Daud Ali


Daud Ali is an American historian of Indian decent.

Early life

Daud Ali was born in Calcutta, India to a Bengali father and an American mother. He moved to Baltimore, United States when he was two years old. His Bengali father and his own interest in Indian philosophy led him to study South Asian history in college. He went on to study Sanskrit, Tamil and Indian philosophy. He obtained B.A. in English literature and religious studies at the College of William & Mary and then obtained M.A. in the history of religions at the University of Chicago Divinity School where he was a student of Ron Inden. His thesis on medieval South Indian history led him to a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, after which he taught history of ancient India for 14 years at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. Since 2009, he has been an Associate Professor in the Department of South Asia Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.
In 2018, he was working on Chola dynasty and had stumbled on works by Norbert Elias, which caught his and Burton Stein's interest.

Publications

Tours

He led an annual tour to southern India for Far Horizons Archaeological and Cultural Trips.