Graduate Student
Sociocultural Anthropology
Fields of Interest
Biography
M.A., South Asia Studies, University of Washington, 2021
B.A., Political Science, Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies, Vanderbilt University, 2017
Urdu Language Fellowship, American Institute of Indian Studies, Lucknow, 2017, 2019
Urdu Language Fellowship, American Institute of Pakistan Studies, Lahore, 2017
Visiting Student, University of Edinburgh, 2015
Curriculum Vitae
(252.98 KB)
My work examines the role of heat as a social, political, and ecological actor in modern South Asia.
You can find my writing in Anthropological Quarterly, South Asia: The Journal of South Asian Studies, as well as in an edited volume from Vernon Press entitled Lost Kingdom: Animal Death in the Anthropocene.
I live and work in Seattle as a guest on the occupied homelands of Coast Salish peoples.
Research
Selected Research
- Tess Beschel, María Elena García, Nastasia Paul-Gera, J. Shelby House and Rachel Ann Rothenberg “‘The end of nature’: pedagogies of grief and more-than-human relations," in Lost Kingdom: Animal Death in the Anthropocene, eds. Arianne Conty and Wendy Wiseman (Delaware: Vernon Press, forthcoming).
- House, J. Shelby. Review of Animal Enthusiasms: Beyond Cage and Leash in Rural Pakistan by Muhammad Kavesh. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 45, no. 2 (March 2022): 394-395, https://doi.org/10.1080/00856401.2022.2040814.
- House, J. Shelby. Review of Crooked Cats: Beastly Encounters in the Anthropocene by Nayanika Mathur. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 45, no. 5 (Aug 2022): 944-946, https://doi.org/10.1080/00856401.2022.2107848.
- House, J. Shelby. Review of Uncivil City: Ecology, Equity and the Commons in Delhi by Amita Baviskar, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 44, no. 5 (Sept 2021): 1021-1022, DOI: 10.1080/00856401.2021.1970876 Download PDF
- J. Shelby House. "Viral Ethnographies: Humans, Animals, and One Health Governance in a Zoonotic Age.” Review essay of Rabies in the Streets: Interspecies Camaraderie in Urban India by Deborah Nadal and Viral Economies: Bird Flu Experiments in Vietnam by Natalie Porter. Anthropological Quarterly 93(4): 767-778.Download PDFAdviser: Radhika Govindrajan
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- House, J. Shelby. Zoo, Circus, Menagerie, Prison: Multispecies Captivity and Human-Animal Relations at Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo. Barclay Simpson Scholarship in Public, UW Simpson Center for the Humanities, Office of the Provost. Ongoing pre-dissertation pilot research, 2023-present.
Courses Taught
Spring 2026
Winter 2025
Spring 2023
Winter 2023
Additional Courses
Elementary Hindi (HINDI 101, 102, 103)
The Anthropology of Love & Sex (ANTH 269)
The Cultural Politics of Diet & Nutrition (ANTH 311)
Human Rights Law in Culture & Practice (ANTH 323, LSJ 321)
Intermediate Urdu (URDU 201)
Introduction to Public Speaking (COM 220)
Introduction to Environmental Anthropology (ANTH 210)
Resources & Related Links
Affiliations
Home Department
Professional Affiliations
American Institute of Indian Studies, American Institute of Pakistan Studies