Students, Profs Talk South Asian Studies

Students and faculty members voiced support for restructuring the South Asian Studies program in a roundtable discussion held last Friday, an event at the Barker Center chaired by Professor Sharmila Sen ’92 and sponsored by the Humanities Center and the Asia Center at Harvard.

The seminar was part of the South Asia Humanities Seminar series and was entitled “Studying Asia at Harvard.” The discussion addressed many of the issues facing the expansion of the South Asian Studies program, including thesis resources for graduates and undergraduates, the future course offerings of the South Asian Studies program, and the sensitive issue of so-called “heritage classrooms”—the overwhelming overlap between students of South Asian ethnicity and students studying South Asia.

Over the course of the 2005-2006 school year, Harvard hosts six South Asia Humanities seminars, but unlike the previous seminars in the series, this one encouraged student input.

“I thought it was time to hear our students, undergraduate and graduate, speak about their experiences and their difficulties in studying South Asia, as opposed to getting people from the outside to speak on their academic work,” said Sen, who is an assistant professor in the English and American Literature and Language department.

The seminar began with a presentation of 10 graduate and undergraduate projects relating to South Asia. The topics varied widely, from the role of women in Indian nationalistic politics to fictional works with strong South Asian connections.

Along with their projects, many students openly discussed their frustration with their studies at Harvard.

“In order to study South Asia, I have had to negotiate between a lot of disciplines, without really getting a ground in the practices of any specific discipline,” said Eric L. Beverly, a graduate student studying governmental institutions and ideologies in the Muslim world. “While this could be a blessing in disguise, I would really like to be able to focus entirely on South Asian Studies.”

Sabrina A. Sadique, a graduate student in literature, expressed her frustration at the structural problems she says are involved with taking postcolonial South Asian literature courses at the graduate level. Because Sadique did not follow a traditional curriculum of English courses as an undergraduate, she says she must take certain Western literature courses now in order to fulfil her requirements.

“It makes me feel incredibly helpless to hear [Sadique’s] story,” said Sen. “I personally agree with the idea that we should learn a little bit of everything. But if we [as South Asians] need to know Chaucer and Beowulf, I wouldn’t feel so bad if my colleagues were also forced to learn about great South Asian writers like Salman Rushdie.”

The issues brought up in the seminar were closely related to the recent South Asian Studies Initiative (SASI) bill passed two weeks ago by the Undergraduate Council. The bill called for more South Asian course offerings, visiting professors, and student involvement in the department.

Many students offered suggestions on how to make the courses and program more accessible to undergraduates.

“Coming into the College, I didn’t have a background in South Asian history and literature. Just publicizing courses could increase awareness of these resources among undergraduate students, and would definitely popularize South Asian studies,” said former South Asian Association (SAA) Co-President Vinod E. Nambudiri ’05.

SASI Chair Shreya N. Vora ’06, defended the large presence of South Asian students in South Asian studies at Harvard.

“Though initial attraction to the subject may be based on heritage, this attraction does not compromise the intellectual reasons why many South Asian students eventually commit themselves to the subject,” she said.

While the faculty present at the meeting supported the suggestions of the students, Parimal G. Patil, assistant professor of Study of Religion and Sanskrit and Indian Studies, encouraged students to look to the future of the South Asian Studies program.

“One of the most essential things we need to do is to give the momentum to younger students for South Asian initiatives,” he said. “It will be hard to expand the program when a continuing interest in South Asia is not definite.”