A student committee recently finished an entirely student-compiled South Asian Studies Report, which calls for an expansion of South Asian studies at Duke.
The report, approved as a resolution by Duke Student Government two weeks ago, recommends short, intermediate and long-term changes to the University's curriculum-including more diverse South Asian course offerings, the creation of a South Asian Studies certificate and a Center for South Asian Studies.
The South Asian Studies Committee was commissioned by Diya to write the report after the Facebook group titled Duke South Asian Studies Initiative, which was created last Fall to assess student interest, received a positive response, said Diya Political Chair Aneesh Kapur, a junior.
Junior Tariq Mohideen, DSG liaison to the Duke South Asian Studies Committee, said the group researched South Asian departments at Duke's peer institutions, talked to faculty and sent out a mass e-mail survey to Duke students to determine their interest in South Asian Studies.
The survey listed South Asia-related course titles offered at both Duke and its peer institutions and asked students to choose the ones they were most and least interested in, Kapur said.
Diya Co-president Shawn Kwatra, a senior and member of The Chronicle's independent editorial board, added that the survey responses showed overwhelming support for more South Asian Studies courses at Duke and that student demand was highest for courses not offered at the University.
"We have courses that exist in the culture and religion of South Asia in the broad sense, [but] nothing too specific," Mohideen said. "There really aren't any courses at all in public policy, economics and political science on this."
He added that students considering careers in consulting, business or investment banking are likely to be involved in South Asia as the area becomes a hub of globalization and an economic superpower, and they will need to be prepared for it.
"It's important that Duke has a South Asian [Studies] program not only because of the emerging role India plays in the world, but because it has such a fascinating culture and we can learn so much from it," said freshman Erica Jain, a member of the SAS committee.
The North Carolina Center for South Asia Studies-located at Duke-allows students from several universities in the Triangle area to take South Asia-related courses.
But Kwatra said awareness of the center is low, adding that students cannot be expected to take classes that are not available at Duke at other universities because of time lost due to transportation.
The report cited several of Duke's peer institutions as having successful South Asian Studies programs, including Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University.
Offerings at other institutions are more numerous and have more variety, committee members said. For example, Mohideen noted that actor Kal Penn is teaching a class in UPenn's South Asia Studies program.
DSG President Paul Slattery, a senior, helped the committee prepare the report for presentation to DSG and said the initiative's chances of solid implementation depend highly upon funding and the University's interest.
"If this is successful, it'll be a pretty substantial event in higher education or at least in Duke's history because you'll have generated an academic department and faculty hires based on the interest of the students, and that'll be fairly unique," Slattery said.
Freshman Karan Chhabra, a member of the committee, said the next steps for the initiative include meeting with administrators to discuss the report and trying to create a standing committee with faculty and students to continue the initiative's work.
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