SOUTH ASIA CENTER
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

Highlights...

   

 Maternal, Child, and Reproductive

Health: Focus on South Asia

Spring Lecture Series open to the public

This Week:

 

Sadaf Khan

PATH

Maternal Health in South Asia:
Factors influencing Care-seeking
and Care Provision

learn more

 

Watch this Video!
About UW Professor Pradip Rathod’s,
work in India and parts of Africa to track and defeat the malaria virus.
Dr. Rathod and his team have recently received a 7-year grant from the National Institute of Health to continue their research.

 

South Asia Student Named Rhodes Scholar

When Byron Gray was a UW freshman, one of his professors encouraged the class to consider competing for prestigious national scholarships. The professor wanted her students to know that they were as qualified as Ivy Leaguers for such awards.  The message stuck. His final year at the UW, Gray applied for, and won, a Rhodes Scholarship...

Read more from this article about Byron in "Perspectives", the UW College of Arts and Sciences newsletter.

 

Read the Director's Welcome.

About The South Asia Center

The South Asia Center, Jackson School of International Studies, is a leading center for South Asian Studies in North America. It promotes knowledge about South Asia through innovative research, teaching and outreach to educational, civic, and business institutions and to the community.

At UW, over forty faculty across several colleges and professional schools focus their research on South Asia. Our library collection is one of the finest in the country. We have a long tradition of excellence in the teaching of Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and several Indo-Aryan languages from beginner to the most advanced levels. Sanskrit has been taught at the university for more than one hundred years.  The Center receives significant funding from the US Department of Education for graduate student fellowships, language instruction, scholarly activities and outreach. In recent years, the South Asia community in the Pacific Northwest has endowed several special scholarships and initiatives.

Research and Teaching

Research and teaching at the South Asia Center are centered around two interlinked foci:

Contemporary Politics, Culture and Development in South Asia
A distinguished group of faculty in the social sciences (anthropology, geography, history, political science, international studies and women’s studies) and in the professional schools (architecture, business, law, public affairs and social work) address issues of contemporary politics, culture, and development in South Asia. The group is renowned for its ethnographic and empirically-based research and its commitment to accountability, whether through community collaboration, policy oriented analysis, or transnational advocacy. Current clusters of interest include: water and natural resources; gender, violence and political identities; youth cultures and education; agrarian change; humanitarian relief and sustainable development; liberalization & privatization; urban politics and architecture; new economies; migration and diaspora; corporate social responsibility.

Languages, Literatures and Religions of South Asia
Faculty in the South Asian language programs are world class.  They are internationally prominent linguists, and they are passionate about the teaching of South Asian languages. Facility in multiple, often, little known, languages and literatures is the hallmark of a core group of faculty who study religious texts, performances, practices, and political formations. We are also unique in our coverage of the entire range of South Asian history from the ancient to the modern. Senior and junior faculty engage in archival and interpretive research aimed at understanding contemporary and historical, literary, and religious “traditions.” Current clusters of interest include: the Early Buddhist Manuscripts Project; Bhakti Studies; Ethnomusicology; Sikhism; Islam in South Asia.

In addition, faculty and students in the schools of  Architecture, Business, Engineering, Global Health, Law, Public Affairs,  & Social Work are actively engaged in professional training, research and practice with a focus on South Asia.

Degrees Offered

The South Asia Program offers a BA and an MA in South Asian Studies. PhD students with South Asia focused research interests and students in the professional schools can do joint graduate degrees. A minor in South Asian Studies and a BA in International Studies with a South Asia focus are also options.

Three reasons why students should come to the South Asia Program at the University of Washington:

  • First, the critical mass of faculty in the two areas--Contemporary Politics, Culture and Development and Languages, Literatures and Religions-- allows the student to pursue learning in an environment that exemplifies the benefits of interdisciplinary scholarship. Courses of study, seminars, discussion groups, and speaker series are designed to promote inter-disciplinary discussion and debate amongst faculty and students.

  • Second, the South Asia Center is closely committed to building a sense of community and purpose among faculty, staff and students. We have a very active reading group, a fortnightly chai for informal discussion, and a whole host of cultural activities. The sense of collegiality, friendliness and shared purpose at UW is unusual.

  • Finally, Seattle is a terrific place to live: it offers an enormous wealth of cultural activities and opportunities to engage with Non- Governmental organizations, there is a large and active south Asian community in the area, and the city is located in the Pacific Northwest close to wonderful countryside.

 

Upcoming South Asia Events

Stay informed about upcoming South Asia events by visiting our Events Page or

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South Asia Center
University of Washington
303 Thomson Hall
Box 353650
Seattle, WA 98195
(206) 543-4800 phone
(206) 685-0668 fax
►sascuw@u.washington.edu

Priti Ramamurthy, Director

Keith Snodgrass, Associate Director

Molly Wilskie-Kala, Program Coordinator

Rakhi Wadera, Research Assistant

Robyn Davis, FLAS Coordinator
206-616-8679
►rldavis@uw.edu

Christian Novetzke, Graduate Program Coordinator