{"id":6221,"date":"2026-09-22T18:12:41","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T18:12:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/csead\/?p=6221"},"modified":"2026-09-22T18:13:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T18:13:00","slug":"meet-the-new-director-of-csead-christian-novetzke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/csead\/news\/meet-the-new-director-of-csead-christian-novetzke\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the New Director of CSEAD: Christian Novetzke"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the summer, Christian Novetzke, professor in the Jackson School, became the director of the Center of Southeast Asia and its Diasporas. We recently spoke with him to get an insight into his background and hopes for the upcoming school year.<\/p>\n

What sparked your interest in religion in South Asia?<\/b><\/h2>\n

I was an undergraduate at Macalester College in 1989 and trying to learn Russian so I could read Pushkin\u2019s poetry. In the fall semester I signed up for a study abroad program to the USSR that would start in the spring semester. Then Nov. 9 came and the Berlin Wall fell. Overnight, the cost of my study abroad program tripled. I could no longer afford to go to Russia, so I walked into my study abroad office and asked, \u201cWhat is the cheapest study abroad program that I can attend instead?\u201d They said: India.<\/span><\/p>\n

I signed up for the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) India Studies program that would send me to Pune, India for seven months where I would also learn Marathi. The program was amazing. I had the opportunity to learn Marathi from two of the best teachers and researchers of the language: Maxine Berntsen then Sucheta Paranjape. I studied with an incredible group of scholars: Jim Laine, Joy Laine, Eleanor Zelliot, Dilip Chitre, Bhaskar Chandavarkar, Raja Vora, and Philip Engblom. I began my interest in Dalit Studies during this time. I did a research and translation project on Dalit female poets. I had the honor of interviewing Hira Bansode, Urmila Pawar, and Meenakshi Moon, which I did alongside my dear friend, the painter Sudhir Waghmare. I completed translations of some poetry with the help of Sudhir, Sucheta, and Dilip, and this led to my first scholarly publication in 1993, <\/span>\u201cTwice Dalit: The Poetry of Hira Bansode.\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

From these experiences I developed my interest in religion, history, literature, and social justice in India, as well as Marathi, then later Sanskrit and Hindi.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are you working on these days?<\/b><\/h2>\n

For the last several years I have been conducting research and writing articles about Savitribai and Jotirao Phule. This has involved translating the poetry of both figures and writing a biography of them for a series at Harper Collins, India, called “<\/span>Indian Lives<\/span>,” edited by Ramachandra Guha.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

This exploration of the writing and ideas of the Phules has led me to write a book I am calling “<\/span>Dharma for the People<\/span>,” which is about how modern non-Brahman communities and women have written about <\/span>dharma<\/span> as both an ethical category and an orthodox term for some forms of oppression.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What excites you most about the upcoming year <\/b>and w<\/b>hat do you hope to accomplish as director<\/b><\/b>?\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n

It is no secret that the U.S. academy is going through a rough patch. Even before the assault on higher education by some aspects of the current federal government, questions about the value of liberal education and challenges to budgets across the spectrum of higher education were felt through diminished resources for the kinds of work we all care about. The loss of our Title VI Center and Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) last year when the federal government canceled this program nation-wide has dealt a significant blow to the South Asia Center with the absence of the federal funding it has relied on for more than 50 years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But what is great about the University of Washington (UW), and what drew me and my family here almost 20 years ago, is the unrivaled intellectual environment for the study of South Asia. There is just no other place like it, even at the most elite, private institutions. We thrive because we have genuine interest in one another\u2019s work, in the success of our students, and in creating a supportive collegial world here at UW. This culture that has been nurtured at UW for over half a century has already survived ups and downs in funding, and shifts in trends of support within academia. What I am most excited about is finding ways to nurture this extraordinary fund of brilliance and good will that is the heart of South Asia Studies here. We may or may not raise money over the next few years \u2013 and I am going to try hard to do so! \u2013 but what we will accomplish is to grow and deepen the culture that has made us one of the leading lights of South Asia Studies in North America.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anything else you\u2019d like readers to know?<\/b><\/h2>\n

I have a little dog named Kahlo who may be hanging out with me in my office so please come by and say hello!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the summer, Christian Novetzke, professor in the Jackson School, became the director of the Center of Southeast Asia and its Diasporas. We recently spoke with him to get an insight into his background and hopes for the upcoming school year. What sparked your interest in religion in South Asia? I was an undergraduate at<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":796,"featured_media":6224,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,10,1],"tags":[418,47,226,67,420,121,122,419],"class_list":["post-6221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty","category-feature","category-uncategorized","tag-christian-novetzke","tag-director","tag-flas","tag-india","tag-russia","tag-southeast-asia","tag-southeast-asia-center","tag-twice-dalit","region-southeast-asia","research-theme-education","research-theme-southeast-asia"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMeet the New Director of CSEAD: Christian Novetzke - Center for Southeast Asia and its Diasporas<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/csead\/news\/meet-the-new-director-of-csead-christian-novetzke\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meet the New Director of CSEAD: Christian Novetzke - Center for Southeast Asia and its Diasporas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Over the summer, Christian Novetzke, professor in the Jackson School, became the director of the Center of Southeast Asia and its Diasporas. 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