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Francis Cody is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology and the Asian Institute at the University of Toronto, serving as the Director of the Dr. David Chu Program in Contemporary Asian Studies and the Centre for South Asian Studies. Since beginning his teaching career in 2008, his research primarily explores the intersections of language, politics, and media in southern India, particularly focusing on Tamil Nadu. His work has significantly examined citizenship, literacy, and social movement politics through extensive fieldwork in rural Pudukkottai, culminating in his book 'Light Knowledge: Literacy Activism Politics Writing South India' published by Cornell University Press in 2013, which won the 2014 Edward Sapir Book Prize from the Society for Linguistic Anthropology. His recent research is funded by a five-year SSHRC-Insight Research Grant and investigates the emergence of populist democracy and transformations in political publicity within Tamil and English news media. His overall body of work contributes to a transdisciplinary approach that elaborates critical social theories in the context of mass mediation and politics in the postcolonial world.
Department of Sociology