Department of South & Southeast Asian Studies

Welcome to SSEAS

We offer training in 14 languages, and undergraduate and graduate degree programs in the histories, religions, cultures and textual traditions of a third of the world’s population. Our faculty specializes in all periods from the classical to the modern, in the fields of literature, history, and religious studies, and conducts research in India, Pakistan, Tibet, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

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Recent News

Professor Padmanabh Srivarma Jaini passes away

Our revered colleague, teacher and friend, Professor Padmanabh Srivarma Jaini, master of Buddhist and Jain Studies, passed away on Tuesday May 25, just five months shy from what would have been his 98th birthday. His health had been failing over the last weeks, and he…

Congratulations to Joi Barrios-LeBlanc!

We are thrilled to announce that Joi Barrios-LeBlanc has been duly recognized with the “Extraordinary Teaching in Extraordinary Times” award. The Awards Committee received more than 500 nominations. This is a tribute to the spirit of this campus, to be sure. But most of all,…

Sohini Sarah Pillai’s co-edited volume appears with SUNY Press

Graduate student Sohini Sarah Pillai’s co-edited volume, Many Mahabharatas, appears with SUNY Press.

Completed PhDs

Ryan Damron, 2021

Deyadharma — A Gift of the Dharma: The Life and Works of Vanaratna

Padma Maitland, 2021

The Great Wander: Buddhism, Travel, and the Hindi World

Sean Kerr, 2021

The Literary Abhidhamma Text: Anuruddha’s Manual of Defining Mind and Matter (Namarupapariccheda) and the Production of Pali Commentarial Literature in South India

Megan Hewitt, 2021

Ilmu Lan Laku: The Arts of Praxis in Indonesian Transformative Movements

Janet Um, 2021

Urban Space and the Poetics of Prose: The Works of Daṇḍin in Early-Medieval India

Lisa Brooks, 2021

Translating Touch in Ayurveda: Medicine Sense and Subjectivity in Early South Asia and Contemporary Kerala

Kat Gutierrez
2020
The Region of Imperial Strategy: Regino Garcia, Sebastián Vidal, Mary Clemens and the Consolidation International Botany in the Philippines, 1858-1936

Yusmarni Djalius
2019
Minangkabau Intellectuals and Radical Nationalism in British Malaya

Rebecca Whitington
2019
Tug-of-ear: The Play of Dialect in Modern Bengali and Tamil Literature

For the complete list Click Here

Upcoming Events

Asma Kazmi + Santhi Kavuri-Bauer | Crisis and Creativity, Oct 27

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NEW: Read the Fall 2020 Chair’s Newsletter

Department offices remain closed per the “Shelter in Place” order currently in effect. Please check faculty and staff individual pages for current contact information.