[Urbanstudy] Remembering James Heitzman

Wed Nov 26 08:07:38 IST 2008

Dear Curt and colleagues:

This H-ASIA post will be of sad interest to some of you.

Frank

Frank F. Conlon
Professor Emeritus of History, South Asian
      Studies & Comparative Religion
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195-3560      USA
Co-editor, H-ASIA
President, H-NET Humanities & Social Sciences Online
Managing Director, Bibliography of Asian Studies Online

H-ASIA
November 25, 2008

Remembering James Heitzman (October 27, 1950-November 15, 2008)

(x-post Indology-with editorial modifications)
***********************************************************************
From: christoph.emmrich at UTORONTO.CA

Obituary: James Heitzman

"James Heitzman (October 27, 1950-November 15, 2008), historian of South
Asia and urban studies scholar, passed away in Stanford hospital,
California, while receiving treatment for cancer. He received his Doctorate
in history from the University of Pennsylvania in 1985 and an M.S. in
Information Studies from Drexel University in 1989. He held numerous
professional appointments including as a research analyst in the Library of
Congress (1987-1988); a history professor in Cazenovia College, NY
(1989-1997) and Georgia State University, Atlanta (1997- 2004); and as the
Director of Summer Sessions, University of California, Davis (2004-2006). He
is remembered for his love of South Asia and his life-long commitment to
furthering knowledge of the region's history and society. His numerous
publications and research interests (in Buddhism, Chola history, the
medieval world, cities, Bangalore, science and technology) include books
such as _Gifts of Power_ (1997), _The World in the Year 1000_ (2003),
_Network City_ (2004), and _The City in South Asia_ (2008)."

(Re-printed from The Hindu, November 24th 2008)

For those of us who knew and worked closely with James this has come as a
sudden and sad loss. He was not just a fine scholar of medieval South India,
doing path-breaking work on issues of Chola historiography and agriculture,
but  a larger-than-life figure, a perceptive reader and editor of the works
of others and a staunch and loyal friend. He also had a wonderful and ironic
sense of humour -- particularly about the vagaries of the academic life --
which had so much defined his own existence. He is survived by his wife
Smriti Srinivas, Professor of Anthropology at the University of California,
Davis with whom he enjoyed an extraordinarily creative scholarly
collaboration in the last decades of his life and by his 3 children
including the youngest, one-year-old Maitreyi Heitzman.

Srilata Raman
Assistant Professor, Modern Hinduism
University of Toronto.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Ed. note: James Heitzman was a remarkable individual--a truly dedicated
scholar who entered the profession in a time of economic constraint, but who
continued as an active student of his field, making very important
contributions and expanding our understanding of pre-modern South Asia,
especially South India and to the dynamics of urbanism both in medieval
South India and in 21st century Bangalore.  That he be snatched by illness
at such a young age is one further illustration of the tragic consequences
of this Kali Yuga. I have listed some of his many publications below.
FFC

_The city in South Asia_
Abingdon, Oxon, England; New York: Routledge, 2008.
ISBN: 9780415343558 (hardback)
  9780203483282 (ebook)

_Network city : planning the information society in Bangalore_
New Delhi; New York : Oxford University Press, 2004.
ISBN: 0195666062 9780195666069

_The world in the year 1000_edited by James Heitzman, Wolfgang Schenkluhn.
Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2003
ISBN: 0761825614

_Gifts of power: lordship in an early Indian state_
Delhi; New York : Oxford University Press, 1997.
ISBN: 0195639782 9780195639780

_India : a country study_
(by James Heitzman;  Robert L Worden; Library of Congress. Federal Research
Division)
Washington, D.C.: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, 1996
  5th ed ISBN: 0844408336 9780844408330

_Bangladesh : a country study_
edited by James Heitzman and Robert L. Worden.
Federal Research Division, Library of Congress ;
2nd ed.
Washington, D.C. : Federal Research Division, 1989)
[Rev. ed. of: Area handbook for Bangladesh / coauthors, Richard F. Nyrop ...
et al. 1975.]
LCCN  89600298

"Middle Towns to Middle Cities in South Asia, 1800-2007"
_Journal of Urban History_ 35: 1 (2008): 15-38
ISSN: 0096-1442

"Warrior goddess versus bipedal cow: sport, space, performance and planning
in an Indian city" pp 139-172 in
_Subaltern sports: politics and sport in South Asia_, James Mills, editor.
London: Anthem Press, 2005
ISBN: 1843311674, 1843311682

"Urban geography and land measurement in the twelfth century: the case of
Kanchipuram" [with S. Rajagopal]
_Indian Economic and Social History Review_ 41: 3 (Jul-Sep 2004) 237-269
ISSN: 0019-4646

"Geographic information systems in India's 'Silicon Valley': the impact of
technology on planning Bangalore"
_Contemporary South Asia_ 12: 1 (Mar 2003) 57-84
ISSN: 0958-4935

"Intersecting paths in early South Asian historiography"
_Indian Economic and Social History Review_ (Delhi) 39: 1 (Jan-Mar 2002)
101-111.
ISSN: 0019-4646

"Urbanization and political economy in early South India: Kancipuram during
the Cola period" in Kenneth R. Hall _Structure and society in early South
India: essays in honour of Noboru Karashima_
New Delhi; New York : Oxford University Press, 2001.
ISBN: 0195651502 9780195651508

"Sports and Conflict in Urban Planning: The Indian National Games in
Bangalore"
_Journal of Sport & Social Issues_ 23: 1 (1999): 5-23
ISSN: 0193-7235

"State formation in South India, 850-1280" in Hermann Kulke, editor,
_The State in India, 1000-1700_
Delhi; New York: Oxford University Press, 1995
ISBN 0195631277 9780195631272

"Nepal : historical setting" in _Nepal and Bhutan : country studies_
(by Andrea Matles Savada;  Library of Congress. Federal Research Division)
Washington: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, 1993.
3rd ed
ISBN: 0844407771 9780844407777

"Ritual polity and economy: the transactional network of an imperial temple
in medieval South India"
_Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient_ 34: 1 (Feb 1991)
23-54
ISSN: 0022-4995

"Information Systems and Development in the Third World."
_Information Processing and Management_ 26:4 (1990) 489-502
ISSN: 0306-4573

"Temple urbanism in medieval south India" _Journal of Asian Studies_ 46: 4
(Nov 1987) 791-826
ISSN: 0021-9118

"State formation in South India, 850-1280"
_Indian Economic and Social History Review_ (Delhi) 24: 1 (Jan-Mar 1987)
35-61
ISSN: 0019-4646

"Early Buddhism, trade and empire" pp. 121-137 in
Kenneth A. R. Kennedy, Kenneth and Gregory L. Possehl, editors _
Studies in the archaeology and palaeoanthropology of South Asia_
New Delhi: Oxford & IBH: American Inst. of Indian Studies, 1984
LCCN 83906915

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