The Center for South Asia mourns the loss of Tony K. Stewart, who passed away peacefully on October 6th, 2024, at the age of 70. A distinguished scholar, author, and the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in Humanities Emeritus, Tony was a towering figure in the field of South Asian religious studies. He served as the …
The Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Davis, has awarded Dr. Mikaela Chase the 2024 Mohini Jain Presidential Chair in Jain Studies Best Dissertation Prize for her outstanding work titled ‘Ideality and Impossibility in the Contemporary Practice of the Jain Fast Until Death.’ Dr. Chase currently serves as Assistant Professor in the Department …
The Center for South Asia congratulates Prof. B. Venkat Mani on being awarded the prestigious Humboldt Research Prize. This award recognizes Prof. Mani’s outstanding contributions to the field of literary studies and supports his continued research collaboration with scholars in Germany. His work focuses on global migration, multilingualism, and the role of world literature, making …
The Center for South Asia was awarded a two-year Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language (UISFL) grant from the Department of Education to fund a project titled “Language Pathways Program: International Business and Sustainable Development in India.” This program will support language instruction and provide undergraduate scholarships for language and area studies training and study abroad.
We are excited to announce that Mou Banerjee’s new book, available in January 2025, is titled ‘The Disinherited: The Exiles Who Created Indian Democracy.’ You can learn more about the book and pre-order here: Harvard University Press.
We are excited to share that our faculty member, Prof. Darshana Mini’s book titled ‘Rated A: Soft-Porn and Mediations of Desire in India,’ has been published with the University of California Press. Congratulations to Prof. Mini on this significant achievement!
Arun Luthra, UW-Madison’s Fall 2021 Interdisciplinary Artist in Residence, has officially joined the UW-Madison School of Music as a Lecturer in Jazz Saxophone. In the spring, he will also teach a class on Konnakol, the art of performing percussion syllables vocally. You can view Arun’s faculty profile here.
Dr. Rajiv Rao (UW-Madison Language Sciences Director and Professor of Spanish Linguistics), was selected for a Fulbright Specialist Program project ‘Developing a Holistic Linguistics Program in India’ at the Central University of Rajasthan. Congratulations, Rajiv!
We’re pleased to welcome Dr. Indranil Acharya, a Professor of English at Vidyasagar University, West Bengal, as Fall 2024 Visiting Fulbright Scholar. Dr. Acharya specializes in documenting and translating Bengali Dalit narratives and has significantly contributed to preserving endangered languages and cultures of Eastern India. During his tenure, he will expand his research on endangered …
Virendra Singh (October, 1949 – June, 2024), or better known as Virendra Ji was born in Jaipur, Rajasthan and spent most of his adult life in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, where he taught Hindi with the University of Wisconsin, College Year in India Program. He is without doubt one of the most influential teachers of Hindi …