COSAS at the University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is one of the leading centers for the study of Southern Asia.

Countries in which we have scholarly expertise in South Asia include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka; and in Southeast Asia, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Tibet (as an autonomous region), and Vietnam.

About COSAS

One of the largest concentrations of faculty working on Southern Asia at any major research university, COSAS members are University of Chicago faculty members engaged in significant research, publication and teaching related to the study of South and Southeast Asia.

Latest Announcements

Upcoming Events

All COSAS events are open to the public.

See All Events

Nov

SAS: Bodies and Buildings: Performing Arts and Performing Artists in the Temples of Classical and Medieval India

On November 7, 2024 at 5:00 pm

Nov

TAPSA: Encounters with Chinese Marxist Ideological Education: Tibetan Teenagers’ Moral Development and Practical Wisdom

On November 14, 2024 at 5:00 pm

Faculty Highlights

Chicago’s Southern Asia strength is built around the Committee on Southern Asian Studies (COSAS), comprised of faculty across the University who share teaching and research interests in Southern Asia.

The focus of the Committee on Southern Asian Studies (COSAS), which is supported through a University endowment, is to support and implement faculty and student academic and research projects that broadly encompass the study of South and Southeast Asia.

See All Highlights

Faculty Highlight: Sabina Shaikh

Q: Congratulations on the launch of your new book Our Urban Future: An Active Learning Guide to Sustainable Cities. Can you provide a brief summary of the work? Thank you! The book evolved from a "Big Problems" course I've been teaching with my colleague Emily Talen,...

Faculty Highlight: Wendy Doniger

Q: Congratulations on the publication of four new books in the last few years. Can you briefly summarize each? Winged Stallions and Wicked Mares: Horses in Indian Myth and History. Charlottesville and London: University of Virginia Press, 2021. New Delhi: ...

Faculty Highlight: C.M. Naim

Q: Congratulations on your new book Urdu Crime Fiction, 1890—1950: An Informal History. Can you provide a brief summary of the work? It is a chatty, ‘informal’ account of Urdu mysteries and thrillers written or published between 1890 and 1950. Crime fiction originated...

Faculty Highlight: Tyler Williams

Q: Congratulations on being awarded the AIIS Edward Cameron Dimock Jr. Prize in the Indian Humanities for your work If All the World Were Paper: A History of Writing in Hindi. Can you provide a brief summary of the book and its desired contribution to the field? If...

Faculty Highlight: Jason Grunebaum

Q: Congratulations on the launch of the SALT Project. Can you provide a brief summary of the project and its goals? Thank you! The project’s origin lies in many missing books. In particular, only 64 books translated from all South Asian languages have made it to US...

Faculty Highlight: Trevor Price

Q: Congratulations on all of your recent achievements, especially the launch of your new book Ecology of a Changed World. Can you provide a brief summary of the work? This is a textbook associated with my class “Ecology in the Anthropocene” which I am teaching this...

As of 2022-2023, the Committee has sixty-eight members. COSAS members represent approximately eighteen degree-granting departments and programs across the university.

Meet Our Faculty

COSAS members are University of Chicago faculty members engaged in significant research, publication and teaching related to the study of South and Southeast Asia. This is one of the largest concentrations of faculty working on Southern Asia at any major research university.

Members meet regularly to plan and implement programming and academic programs to enhance the study of Southern Asia at the University.

The University of Chicago is one of the leading centers for the study of Southern Asia.

Upcoming Events

SAS: Bodies and Buildings: Performing Arts and Performing Artists in the Temples of Classical and Medieval India

TAPSA: Encounters with Chinese Marxist Ideological Education: Tibetan Teenagers’ Moral Development and Practical Wisdom

Faculty Highlights

Faculty Highlight: Sabina Shaikh

Faculty Highlight: Wendy Doniger

Faculty Highlight: C.M. Naim

Faculty Highlight: Tyler Williams

Faculty Highlight: Jason Grunebaum

Faculty Highlight: Trevor Price

As of 2022-2023, the Committee has sixty-eight members. COSAS members represent approximately eighteen degree-granting departments and programs across the university.

Member Achievement: Paul Staniland, Professor of Political Science

Member Achievement: Michele Friedner, Professor and Chair in the Department of Comparative Human Development

Member Achievement: Paul Staniland, COSAS member and Professor of Political Science

Member Achievement: Matthew Kapstein, COSAS member and Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies

Member Achievement: Paul Staniland, COSAS member and Professor of Political Science

Member Achievement: Matthew T. Kapstein

Member Achievement: Paul Staniland