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Gita Pai

Professor
History University of Wisconsin-La Crosse

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Gita Pai

Professor

History

Specialty area(s)

South Asia (diaspora, gender, material culture, political history, religion, and visual culture); British Empire; Global Studies

Director, International & Global Studies Program*

~ on sabbatical leave until fall 2027 ~

Brief biography

Gita V. Pai is a cultural historian of South Asia—a region home to roughly one-quarter of the world’s population that generally comprises Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Over six million people in the U.S. share this demographic, including her: a Texas native born to South Indian immigrants and raised in Northern California. She is a two-time recipient of the ALANA Phenomenal Woman Award (2019, 2024), presented by UW-La Crosse's Asian, Latinx, African, and Native American students, honoring her teaching, scholarship, and service to the campus community.

For 2026–2027, she is a Fulbright-Nehru Scholar affiliated with the French Institute of Pondicherry, researching her second book project in Tamil Nadu, India.

Education

• Ph.D. South Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley 
• M.A. South Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley
• M.S. Education, California State University, Hayward
• B.A. English and Education, Hunter College (C.U.N.Y.)

Career

Teaching history

Her courses primarily examine the history of South Asia and its diaspora, alongside thematic topics such as religion, politics, and gender in the early modern, colonial, and postcolonial eras. Drawing on literary, visual, historical, ethnographic, and cinematic texts, she encourages students to study the past from multiple perspectives—social, economic, cultural, environmental, and political—and to understand their contemporary world as a product of historical processes. As director of the International & Global Studies Program, she also teaches its foundational and capstone courses.

@ UW-La Crosse
World History (HIS 110)  IN the NEWS!  1   2   3
How We Got Here: History of Today's Global Issues (HIS 195)
Historiography and Historical Method (HIS 200)
Survey of Asia (HIS 250)
History of Hinduism (HIS 328)
Modern South Asia (HIS 363)
Gandhi and the World (HIS 364)
Women in South Asia (HIS 383)
British Empire (HIS 410)
Religion and Conflict in Modern South Asia (HIS 415)
History Research Seminar (HIS 490)
Engaging Global Challenges and Opportunities (INS 494)

@ UC Berkeley
Survey of India (HIST 11)
Research Seminar (HIST 101)
Proseminar: Gandhi (HIST 103)
Modern South Asia (HIST 114B)

Professional history

• UW-La Crosse
Assistant/Associate/Full Professor, History 2010-present
Director, International & Global Studies 2017-present    *For AY 2026-2027, contact Elizabeth Peacock
Affiliated Faculty, Race, Gender, & Sexuality Studies 2011-present

• UW-Madison
Affiliated Faculty, Center for South Asia 2026-present

• French Institute of Pondicherry
Research Fellow, USIEF's Fulbright-Nehru Program 2016-2017, 2026-2028
Research Fellow, American Institute of Indian Studies 2022-2023 

• Yale University
Summer Scholar, National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute 2018      

• UC Berkeley
Visiting Assistant Professor, History 2012-2013
Instructor, South Asian Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies, and History of Art 2003-2009

Research and publishing

Her research, for the most part, explores the intersection of religion, aesthetics, and material culture in southeastern India (modern-day Tamil Nadu). She is currently completing a book manuscript, In Pursuit of Dancing Śiva: The History of India’s Iconic Cultural Treasure, which traces a popular temple icon from medieval Tamil devotionalism to modern restitution disputes. 

Her work has been supported by grants and fellowships from the American Association of University Women, the American Institute of Indian Studies, the Friends of the Princeton University Library, the Fulbright-Hays Program, the Fulbright-Nehru Program (twice), the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute, the Townsend Center for the Humanities at UC Berkeley, and UW-La Crosse (Faculty Research Grants and International Scholarship Grants).

• Monograph
Architecture of Sovereignty: Stone Bodies, Colonial Gazes, and Living Gods in South India (Cambridge University Press, 2023).

• Articles, chapters, essays, reviews, translations
"Activist Authors, Duty-Bound Arjuna, and Selfless Action in Early Indian Nationalism,” in Mythologizing in South Asian Traditions: Myth, Gender, Power, and Politics, ed. Diana Dimitrova (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025), 181-219. 

“Screening Photographs: Global Tourism and Cultural Heritage in South India,” PLATFORM, December 9, 2024, https://www.platformspace.net/home/screening-photographs-global-tourism-and-cultural-heritage-in-south-india.

“Viral Vilification,” in Media Narratives and the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Asian Experience, eds. Shubhda Arora and Keval J. Kumar (Routledge, 2024), 187-196.

“Hearing Voices,” in Reflections on Women Rewrite America: Transformative Learning in the Humanities (blog), CUNY Academic Commons, February 22, 2022, https://transform.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2022/02/22/reflections-on-women-rewrite-america-transformative-learning-in-the-humanities-series/.

“On being Asian American in La Crosse: A look at history, population growth, and a critical examination of the model minority myth,” with Gerald Iguchi, Currents: University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Blog, February 18, 2022, https://www.uwlax.edu/currents/on-being-asian-american-in-la-crosse/. In print and online without hyperlinks as “Now U Know: On Being Asian American in La Crosse,” with Gerald Iguchi, La Crosse Tribune, February 2, 2022, B3, https://lacrossetribune.com/news/local/now-u-know-on-being-asian-american-in-la-crosse/article_4cda7303-a23d-5244-86c3-980307a08835.html.

“Art and architecture of the Vijayanagara empire,” in Smarthistory, October 25, 2021, https://smarthistory.org/art-and-architecture-of-vijayanagara-empire/. Reproduced for Khan Academy, Course: Art of Asia, Unit 7: South Asia 1500-1857 C.E. as "Art and architecture of Vijayanagara empire,"  https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-asia/south-asia/x97ec695a:1500-1850-deccan-south/a/art-and-architecture-of-vijayanagara-empire.

"When humans pose as Hindu gods," in Rethinking the Body in South Asian Traditions, ed. Diana Dimitrova (Routledge, 2021), 116-136. Paperback in 2022.

"How do pandemics change us?" with Kjerstin Lang and Penelope Hardy, Currents: University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Blog, June 21, 2021, https://www.uwlax.edu/currents/how-do-pandemics-change-us/.

“From warrior queen to Śiva’s consort to political pawn: the genesis and development of a local goddess in Madurai,” in Divinizing in South Asian Traditions, eds. Diana Dimitrova and Tatiana Oranskaia (Routledge, 2018), 59-70. Paperback in 2020.

"Two sides of the 'India's daughters' coin," Vidura-A Journal of the Press Institute of India 9, no. 1 (2017): 11-12.

“An Imperial Japanese Visitor in Colonial India: Exchange, Resistance, and Formations of Asian Modernity,” Prabuddha Bharata ('Awakened India') 122, no. 1 (2017): 185-196. Issue: Special edition on Sister Nivedita aka Margaret E. Noble.

“Re-Enchantment in the Museum: Gaṇeśa, Hindu Art and the Living Divine,” Journal of Curatorial Studies 5, no. 2 (2016): 162-185.

“Producing heritage: culture as commodity in Madurai,” International Journal of Tourism Anthropology 5, no. 1/2 (2016): 47-70. Issue: “Sites of Religion, Sites of Heritage: Exploring the Interface between Religion and Heritage in Tourist Destinations.”

“Orwell’s Reflections on Saint Gandhi,” Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies 40, no. 1 (2014): 51-77. Issue: “Orienting Orwell: Asian and Global Perspectives on George Orwell.”

Review of Faisal Devji, The Impossible Indian: Gandhi and the Temptation of Violence (Harvard University Press, 2012), History: Review of New Books 42, no. 1 (2014): 30-31.

Vikrama Cholan Ulaa by Ottakkuthar, (Tamil) trans. with Kausalya Hart (Dhwani Books, 2003).

• Public-facing scholarship
Desi Dynamos: Stories of Indian-American Trailblazers S1: E5, interview by Dr. Meenakshi Anantram, The Meenamma Show, November 1, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aKzDWvLE7c.

Monuments Sacrés: Temples d’Asie: Les hommes, la nature et les dieux (Sacred Spaces-Temples of Asia: Humans, Nature, and Gods), directed by Véronique Legendre (ARTE France and ZED, 2018 & CuriosityStream, 2019). on location photo   promo trailer

Kudos

awarded

Gita Pai, History and International & Global Studies, received a Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship (Research) for a second time. She will use the award from the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program to conduct research in south India during her 2026-2027 sabbatical, while affiliated with the French Institute of Pondicherry. The fellowship is managed by the United States-India Educational Foundation (USIEF), a binational organization funded and governed equally by both governments to promote mutual understanding through educational and cultural exchanges. 

Submitted on: July 7

presented

Gita Pai, History and International & Global Studies, presented "Adorning an Adored Goddess in Madurai" at the Conference on the Study of Religions of India (CSRI) on June 26 at the University of California, Davis.

Submitted on: June 28

served

Gita Pai, History, served as session chair and moderator for "Religious Places and Sacred Spaces in the Diaspora" at the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) 79th Annual International Conference on April 17 in Mexico City. This session explored how immigrants, migrants and refugees in the diaspora engage with religious places and sacred spaces — materialized in the form of the built environment — to affirm their traditional identity, maintain transnational family ties, and foster cultural connections.

Submitted on: April 21

presented

Gita Pai, History, presented "Sovereignty’s Traces in a South Indian Temple" at the College Art Association (CAA) 114th Annual Conference on Friday, Feb. 20 in Chicago. Her paper was selected for the National Committee for the History of Art (NCHA)-sponsored panel entitled "Sovereignty and the Built Environment."

Submitted on: Feb. 20

presented

Gita Pai, History, presented "#BringOurGodsHome: Political mobilization and civic engagement in reclaiming India’s stolen cultural heritage" at the 28th European Conference on South Asian Studies (ECSAS), held at Heidelberg University on Oct. 3 in Germany.

Submitted on: Oct. 7, 2025

presented

Gita Pai, History, presented "'Hordes of Hindus': South Asians in the United States, 1900s and today" at the 118th Annual Meeting of the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association on July 31 at Santa Clara University.

Submitted on: Aug. 4, 2025

published

Gita Pai, History, authored the chapter "Activist Authors, Duty-Bound Arjuna, and Selfless Action in Early Indian Nationalism" in Mythologizing in South Asian Traditions: Myth, Gender, Power, and Politics published on May 1 by Palgrave Macmillan.

Submitted on: May 5, 2025

interviewed

Gita Pai, History, was interviewed by Dr. Meenakshi Anantram of The Meenamma Show for her Desi Dynamos: Stories of Indian-American Trailblazers on Nov. 1.

Submitted on: Dec. 9, 2024

published

Gita Pai, History, authored the article "Screening photographs: Global tourism and cultural heritage in south India" in PLATFORM, published on Monday, Dec. 9 by the open digital venue for exchanging new ideas about working with, researching, teaching, and writing about buildings, spaces, and landscapes.

Submitted on: Dec. 9, 2024

presented

Gita Pai, History, presented "From marketplace to museum: Global tourism, cultural heritage, and economic encounters at a south Indian temple" at the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) 2024 Virtual Conference on Thursday, Sept. 19 online.

Submitted on: Sept. 19, 2024