SAP has more than 50 core and affiliated faculty from across Cornell’s colleges and schools, working in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. SAP faculty and language instructors offer classes in Bengali, Hindi, Nepali, Pali, Persian, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sinhala, Tamil, Tibetan, and Urdu.
The SAP steering committee provides internal faculty leadership from SAP's core faculty, collaborating with the director to set goals and priorities for SAP and to develop innovative programming and curricula related to South Asia.
The SAP advisory council is composed largely of persons based outside Cornell. With the aim of making our governance structure more global, the advisory council ensures that SAP fulfills its intellectual and educational mission in a rapidly changing international context.
SAP hosts visiting scholars from South Asia and elsewhere, including Fulbright fellows, our own South Asian Studies fellows, and other scholars, writers, and artists, who collaborate with Cornell faculty and students on South Asia Program activities.
SAP awards Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships to outstanding students pursuing South Asian language and area studies. The U.S. Department of Education allocates these highly competitive four-year grants to SAP in recognition of our world-class language and area study program.
SAP staff have years of combined experience working in international studies, and they play an active role in enhancing the world's knowledge about South Asia.
Visiting Scholar, and Former Professor, Department of Global Development
Geographic Research Area: India
Teaching/Research Interests: Population studies, reproductive health and family planning, gender and development, child health and mortality, and culture and demographic behavior
Sarah Besky is Professor of the Anthropology of Work in the Department of Global Labor & Work at the ILR School. Her research explores the intersection of inequality, nature, and capitalism in the Himalayas.
Isha is a MS/PhD student in the Department of Global Development. Her research interests include the study of gender, as a system of knowledge and as practice, specifically in relation to patterns of fertility and the family, with a regional focus on India.
Old Dominion Foundation Professor in the Humanities, Asian Studies
Anne M. Blackburn the Old Dominion Foundation Professor in the Humanities of South Asia studies and Buddhist studies in the Department of Asian Studies at Cornell University. She received her BA from Swarthmore College and MA and PhD degrees from the University of Chicago.
Daniel Boucher's research focus is Buddhist studies, particularly the early development of the cluster of Indian Buddhist movements called the Mahayana and their transmission to China in the first few centuries of the Common Era.
Vincent is a PhD candidate in the Asian Religions doctoral program of the Department of Asian Studies. He has received a 2016-17 Fulbright Student Fellowship to conduct his research over the next year in India.
Allen R. Carlson is an associate professor of government. He earned his PhD from Yale University’s Department of Political Science. His undergraduate degree is from Colby College.
