Spotlights

Dr. Anirban Gupta-Nigam, the newly appointed Associate Director at the Institute, discusses his career as an international scholar and his journey to UC Berkeley. In a recent interview with UC Irvine's Newsroom, he reflects on the challenges he faced in securing non-faculty roles. Read...Read more about Anirban Gupta-Nigam: An international perspective on administering research

Our students have been the recipients of many awards, grants, fellowships, commendations and honors for their contributions to the South Asia-related ecosystem. Other non-Berkeley students have also benefited from our support. This issue of Aajkal is dedicated to...Read more about Celebrating Student Awards

Aajkal for Spring 2024 is out! Click on the link below to read about all the public lectures, conferences, talks, readings, workshops, student presentations and one-on-one conversations scheduled for this month....Read more about Aajkal for Spring 2024

Gadgil has developed low­-cost solutions to some of the developing world’s most intractable problems, including safe drinking water technologies, energy efficient stoves, and ways to make efficient electric lighting affordable.Read more about Ashok Gadgil Receives National Medal of Technology and Innovation

Our students have been the recipients of many awards, grants, fellowships, commendations and honors for their contributions to the South Asia-related ecosystem. This issue of Aajkal is dedicated to highlighting some of their extraordinary accomplishments in 2022-23....Read more about Celebrating Student Awards & Achievements!

Another foundational South Asia scholar has alas left us, around two months ago now. Eugene F. “Gene” Irschick was the smartest, kindest, and most inspiring dissertation supervisor that this clueless UC Berkeley graduate student could have ever hoped for. He...Read more about Remembering Professor Gene Irschick: A Tribute by Richard Barnett

Aajkal for Spring 2023 is out! Read about all the public lectures, conferences, talks, readings, workshops, student presentations and one-on-one conversations scheduled for this semester....Read more about Aajkal for Spring 2023

In Fall 2022, the Institute for South Asia Studies at the University of California, Berkeley launches a multi-year Climate Change Initiative that brings together academic programs and think...Read more about Climate Resilience in the Global South: Perspectives from South Asia

The Institute for South Asia Studies will receive $1,015,380 for NRC and $990,400 for FLAS. The ISAS is the only South Asia Institute that is a National Resource Center and also houses a Center for Bangladesh Studies, a Center for Contemporary India, as well as interdisciplinary and...Read more about ISAS Awarded Prestigious US Dept. of Education Title VI Award for International Studies!

The Institute mourns the passing of Professor Emerita Joanna G. Williams, distinguished scholar of South and Southeast Asian art, who passed away at her home in Berkeley on June 16, 2022, at the age of eighty-four. She was one of the foremost scholars of South and Southeast Asian art and...Read more about Remembering Professor Joanna Williams

Former vice chair of the Institute, Dr. Daisy Rockwell's translation of Geetanjali Shree’s Tomb of Sand has been awarded the 2022 International Booker Prize. Tomb of Sand is the first novel translated from an Indian language to win the award. Dr...Read more about Former ISAS Vice Chair, Daisy Rockwell wins the Booker for her translation of "Tomb of Sand."

The Institute is proud to announce that Prof. Raka Ray, dean of the Division of Social Sciences and former Director of the ISAS, has joined the prestigious Social Science Research Council (SSRC) as a member of its Board of Directors for a three-year term. Established in Manhattan in 1923...Read more about Former ISAS Director, Raka Ray joins the SSRC Board of Directors

It is with extreme sadness that we announce the passing of Prof. Jyotirindra (“Jyoti”) DasGupta, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at UC Berkeley, at the age of 88 on March 17, 2022.

Professor DasGupta spent 61 years of his life in Berkeley; he loved both the university and the...Read more about Remembering Dr. Jyotirindra (“Jyoti”) DasGupta (April 14, 1933 - March 17, 2022)

We are delighted to announce that Dr. Amna Qayyum is the recipient of the 20​21 S.S. Pirzada Prize in Pakistan Studies. Many congratulations to ​her for her dissertation, The Demographic State: Population, Global Biopolitics, and Decolonization in South Asia, c. 1947-71....Read more about Dr. Amna Qayyum Kamal awarded the 2021 Pirzada Prize in Pakistan Studies!

Aajkal for Spring 2022 is out! Please click on the link below to find out about our Zoom lineup of public lectures, conferences, workshops, and one-on-one conversations for this semester! Looking forward to seeing you virtually at one of them. In the meantime, please stay safe!Read more about Aajkal at the ISAS for Spring 2022

Thanks to the generous support from Dr. Vijay Janakiraman, representing Tamil Chair, Inc., we are on our way to creating a one million dollar endowment to teach Tamil language at UC Berkeley. Dr. and Mrs. Janakiram, holding the check, with (from left) Prof. Bharathy, Mr. Abu Khan, Mr....Read more about New Language Endowment: The Arignar Anna Endowment for Tamil Studies at UC Berkeley

Congratulations to Prof. Sugata Ray, Associate Professor of History of Art and of South & Southeast Asian Studies and the Interim Director of the Institute for South Asia Studies, for being selected as this year's winner of the Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion for his book, Climate Change...Read more about Sugata Ray awarded prestigious prize for his book, Climate Change & the Art of Devotion.

American-born Indian scholar and UC Berkeley alum, Dr. Gail Omvedt passed away on August 25, 2021 after a prolonged illness at her residence in Kasegaon village of Sangli district in Maharashtra. The Dalit-Bahujan, Adivasis, women and human rights champion was 81.

An Indian citizen since...Read more about Scholar, Ambedkarite movement activist, and UC Berkeley alum, Dr. Gail Omvedt dies at 81

The Institute mourns the passing of our revered colleague, teacher and friend, Prof. Padmanabh Srivarma Jaini. Scholar of Buddhist and Jain Studies, Prof. Jaini passed away peacefully in his home in the Berkeley Hills on Tuesday May 25, 2021, just five months shy of what would have been his...Read more about Remembering scholar of Jainism and Buddhism, Prof. Padmanabh Jaini (October 23, 1923 - May 25, 2021)