South Asian Studies

South Asian Studies is an interdisciplinary minor focusing on an important region of the nonwestern world including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

Almost twenty-five percent of the world’s people live in South Asia, and they offer us a rich tapestry of culture, history and socioeconomic contexts. Since 1970, when the faculty approved its creation as the college’s first interdisciplinary studies program, the South Asian Program has sought to:

• Introduce and explore South Asia and its rich cultural heritage.
• Explore aspects that are distinctive to South Asia.
• Explore the linkages between South Asia and the rest of the world.
• Explore from multiple disciplines a diversity of themes focusing on South Asia.
• Facilitate a deeper understanding of at least one theme related to South Asia.
• Facilitate students gaining first-hand academic experiences in South Asia.
• Facilitate students learning South Asian languages.