The Institute mourns the passing of Prof. Bharati Mukherjee, Prof. Emerita in the Dept. of English. Prof. Mukherjee, whose many works examined the Indian American immigrant experience, was one of the pathbreaking Indian American writers in the US who paved the way for many others. All of us at the Institute extend our condolences to Prof. Mukherjee's family, students, and many dear friends.
The Subir and Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies is thrilled to announce that Bangladeshi lawyer and human rights activist, Sara Hossain, will deliver the 2017 Chowdhury Center Distinguished Lecture on February 16, 2017. Read more about the event.
The latest issue of Aaj Kal, the monthly e-newsletter for the Institute for South Asia Studies, is out.
Information about our plans for Spring 2017 and happenings at the Institute can be found in this publication. Make sure to save the dates for our upcoming, exciting events! Read the newsletter.
SAS is thrilled to announce the establishment of a new fund, The Bhattacharya Fund on Contemporary India, that has been generously supported by Kimi and Shankar Bhattacharya! Read more about the Fund.
It's the start of a new semester! ISAS has compiled a list of all South Asia Related Courses that are offered at UC Berkeley for the 2017 Spring Semester.
Full list with times, CCN, and other enrollment information.
ISAS congratulates Professor Robert Goldman and Professor Sally Sutherland Goldman on their completion of the 40-year long project translating Vālmīki’s Rāṃāyaṇa into modern English. Read more about the translation project.
ISAS congratulates Attorney General of California, Kamala Harris, and our inaugural Sarah Kailath Memorial Lecturer on "Women and Leadership," on her historic win as California's new Democratic senator-elect. Read more about Kamala Harris and the Lecture.
The latest issue of Khabar, the annual newsletter for the Institute for South Asia Studies is out. Read the newsletter.
Hard copies, if you need one for your personal collection, will be available in early December.
We are happy to announce that the report on the India under Modi Conference that was organized by us last Spring on March 11-12, 2016 is now available for reading online. If you prefer a hard copy then please feel free to drop by the Institute to pick up a copy. Read the report.
In April 2016, ISAS hosted a 4-day seminar on social entrepreneurship for 130 Pakistani Fulbrighters who were returning to Pakistan after successfully finishing their program in various schools across the U.S. We were fortunate to have it coincide with the OPEN annual forum, where the students spent a whole day. Read more about the seminar.
Our 2015 Subir and Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies Fellow on Quality of Life in Bangladesh, Yoshika Crider (Energy & Resource Group), is one of 2000 awardees (out of an application pool of 17,000) who has been awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Award for her groundbreaking work on safe water technologies for rural and low income Bangladesh. Read more about the NSF 2016 awards.
Lawrence Liang, our 5th Maharaj Kaul Lecturer, whose upcoming lecture, It's all about loving your Nation: Sedition and the surplus of Affection, is on March 16, delivered a speech at JNU Alternative Classroom on the topic Law of Sedition. Watch the speech.
Sayeef Salahuddin, Associate Professor of EECS, along with two other UC faculty, was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers. Read more about the awards.
Congratulations to Dr. Fuchs for winning the 2016 S.S. Pirzada Prize in Pakistan Studies for his dissertation, Relocating the Centers of Shīʿī Islam. Congratulations also to Dr. Layli Uddinfor receiving an Honorable Mention for her dissertation, In The Land of Eternal Eid. Award ceremony on April 9, 2016. Find out more information on the awardees.
The Institute for South Asia Studies is delighted to announce that we have been awarded $214,000 from the Institute of International Education to host the 2016 Fulbright Pakistan Social Entrepreneurship and Re-entry Seminar. At the end of April, ISAS will be hosting 160 Pakistani students for a four day seminar to introduce them to the world of social enterprise and to prepare them for their return home. The seminar will provide the students with the opportunity to reflect on their Fulbright exchange experience, develop professional goals and skills to apply when they return home, and learn methods to cope with any potential personal, social, and cultural challenges. Through a framework of social entrepreneurship and drawing upon the experiences of community members and ISAS faculty, we aim to help the Fulbrighters achieve these objectives.
We are very sorry to pass on the sad news that our friend and colleague, the noted political scientist, Susanne Rudolph passed away on December 23, 2015.
Prof. Raka Ray has written a touching tribute on her passing. Read her tribute.
All ISAS events are video recorded and made available for viewing on our Videos & Podcasts page. On this page you will notice that some of the podcasts include a new feature - a short event summary written by Sridevi Prasad, ISAS Program & Publications Assistant. Events that include a summary are marked by an asterisk in the title.
Sudha Murty, Chairperson of Infosys Foundation, was recently on campus to deliver the fourth annual Sarah Kailath Memorial lecture. Read ISAS Program & Publication Assistant Sridevi Prasad's succinct summary of the event and view a recording of the lecture.
Commenting on the recent campus visit of Katherine Boo, author of Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Prof. Talwalker, interim director of the Global Poverty and Practice Minor says, "books like Boo’s can and do change the way we think about poverty, about what can alleviate it, and what “we” should do about it." Read the full article in The Berkeley Blog.
This was the central point that Munis D. Faruqui made during his talk on the topic ‘The Princes of the Mughal Empire’ on Aug 20, 2015 at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture in Pakistan.
Op-ed in the Globe and Mail, co-authored by Sanchita Saxena, Chowdhury Center Director and Sarah Labowitz of NYU's Stern Center for Business and Human Rights on the failure of prevailing model for addressing poor working conditions in the apparel supply chain. Read more on working conditions in factories.
Students, staff, faculty, and community at Berkeley were upset to learn of the devastating earthquake in Kathmandu, Nepal, and surrounding towns and villages. We are writing our colleagues in Nepal to learn we as a community may support disaster relief and recovery. See how you can contribute.
Three UC Berkeley faculty have been awarded John Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowships for 2015. This year’s fellows, who were chosen from more than 3,100 applicants in the U S and Canada, include 13 scholars from seven UC campuses. Read more about the three UC Berkeley fellows.
We are delighted to announce that George Hart has just been awarded the Padma Shri, among the highest honors given by the Government of India.
Read more about Professor Hard and Berkeley's Tamil program.
The development economist discussed the Modi government’s stance on subsidies and rural employment schemes (MGNREGS) in an interview for Live Mint by journalist Pramit Bhattacharya
ISAS will collaborate on a $140,000 MacArthur Foundation grant awarded to the Institute of International Studies for "Pakistan: Beyond the Security State," a multi-year project that seeks to foster new ways of thinking about security and Pakistan.
India has a new prime minister: Narendra Modi. The Hindu nationalist was elected last week as India's next leader, winning by the widest margin in 30 years. The controversial leader has promised to revive an Indian economy plagued by high inflation and corruption. Listen to the interview.
We are very pleased to announce that our very own Munis Faruqui is one of the three faculty selected by the Committee on Teaching to receive the 2014 Distinguished Teaching Award. The award ceremony will take place on April 23 at 5pm in the Zellerbach Playhouse, with a reception to follow in the Toll Room of the Alumni House. Watch more about the 2015 Distinguished Teaching Award Recipients.
Electrochemical Arsenic Remediation, a technology which binds arsenic using iron dissolved in water, developed by LBNL scientist, Dr. Ashok Gadgil to combat the insidious public health problem of arsenic contamination of groundwater in South Asia, could help save millions of lives in India and Bangladesh. Read more about the technology and its intended use.
Our newly launched Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies was recently highlighted by CSAS Executive Director, Sanchita Saxena in The Dhaka Tribune as well as in an interview on KPFA's Apex Express.
