Committee on South Asian Studies

The Committee on South Asian Studies is a multi-disciplinary group of scholars appointed to coordinate teaching and research on South Asia (the nation-states of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, the Maldives and their neighboring areas) among Harvard's departments and schools and is concerned with the planned development of South Asian studies in the University as a whole. It works in close collaboration with the Asia Center, especially its South Asia Initiative, to promote the study of South Asia in a comparative and global context. In association with the Asia Center, it sponsors lectures, seminars, conferences, films and exhibitions on South Asia. There are currently three FAS seminar series wholly focused on South Asia - South Asia without Borders, the South Asia Politics Seminar and the South Asia Humanities Seminar.

The Committee is working to expand the range of curricular options open to undergraduates. An undergraduate concentration is currently offered in the Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies. Graduate degrees with a South Asian focus can be sought in the Departments of History, Religion, Sanskrit and Indian Studies and other departments. A Ph.D. degree can be pursued in the Department of History in South Asian and Indian Ocean history. South Asian religions can be studied towards a Ph.D. degree under the Committee on the Study of Religion. The Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations offers a Ph.D. track in Indo-Islamic culture. The Asia Center awards several South Asia-related undergraduate and graduate research and travel grants and fellowships.

At present, Harvard offers more than 100 non-language courses in South Asian Studies in various departments of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Professional Schools on a regular basis, with many offered every year and all offered at least once every three years. Of these, over 60 consist of 100% South Asian content. Courses with at least 25% South Asian content number nearly 40. More than 30 language courses are offered with at least three-year sequences in Hindi-Urdu and Sanskrit. Reciprocal cross-registration agreements are in place with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and for graduate students at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Click here to view a list of South Asia-related courses at Harvard.