“During my field work in India, I developed a passion for preserving and curating at-risk archives in Indian languages.” – Gautham Reddy
Gautham Reddy (pronounced GOW-thum) has joined the International Area Studies Team as the new South Asian studies librarian. Previously he taught course on South Asian studies and religion at the University of Chicago, while studying as a PhD student. Gautham also worked for the University of Chicago Library as a research and cataloguing assistant and served as a volunteer archivist for the South Asian American Digital Archive.
Born in Breaux Bridge, LA, Gautham was raised in Minneapolis, MN. He received his bachelor’s degree in Asian studies and religious studies from St. Olaf College and his master’s degree in history of religion from the University of Chicago Divinity School. Soon, he will defend his PhD dissertation on Telugu literary culture and the history of print in colonial south India at the University of Chicago’s Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations.
Gautham loves to travel, having recently returned from a trip to Morrocco. He is a vegetarian and loves to experiment with a variety of foods in the kitchen. Gautham has studied multiple languages, including Sanskrit, Telugu, Hindi, and Urdu.
“During my field work in India, I developed a passion for preserving and curating at-risk archives in Indian languages,” says Gautham. “I am excited about making these endangered materials accessible to a larger audience and thinking about how they shape our ideas of South Asian history.”