Chris is a Lecturer in Hindi in the School of Culture, History, and Language (CHL) in the College of Asia & the Pacific (CAP) at the ANU, where he primarily teaches Hindi. Trained as a philologist, Chris’ primary research interests lie in the premodern literary, devotional, and performance cultures of North India, Nepal, and Bengal. His current monograph and translation projects focus on the vernacular lyrical poetry of the 15th century polymath-poet Vidyapati. Specifically, Chris is looking at the construction of a new vernacular literary cosmopolis that emerged through an interplay of caste, masculinity, music, and memory across several small royal courts in North India and Nepal from the 15th to 19th centuries CE. In this multilingual context, Chris works across several languages, including Hindi-Urdu, Bengali, Sanskrit, Maithili, Braj Bhasha, Avadhi, Apabhramsha, and Persian.

Chris is also the co-director of www.anubhasha.org , a collective of textual scholars of South Asia interested in using digital tools for textual scholarship and engaged community work.

He is also the Deputy-Director of ANU’s South Asia Research Institute (SARI).

Recent Publications:

Diamond, Christopher. 2020. ‘The Strange Afterlife of Vidyāpati Thākura (ca. 1350–1450 CE): Anthological Manuscripts, Linguistic Confusion, and Religious Appropriation’. Manuscript Studies 4 (1). https://repository.upenn.edu/mss_sims/vol4/iss1/4.

Diamond, Christopher L., and Trent Brown. n.d. ‘6 Unis Had Hindi Programs. Soon There Could Be Only 1, and That’s Not in Australia’s Best Interests’. The Conversation. Accessed 4 May 2021. http://theconversation.com/6-unis-had-hindi-programs-soon-there-could-be-only-1-and-thats-not-in-australias-best-interests-151096.