My specialist areas are: Kerala, South India, South Asia, Gulf countries: social  reproduction and stratification; popular religion (Hinduism & Islam) and reform movements; migration; masculinity; consumption.

I conducted my doctoral research in rural Kerala, South India, and published two joint monographs, one on issues of stratification, identity and social mobility among an ex-'untouchable' community (Social Mobility in Kerala, 2000, Pluto Press), and another on masculinities (Men and Masculinity in South India, 2007, Anthem Press). My current research, funded by a three year ESRC Research Grant (see ESRC 'Regard' database for more details), examines contemporary identity transformations among a South Indian Muslims, with fieldwork in Kozhikode (Calicut) and a number of Gulf Countries.  I am currently co-editing a special issue of Modern Asian Studies on 'Islamic reform movements in South Asia' (with C Osella); a special issue of South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies on 'The politics of food in South Asia' (with C Osella); and a special issue of the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute on 'Islam, politics and modernity' (with B Soares).

Recent DPhil Students
Israt Ahmed - The Construction of childhood in Monipur: negotiating boundaries through activities (awarded 2004)
Nick Nisbett - Knowledge, identity, place and (cyber) space: growing up male and middle class in Bangalore (awarded 2005)
Martyn Rogers -  Tamil youth: the performance of hierarchical masculinities: an anthropological study of youth groups in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India (awarded 2005)
Shalini Grover - Poor women's experiences of marriage and love in the city of New Delhi: everyday stories of sukh aur dukh (awarded 2006)
Rubina Jasani - Communal violence, displacement and minority identity in Ahmedabad, Western India (awarded 2007) 

Current DPhil Students
Rahseehd Rozana - Gender and social protection in migrant villages in Comilla, Bangladesh
Aly Ramy- Arab identities in London
Biswas Anusree - Bengali identities in London
Jervis Read Cressida - Social activism in a Delhi slum
Roy A. - Male sexualities in Mumbai
Syiem Samantha - Participation and development in North East India
Wakefield Matluba - Gender, Islam and social change in post-Soviet
Wilson Caroline - Commoditization of health provisions in Kerala
Hashmi Asma - Social activism in Pakistan
Mundrawala Asma - Street theatre in Pakistan
Sancho David - Education and exclusion in Kerala 

Osella, Filippo (2013) Malabar Secrets: South Indian Muslim Men's (Homo)sociality across the Indian Ocean. Asian Studies Review, 36 (4). pp. 531-549. ISSN 1035 7823

Osella, Caroline and Osella, Filippo (2012) Migration, networks and connectedness across the Indian Ocean. In: Migrant labor in the Persian Gulf. Columbia University Press, New York. ISBN 9780231703642

Osella, Filippo and Osella, Caroline (2008) Introduction: Islamic reformism in South Asia. Modern Asian Studies, 42 (2-3). pp. 247-257. ISSN 0026749X

Osella, Caroline and Osella, Filippo (2006) Once upon a time in the West? Stories of migration and modernity form Kerala, South India. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 12 (3). pp. 569-588. ISSN 1359-0987