Biography
I was born in Melbourne and lived in Burwood till I was 10. Moved to Adelaide where I completed high school and university. Completed PhD at University College, London. Returned to Australia to a tutorship then postdoctoral fellowship at University of Melbourne. Then I took a lectureship at James Cook University where I ended up as Head of the School of Anthropology, Archaeology & Sociology. Joined Deakin in mid-2005 to rebuild the Anthropology program and became Deputy Head of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences in 2012.
In my anthroppology I focus on the nature of religion, the state and violence in Sri Lanka and south India. I teach at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Read more on Rohan's profileResearch interests
Religious interaction, religious pluralism and new religious movements.
Ritual, festival and pilgrimage.
Anthropological consultancy and expert knowledge.
State violence and ethnic conflict.
Affiliations
Affiliate Member, Alfred Deakin Research Institute
Teaching interests
Political anthropology, medical anthropology, anthropology of religion, introduction to anthropology
Units taught
ASS101 Anthropology 1A; ASS206 Medical Anthropology; ASS329 Anthropology of Crime & Violence; ASS706 Poverty, Health & Illness
Knowledge areas
Anthropology
Professional activities
Editorial board of Social Analysis
Projects
Publications
Suicide bombers and social death
Rohan Bastin
(2022), Vol. 20, pp. 109-128, Extremism, Society, and the State, New York, B1
"The State Will Have No Religion": Secularism and Conversion in Post-Nation-State India
Rohan Bastin
(2022), pp. 103-136, Rethinking Sovereignty: Religious Boundaries and Transgressions in South, Southeast Asia and Australasia, Chiang Mai, Thailand, B1
Historical threads of Buddhist-Muslim relations in Sri Lanka
R Bastin, P de Silva
(2020), pp. 25-62, Buddhist-Muslim relations in a Theravada world, Singapore, B1
Ethnicity and Violence in Sri Lanka: An Ethnohistorical Narrative
Premakumara De Sila, Farzana Haniffa, Rohan Bastin
(2019), pp. 633-654, The Palgrave Handbook of Ethnicity, Berlin, Germany, B1
An obscure desire for catastrophe
Rohan Bastin
(2018), Vol. 16, pp. 169-182, Moral anthropology: a critique, New York, N.Y., B1
Military tourism as a state-effect in the Sri Lankan civil war
R Bastin, Premakumara De Silva
(2018), pp. 101-124, Military pilgrimage and battlefield tourism: commemorating the dead, Abingdon, Eng, B1
Recognizing the spatial and territorial nature of religious communities in Colombo, Sri Lanka
R Bastin
(2016), pp. 97-114, Religion and urbanism : reconceptualising sustainable cities for South Asia, London, Eng., B1
Secularized sovereignty and sacrifice: a ritualistic point of view
R Bastin
(2016), pp. 69-94, Puissance et impuissance de la valeur: l'anthropologie comparative de Louis Dumont, Paris, France, B1
Dynamics of Fragility: Secret Victories and Political Awakenings in Sri Lanka's Civil War
R Bastin
(2014), pp. 180-201, Development in Difficult Sociopolitical Contexts: Failed, Fragile, Pariah, Basingstoke, Eng., B1-1
Development aid, civil war and the containers of capitalism
R Bastin
(2013), pp. 69-89, Critical reflections on development, London, B1
R Bastin
(2013), Vol. 4, pp. 21-31, Religion and society, New York, NY, C1
Empty spaces and the multiple modernities of nationalism
R Bastin
(2012), pp. 319-338, Legends of people myths of state : violence, intolerance, and political culture in Sri Lanka and Australia, New York, N.Y., B1
Saints, sites and religious accommodation in Sri Lanka
R Bastin
(2012), pp. 97-117, Sharing the Sacra : The politics and pragmatics of intercommunal relations around holy places, New York, N.Y., B1
Sri Lankan civil society and its fanatics
R Bastin
(2010), pp. 123-140, Contemporary religiosities : emergent socialities and the post-nation-state, New York, N.Y., B1
'Royal science' and civil war in Sri Lanka : a comment on S. Goonatilake
R Bastin
(2009), Vol. 43, pp. 443-467, Contributions to Indian sociology, New Delhi, India, C1-1
Sri Lankan civil society and its fanatics
R Bastin
(2009), Vol. 53, pp. 123-140, Social analysis, New York, N.Y., C1-1
The Hindu temple and the aesthetics of the imaginary
R Bastin
(2005), pp. 89-108, Aesthetics and performance : formations of symbolic constuction and experience, New York, N.Y., B1
R Bastin
(2005), pp. 1-132, Retreat of the social: the rise and rise of reductionism, New York, N.Y., B1
Hindu temples in the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict : capture and excess
R Bastin
(2005), Vol. 49, pp. 45-66, Social analysis, New York, N.Y., C1
R Bastin
(2004), Vol. 48, pp. 205-213, Social Analysis, New York, N.Y., C1-1
Surrender to the market : thoughts on anthropology, the body shop, and intellectuals
R Bastin
(2003), Vol. 14, pp. 19-38, The Australian journal of anthropology, Richmond, Vic., C1-1
Expert knowledge: first world peoples, consultancy, and anthropology
R Bastin, B Morris
(2003), Vol. 47, pp. 77-83, Social analysis, New York, N. Y., C1-1
Sorcerous technologies and religious innovation in Sri Lanka
R Bastin
(2002), pp. 155-174, Beyond rationalism : rethinking magic, witchcraft, and sorcery, New York, N. Y., B1-1
Sorcerous technologies and religious innovation in Sri Lanka
R Bastin
(2002), Vol. 46, pp. 155-174, Social analysis, New York, N.Y., C1-1
Funded Projects at Deakin
Australian Competitive Grants
Managing Plural Religious Sites and Social Tolerance in South India and Sri Lanka
A/Prof Rohan Bastin
ARC - Discovery Projects
- 2008: $48,176
- 2007: $20,405
Religious Innovation and Social Reform in Sri Lanka
A/Prof Rohan Bastin
ARC - Discovery Projects
- 2017: $123,987
- 2016: $171,334
- 2015: $138,186
Supervisions
Tisara Munasinghe Arachchi Lekamlage
Thesis entitled: Shifting Identities: The Corporeal Simulation and Trans-contextualization in Sri Lankan Low-Country Drumming
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Samson Keam
Thesis entitled: Revitalising Hydraulic Civilisation: Crisis and state power in post-conflict Sri Lanka
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Mudiyansele Gedara Lalantha Premarathna
Thesis entitled: New Forms of Buddhism in Sri Lanka
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Catherine West
Thesis entitled: Colombo Transformed: Urbanisation and Religious Pluralism in Sri Lanka
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Ben Vecchiet
Thesis entitled: Pada Yatra: The Tamil Hindu Pilgrim and Pilgrimage in Post-War Sri Lanka
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Jenny Norris-Green
Thesis entitled: South Australian Quakers and Unitarians: A Comparative Study in Modernity
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Martin Hardie
Thesis entitled: Whereabouts are We?
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Benjamin Russell Hall
Thesis entitled: The rise of the anglican orthodox church in solomon islands
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Marina Gold
Thesis entitled: Perpetual Revolution: People and State in Socialist Cuba
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Humanities and Social Sciences
John Robert Bensley
Thesis entitled: The Relationship Between Human Beings and Technological Systems
Doctor of Philosophy, School of History, Heritage and Society
Heather Threadgold
Thesis entitled: What the Stones Tell Us: Gulidjan Country Stone Sites and Living Spaces
Doctor of Philosophy (Architecture and Built Environment), School of Architecture and Built Environment
Matthew Thomas Phillips
Thesis entitled: Come Together Right Now Over Me: The Bush Doof - An Aesthetic Experiment in Human Being and Being Together
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Praveena Rajkobal
Thesis entitled: The Sarvodaya Movement: Holistic Development and Risk Governance
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Dianne Ashworth
Thesis entitled: Relating Trainees' Personal Development to Their Leeuwin II Ocean Adventure
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Ruth Jackson
Thesis entitled: (Un)safe Routes: Maternal Mortality and Ethiopia's Development Agenda
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Humanities and Social Sciences