51茶馆

Arif Hayat Nairang is a sociocultural anthropologist interested in virtual cultures, studies of play and humor, anthropology of emotions, and environmental anthropology. His book manuscript, Surplus Life: Play and Laughter in Rural Kashmir examines how people indulge in playful thinking in everyday life not only to bring relief but also as a way to perceive, imagine, and craft possible worlds.

His future research projects include a cross-cultural ethnography of online gaming and a study of the fraught emotional ties between humans and birds in Gharana, a small wetland located along the international border in Jammu.

Arif has been a postdoctoral fellow at NYU-Shanghai (2024-25) and University of Houston (2023-24). He completed his PhD in Sociocultural Anthropology from University of Minnesota in 2023. As an educator, Arif embraces a play-based, embodied, and experiential pedagogy that has been recognized by students and institutions alike.