Mission
The center's mission is to promote a broader and deeper understanding of South Asia and its histories, cultures, and peoples. Our goals are to ensure that our students graduate with a greater global perspective and understanding; and to support innovative and advanced faculty research on international issues of major importance to the United States and the world.
To advance our mission, CSAS promotes education about South Asia; helps to recruit international faculty and to arrange visits by prominent scholars, artists, public officials, and others from across the globe; and supports collaborative research projects with scholars and institutions throughout the world. To increase the impact of these scholarly activities, CSAS also organizes public programs that place discussion of global issues at the forefront of our and the University's mission.
The center is committed to promoting a broader and deeper understanding of South Asia and its histories, cultures, and peoples by providing resources for faculty, students and the community to learn and disseminate knowledge about the region. Specifically, the center works to obtain this goal by:
- Supporting over forty faculty associates from seventeen University departments and professional schools
- Producing outstanding South Asia experts
- Consulting for the U.S. government, foundations and international agencies
- Assisting economic development, public health and population planning programs
- Collaborating on faculty exchanges with South Asian academic institutions
- Seeking opportunities for faculty and students to interact with people from the region
- Encouraging students to travel to the region for study, service, temporary employment or independent research
- Providing support to our faculty to secure grants for research in South Asia
- Bringing South Asian scholars from the region and elsewhere in the world to the University of Michigan to teach and use our library resources and research facilities
- Publishing monographs on humanistic studies, including language, literature, linguistics, art, music and history
- Organizing conferences, lectures and performances
- Conducting workshops and institutes for educators in primary, secondary and post- secondary schools
