Prof. Patrick Eisenlohr


Patrick Eisenlohr heads the research group "Society and Culture in Modern India" .

Patrick Eisenlohr holds a PhD in anthropology from the University of Chicago and previously held positions at Utrecht University, Washington University in St. Louis, and New York University. His research focuses on atmospheres, especially in the sonic dimensions of religion, the anthropology of media, sound studies, media and religion, linguistic anthropology, language, religion, and citizenship, as well as language and diaspora.

He is author of Atmospheric Knowledge: Environmentality, Latency, and Sonic Multimodality (with Birgit Abels, University of California Press, 2025), , Sounding Islam: Voice, Media, and Sonic Atmospheres in an Indian Ocean World (University of California Press, 2018) and Little India: Diaspora, Time and Ethnolinguistic Belonging in Hindu Mauritius (University of California Press, 2006).


His articles have appeared in Cultural Anthropology, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, American Ethnologist, Public Culture, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Ethos, Anthropological Theory, Media, Culture & Society, Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, Language in Society, Archives de sciences sociales des religions, Anthropological Quarterly, Social Anthropology, Journal of Asian Studies, among other journals.

He received a five-year VIDI grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).

Together with other members of the research group "Society and Culture in Modern India" he directs Professor Eisenlohr addresses questions of religious and ethnic diversity in contemporary India and in Indian diasporas, with a particular emphasis on urban contexts and its transnational ramifications. The key themes for the research group are:


  • Media and religion
  • Transregional religious networks
  • Sonic dimensions of religion
  • Media, temporality, and aesthetics
  • Language and religion
  • Civic Islam and the public sphere
  • Religion and questions of citizenship in India and Indian diasporas