Bernardo E. Brown

Associate Professor of Anthropology

I am an anthropologist specialized in the culture and history of Catholic Sri Lanka and more broadly on the Anthropology of Christianity in South and Southeast Asia.

My current book project is titled “The Vocation Artisans: Catholic Priestly Formation in Sri Lanka.” Based on five years of ethnographic fieldwork conducted at Sri Lankan Catholic seminaries, the book focuses on how daily routines, practices of prayer and habits of religious devotion, enable the flourishing of a religious vocation in seminarians. The book shows the intricate ways in which spiritual meanings are intertwined with material and symbolic incentives to make the priesthood an attractive alternative for young Catholics.

I received a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Cornell University and an MA in International Affairs from The New School.

For more information on my research, please visit:

Initiative for the Study of Asian Catholics: https://www.isac-research.org/

I teach the following courses in the Anthropology Major:

ANT104: Approaches to Human Culture

ANT202: Anthropology of Religion

ANT214: Global Religious Movements in Asia

ANT304: Ethnology of South Asia

ANT311/2/3: Field Training in Anthropology

In 2022, I will be teaching a new course in Global Studies:

GLS102: Critical Globalization

Recent Publications:

2021 “Cultural Deference, Community Survival: Sri Lankan Catholicism and the Perils of Religious Nationalism.” Social Sciences and Missions.

2020 “Vocation for Travel. Catholic Priestly Training in Sri Lanka.” Religion 50(3).

2020 (with Leonard Yeo). “Navigating Spatial Constraints in the Religious Landscape of Singapore. A Glimpse into the Religious Real Estate Management of the Catholic Church.” SOJOURN-Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia 35(2): 271-309.

2018 “Unlikely Cosmopolitans: An Ethnographic Reflection on Belonging and Migration in Sri Lanka.” Anthropological Quarterly 91(1): 209-236.

2017 “In Search of the ‘Solemn’ with Sri Lankan Migrant Priests.” TAJA-The Australian Journal of Anthropology 28(2): 180-194.

2017 (with R. Michael Feener). “Introduction: Configuring Catholicism in the Anthropology of Christianity.” TAJA-The Australian Journal of Anthropology 28(2): 139-151.

2016 “Routines of Morality: Nurturing Familiar Values in Unfamiliar Lands” Ethnography 17(1): 3-21.