Sanskrit Dept. To Change Name, in Pursuit of Interdisciplinary Work

The Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies has laid out plans to adopt a more interdisciplinary focus as the renamed Department of South Asian Studies—a move, if approved, that professors hope would attract more concentrators and faculty affiliated with other departments.

If the proposal—discussed at a departmental meeting earlier this month—is approved by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in the fall, the department will draw from other departments like anthropology, history, religion, folklore and mythology, music, and archeology to expand its current faculty from eight to 15 professors, according to Sanskrit Professor Michael E. J. Witzel.

The change would also allow the department—which had only three declared undergraduate concentrators this past year—to offer a wider range of courses under a single department and possibly specific tracks within the concentration in the future.

Given current financial constraints—FAS has yet to close at least a $35 million budget deficit—Witzel said that the department would likely wait to bring new hires from outside Harvard.

“These days, you cannot really ask for new positions,” Witzel said.

The change in departmental structure was initially slated to take place this spring, but details of the plan were not finalized in time for an official vote at this year’s final Faculty meeting, according to Witzel.

“It has been on the books for quite a while. It just needed the right definition and the right push at the right moment,” said Witzel, who joined the department in 1986 and served as chair in the early 1990s.

Witzel added that South Asia’s increasing global presence has prompted the department to reevaluate its academic focus on the region.

Offering over 70 ancient and modern languages, Harvard boasts one of the most comprehensive university language programs nationwide, but Witzel noted that his department’s language courses are currently limited to Sanskrit, Tamil, Thai, Urdu-Hindi, Nepali, and Tibetan.

“It is like Europe missing all the romance languages,” Witzel said. “There are big gaps in the programs.”

Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies Diana L. Eck will serve as interim chair next academic year while current department chair Leonard van der Kuijp is on leave.

“Having a wider study of south Asia at Harvard is something that many generations—or at least one generation- have yearned for,” Eck said. “So we think this is a really positive development.”

The study of Sanskrit began at Harvard in 1872 when it was established as an elective for Latin studies. It was folded into the Department of Indo-Iranian Languages later in the decade and assumed its current name in 1951.

—Staff writer Noah S. Rayman can be reached at nrayman@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Elyssa A.L. Spitzer can be reached at spitzer@fas.harvard.edu.