Folklorist Leela Prasad Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Leela Prasad has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences among a class of 252 newly elected members in 2026. Members are selected through a competitive process that recognizes individuals who have made preeminent contributions to their disciplines and to society.

Dr. Prasad holds a Ph.D. in Folklore & Folklife from the University of Pennsylvania and is currently St. Purandar Das Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at Brown University. Her first book, Poetics of Conduct: Oral Narrative and Moral Being in a South Indian Town (Columbia University Press, 2007) won the American Academy of Religion’s prize for the “Best First Book in History of Religions.” Her second monograph, The Audacious Raconteur: Sovereignty and Storytelling in Colonial India, was published by Cornell University Press in 2020.