Spotlights

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)

Many congratulations to Maryam Hina Hasnain for being awarded the UC Berkeley South Asia Artist Prize and to Dr. Aparna Kumar for being awarded the UC Berkeley South Asia Art & Architecture Dissertation Prize. The award ceremonies and lectures will take place on April 21 and 22...Read more about Maryam Hina Hasnain & Dr. Aparna Kumar awarded the 2021 SAAI UC Berkeley Art Prizes!

We are delighted to announce that Dr. Ahsan Kamal is the recipient for the 2020 S.S. Pirzada Dissertation Prize for Pakistan Studies! Many congratulations to him for his dissertation, Saving Sindhu: Indus Enclosure and River Defense in Pakistan (UNC-Chapel Hill, 2019). The...Read more about Dr. Ahsan Kamal awarded the 2020 Pirzada Prize in Pakistan Studies!

The Institute mourns the sudden passing of Kimi Bhattacharya on Jan 5, 2021. Kimi was an avid supporter of the Institute and played a major role in the formation of the ...Read more about Remembering Kimi Bhattacharya

Congratulations to Prof. Atréyēē Gupta on being awarded the Hellman Fellowship for 2020!!! Professor Gupta’s Hellman-funded research will support a book project that examines the artistic and intellectual resonances of the 1955 Afro-Asian Bandung Conference and the 1961 Non-Aligned...Read more about Atreyee Gupta awarded the Hellman Fellowship for 2020!!!

Congratulations to Prof. Sugata Ray on being awarded the Religion and the Arts Book Award for 2020 by the American Academy of...Read more about Sugata Ray awarded the AAR's Religion & the Arts Book Award!!!

We are thrilled to announce that Interim Dean Geeta Anand has been appointed as the Dean of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism effective immediately. Please join us in congratulating Dean Anand on this well deserved promotion. We look forward to supporting her and her vision...Read more about Geeta Anand Appointed as Dean of Berkeley Journalism

The Institute has been following the Covid-19 news from India with growing alarm. In response, we have begun compiling a list of organizations that are providing badly...Read more about India's Covid-19 Crisis: How to help

For the first time, UC Berkeley has taken the No.1 spot on Forbes magazine’s annual list of America’s top colleges, beating out several elite private universities, including Yale in second place and Princeton in third. As the first public university to win Forbes’ top ranking...Read more about UC Berkeley No.1 on Forbes' list of America's top colleges!