working Papers of the Chicago Tamil Forum – Poesis/Politics of Language and Praise in Tamilagam (May 25-27, 2017). Version: 6.1.2017
• Nakassis, C. “Spoofs and the Politics of the Film Image’s Ontology in Tamil Cinema.” Working Papers of the Chicago Tamil Forum – Politics of Media, Media of Politics (May 19-21, 2016). Version: 12.15.2016
• Nakassis, C. “Bus Routes.”
Other
• “For Barney.” Remembrance and introduction read at Remembering John Bernard Bate (1960-2016), a memorial session of the Chicago Tamil Forum, May 20, 2016. (Also included in the .pdf are remembrances from Paul Friedrich, James Fernandez, E. Annamalai, Whitney Cox, among others.)
Presentations
• Panel on “Publics.” Berkeley Sawyer Seminar, University of California – Berkeley, November 14–15, 2018.
• “Citing and Being.” CNRS Seminar – Language practices as social practices – fieldwork, method, theory, at Le laboratoire de sciences du langage Structure et Dynamique des Langues (Unité Mixte de Recherche du CNRS, de l’INALCO et de l’IRD), Paris, France, June 8, 2018. (Invited talk)
• “The Hero’s Mass and the Ontological Politics of the Image in Tamil Cinema.” Chicago Tamil Forum – Mass Publicity and Politics in Tamilagam, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL May 24–26, 2018.
• “Image-Texts and Image-Acts of Presence and the Real.” Paper presented at the Inaugural Conference of the Society for Linguistic Anthropology, Philadelphia, PA, March 10, 2018.
• “Further Thoughts on ‘Linguistic Anthropology in 2015: Not the Study of Language.’ Plenary Session, “New Horizons In and For Linguistic Anthropology,” Inaugural Conference of the Society for Linguistic Anthropology, Philadelphia, PA, March 8, 2018.
• “Roundtable: Linguistic Anthropology in Asia.” Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs. University of Notre Dame, September 16, 2017.
• “Adulation and Encompassment in Tamil Cinema.” Langage et Société: Un dialogue entre Paris et Chicago.” University of Chicago Center in Paris, France, June 12–14, 2017. Video here.
• “Poetics of Praise and Cinematic Encompassment.” Chicago Tamil Forum – Poesis/Politics of Language and Space in Tamilagam, a workshop in honor of John Bernard Bate (1960–2016). May 25–27, 2017.
• “Horizons of Semiosis” (Commentary paper on the panel: Bounding Identities and Identifying Boundaries: Predestined Social Roles), Michicagoan Graduate Student Conference, Ann Arbor, MI, May 5–6, 2017.
• “The Hero’s Mass and the Ontological Politics of the Image in Tamil Cinema.” Paper presented at New York University, Media, Culture, and Communication department (invited), December 8, 2016; presented at Mass Culture Workshop, The University of Chicago, December 2, 2016; paper presented at Indiana University – Bloomington, March 9, 2017.
• Commentary on Webb Keane’s Ethical Life. American Anthropological Association, Minneapolis, MI, November 17, 2016.
• “Rajini’s Finger, Indexicality, and the Metapragmatics of Presence.” Paper presented to the Semiotics of the Image workshop (C. Nakassis – organizer), October 14–15, 2016.
• “Introduction: Opening Up the Indexicality of the Image, Again,” a roundtable at the Franke Institute of Humanities (C. Nakassis – organizer), October 13, 2016.
• Remembering John Bernard Bate (1960–2016), a memorial session of the Chicago Tamil Forum. Introductory comments and remembrances. May 20, 2016, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
• “Spoofs and the Ontology of the Film Image in Tamil Cinema.” Paper presented at the Chicago Tamil Forum workshop (organizer, paper participant), University of Chicago, May 19–21, 2016.
• “Onscreen/Offscreen: Ontologies of the Image in South Indian Cinema.” Linguistic Anthropology Working Group, Department of Anthropology, University of California – Berkeley, December 4, 2015 (invited).
• “Identity / Quality, a commentary on Regimes of Iconicity.” Commentary paper for the panel “Regimes of Iconicity,” American Anthropological Association, Denver, CO, November 18, 2015.
• “Spoofs and the Politics of the Film Image’s Ontology in Tamil Cinema.” Paper presented for the panel, “Tamilness in Cinema: Deconstruction, Interrogation, and Entrenchment of Stereotypes,” Annual Conference on South Asia, Madison, WI, October 25, 2015.
• “Bus Routes.” Paper presented at the Chicago Tamil Forum workshop (organizer, paper participant), University of Chicago, May 21–23, 2015.
• “Item Numbers and the Ontology of the Image in Tamil Cinema.” Department of Anthropology and the South Asia Studies Program Colloquium, University of California – San Diego, April 13, 2015 (invited).
• “The Style of Tamil Youth Linguistic Practice, On and Off the Screen.” Workshop, Linguistic Anthropology interest group, University of California – San Diego, April 13, 2015 (invited).
• Roundtable discussant, Neoliberal Frontiers” (with Susan Gal, Michael Silverstein, and Susanne Cohen). Neoliberal Frontiers: Language and Political Economy Revisited, The University of Chicago, 6 March, 2015 (co-organizer with Andrew Graan and Susan Gal).
• “The Finger.” Paper presented for the panel: “Parsing the Body,” American Anthropological Association meetings, Washington, DC, December 4, 2014.
• “Bringing the Distant Voice Close: Language, Youth, and Belonging in Urban Tamil Nadu.” Tamil Studies Conference, The University of Toronto, May 17, 2014.
• “NEED FLUENCY”: English-Tamil Code-Mixing and the Double Voicing of Youth “Style.” ISLA Language and Linguistics Group, University of Notre Dame, March 21, 2014. (invited)
• “‘Item Numbers’ and the Performativity of the Image in Tamil Film.” Department of Anthropology, Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, University of Notre Dame, March 20, 2014 (invited); presented at the Chicago Tamil Forum (May 29-31, 2014)
• “What is a brand that a nation could be one? And what is a nation that it could be branded?” Discussant paper presented for the panel: “Semiotics of Nation Branding,” American Anthropological Association meetings, Chicago, IL November 24, 2013.
• “The Horror of Trademark.” Paper presented for the panel: “The Pragmatics of Scale,” American Anthropological Association meetings, Chicago, IL November 21, 2013.
• “Symptomatic Interdiscursivity, Feeling, and the Time of Enregisterment.” Discussant paper for the panel: “Space, Scale, and Stratification.” Michicagoan Graduate Student Conference, Ann Arbor, MI May 11, 2013.
• “The Beyond of Parody.” Discussant paper for the panel: “Parody and Sincerity in Contemporary Political Culture.” AES/APLA Conference, Chicago, IL April 13, 2013.
• “Roundtable discussion: Trans-communications and the productions of sociality” (with Miyako Inuoue, Michael Fisch, and Phillip Grant). Trans-Science Conference, The University of Chicago, 15 December, 2012.
• “From English to Tamil on Music Television.” Paper presented at the Tamil Studies Workshop, The University of Chicago, 19 October 2012.
• “Disfluent Speech, Foreign Bodies: Femininity and Film in Tamil Nadu, India.” Paper presented at The Annual Conference on South Asia (Panel: Femininity, Transgression and Embodiment in Contemporary India), Madison, WI, 12 October 2012.
• “Ontology, Brand, Citationality: Brand and Brandedness in Tamil Nadu, India.” Paper presented at the European Association for Social Anthropology meetings, July 12, 2012, Nanterre, France.
• “Commenting on Uttering Others.” Discussant comments on the panel Uttering Others, Michicagoan Graduate Student Conference in Linguistic Anthropology,” University of Chicago, May 12, 2012.
• “Suspended Kinship and Youth Sociality in Tamil Nadu, India.” Paper presented at the Tamil Studies Workshop, The University of Chicago, 2 March 2012.
• “Item Numbers, Performativity, and the Ontology of the Filmic Image in South Indian Film.” Paper presented at Audible Intimacies: A Symposium on Song in South Indian Cinema, The University of Chicago, 16 February 2012; presented at the Berkeley Tamil Studies Conference, Berkeley California, 20–22 April 2012.
• “Hybrid performativities, English use, and youth peer groups in Tamil Nadu, India.” Paper presented at the American Anthropological Association Meetings, Montreal, 18 November 2011; presented at the Tamil Studies Workshop, The University of Chicago, 11 November 2011.
• “Classing, Middling, Spacing.” Commentary paper for the panel Spatial Practice and New Middle Classes: Situating Class in the Postcolonial City, Anthropological Association Meetings, Montreal, 19 November 2011.
• “The Aesthetics of Realisms: Between the “New Face” and the “Super Star.” Paper presented to Toronto Tamil Studies Conference, University of Toronto, May 14, 2011.
• “Brand Desires, Anxieties, Ignorances: Young Men’s Peer Groups and the Aesthetics of Brandedness in Tamil Nadu, India.” Paper presented to the Semiotics Workshop, University of Chicago, April 7, 2011.
• “Status through the Screen: Rethinking Realism in Tamil Commercial Cinema.” Paper presented to the University of Chicago, South Asia Languages and Civilization, March 10, 2011. (invited)
• “Youth Status, Style, and Branded Forms in South India.” Paper presented to the Chicago-area Consumer Culture Community (C4), DePaul University, March 4, 2011.
• “Status through the Screen: Audiences and Actors in Commercial Tamil Cinema.” Paper presented to the University of Chicago, Department of Anthropology, February 28, 2011. (invited)
• “Style, Brand, and Globalization in Tamil Nadu, India.” Paper presented to the University of Oklahoma, School of International and Area Studies. December 16, 2010. (invited)
• “Counterfeiting What? Aesthetics of Brandedness and BRAND in Tamil Nadu, India.” American Anthropological Association Meetings. (New Orleans, LA), November 17, 2010 (Panel: “Brands, Counterfeiting, Authenticity, Authority”; organized by Constantine V. Nakassis).
• “Youth Status and Hero-Oriented, Commercial Film in Tamil Nadu, India.” The Annual Conference on South Asia (Madison, WI), October 17, 2010 (Panel: “Media and New Technologies”).
• “Youth Masculinity, “Style” and the Brand in Tamil Nadu, India.” American Anthropological Association Meetings (Philadelphia, PA). December 5, 2009. (Panel: Self-fashioning Projects and Class Anxiety in Contemporary Urban India; organized by L. Searle, M. Dean, and C. Nakassis)
• “Notes on higher education in Madurai , Tamil Nadu.” College Education: Challenges of the Market, the Academia and the Political Society. (Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, Bangalore , India ). June 20–21, 2008.
• “Youth masculinity and style in Madurai , Tamil Nadu.” AIIS Junior Fellows Annual Conference (Gurgaon , India) January 7-8, 2008.
• “The meaningfulness of eating disorders.” Semiotics Workshop (University of Pennsylvania , Philadelphia , PA). December 11, 2001.
• “Beyond Sarcasm: Intonation and Context as Relational Cues in Children’s Recognition of Irony.” Annual-Boston-University-Conference-on-Language-Development (BUCLD, Fall 2001).