Michigan South Asia Center

The University of Michigan is proud of a long history of involvement in Asian Studies. Since the 1870's, scholars from the University have been engaged in research, education, service, and politics relating to South and Southeast Asia. The Center for South Asian Studies (CSAS) emerged in the fall of 1999 from the former Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, which was established in 1961. Formally constituted five decades ago, the Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies soon became a national center for language training and area-related studies in a wide range of disciplines.
The Center for South Asian Studies (CSAS) at the University of Michigan (U-M) is a member of the International Institute (II) of the College of Literature Science and Arts (LSA). CSAS has one of the most wide-ranging, interdisciplinary and distinguished South Asia faculty bodies in the United States. With regard to non-language teaching, 47 faculty members spread over 9 schools teach 140 courses with significant South Asian content. Michigan is also a major center for the teaching of South Asian languages, with Hindi, Urdu, Tamil, Persian, Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Punjabi--among others--taught regularly by 4 professors and 8 PhD specialists in language pedagogy. Faculty members and students regularly travel to South Asia and maintain a web of relationships with South Asian colleagues and institutions. Students are well served by the various South Asia programs and majors available to them, at both undergraduate and graduate levels, and in the professional schools as well as in the humanities and social sciences. The South Asian library is noted as being one of the best in the country. In addition to supporting graduate research abroad, undergraduate research and internships abroad are funded by a substantial endowment at the center. Outreach is an important component of center activities; CSAS supports South Asia student groups, holds programs in the Ann Arbor community, and offers resources to K-12 teachers.