Who We Are & What We Do

The South Asia Center of the University of Virginia is dedicated to the comprehensive, cross- and inter-disciplinary study of the region, including all of the present-day states of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC): Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.  

One of the oldest in the United States, the South Asia Center has been in operation for more than fifty years, beginning with the securing of its first Title VI grant under the pioneering leadership of the late Walter Hauser, who established the study of South Asia at the University of Virginia. Currently, the Center boasts of some 35 full-time, core faculty members, two-dozen faculty affiliates, and 50 graduate students.  And Ph.D. Alumni of the program are now to be found around the United States, North America, and across the globe!

Core faculty members are housed in various Departments across the University and, within the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, are to be found in particular in the Departments of: Art, English, Economics, History, Media Studies, Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures, Politics, Religious Studies, and Women, Gender & Sexuality, also the Program in Global Development Studies and many units beyond these, as well. 

Our scholars work in various languages and areas within South Asia, notably including Sanskrit, Hindi and Urdu, Persian, and Tibetan and in India, Afghanistan,  Pakistan, Tibet, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. 

The current Center Director is John Nemec, Professor of Indian Religions and South Asian Studies.