For nearly forty years South Asian Studies at the University of Washington has been part of an eminent group of national programs. It has offered rigorous and comprehensive inter-disciplinary education and expert training for scholars and professionals seeking to become deeply knowledgeable about South Asia, a region including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. In the last few years the program has been significantly restructured to respond to emerging challenges in the study of South Asia across all historical periods, and better prepare a new generation to understand, and work with, issues and opportunities in contemporary South Asia. The mission of the South Asia Program and Center is to promote inter-disciplinary study of the region with a strong foundation in languages and elective education focused in humanities, social sciences, or professional fields. Through a series of key investments the University of Washington (UW) has declared its strong support for the eminence and growth of South Asian Studies on this campus.
We provide regular developmental language education in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, and Sanskrit and support the study of several other Indo-Aryan languages based on student demand. Language-related courses include instruction in sociolinguistics and epigraphy, as well as Paninian grammar. Courses and research supervision in all periods of south Asian history, and all major religious traditions of South Asia, are available from UW's world famous faculty. In social sciences and professional fields the special strengths of South Asian Studies at UW include environmental studies and natural resource management, political economy of development, women studies and gender, comparative politics, human rights and civil society, architecture, media and communications, public affairs, information technology industries and enterprises, environmental and Islamic law. Undergraduates and professional students regularly participate in study abroad and study tours in India. Several new programs for undergraduate and graduate study abroad in both south and north India are being introduced. The academic programs are supplemented and supported by an active outreach program which has effectively linked the South Asia Center and Programs to the wider Seattle-area community through public events, distinguished visitors, and development campaigns. The excellent UW library includes a highly-reputed, and vast, collection of materials on South Asia including extensive manuscript and print collections in taught languages. These collections are continuously augmented and expertly managed by a specialist south Asia bibliographer and librarian.
All these resources ensure that undergraduates are very well-supported to declare a South Asia major or minor track in the Asian Studies major in the Jackson School, or in the Asian Languages and Literatures Department. A rigorous two-year South Asian Studies MA is available through the Jackson School of International Studies. Undergraduates and graduate students combine several years of language study with area-specific and theoretical or disciplinary instruction available across more than twenty fields. Advanced students also participate in joint MA programs, disciplinary PhD programs where strong South Asia faculty expertise is available, and in inter-disciplinary degree programs with an elective South Asia emphasis.
-Priti Ramamurthy
Director, South Asia Center