Owen Lynch
Owen M. Lynch (January 4, 1931 – April 26, 2013) was an American
Life
Owen Lynch was born on January 4, 1931, in
Between 1962 and 1964, Lynch conducted fieldwork in
Armed with his PhD, Lynch became an assistant professor at the Binghamton campus of State University of New York, holding the post from 1966 until his promotion to associate professor in 1969.[1] Also in 1966, he became a Seminar Associate at Columbia University Seminars and remained so for the next 20 years.[2]
Having conducted fieldwork among squatters in the slums of Dharavi in Bombay (now Mumbai) during 1970–1971, Lynch was appointed Charles F. Noyes Professor of Urban Anthropology at New York University (NYU) in 1974 and continued in that role until 2003.[2]
Lynch was also a
Further periods of fieldwork in India were undertaken by Lynch between 1988 and 1989, when he looked into the
Lynch, who held numerous roles with professional organisations during his academic career, retired from NYU as professor emeritus in 2003 and died, unmarried and childless but with many appreciative nieces and nephews, on April 26, 2013, in
Legacy
Lynch's research and fieldwork papers are held by the National Anthropological Archives.[2] In 2014, the Indian Social Science Association presented its inaugural Professor Owen M. Lynch Memorial Award.[1]
Works
Among Lynch's many publications are:
- The Politics of Untouchability (1969), Columbia University Press
- "Pilgrimage with Krishna, Sovereign of the Emotions" (July 1988), Contributions to Indian Sociology 22(2)
- Divine Passions: The Social Construction of Emotion in India (1992), University of California Press ISBN 978-0520066472(Editor)
- "Urban Anthropology, Postmodernist Cities, and Perspectives" (June 1994), City & Society 7(1)
- "Untouchables in India's Civil/Uncivil Democracy. A Review Article" (2001), Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology 66(2)