The Asian Institute has over one hundred affiliated scholars whose research focuses on the geopolitical region of Asia. Research at the Asian Institute is interdisciplinary and ranges from the humanities to the social sciences. Examples of this interdisciplinary approach are the Global Ideas Institute, the Contemporary Asian Studies undergraduate program, and the recent student run conference for Sustainable Development that examined how economic and social developments operate in the "regional" context.
The Centre for South Asian Studies is a constitutive unit of the Asian Institute at the Munk School of Global Affairs. Ritu Birla is the former director of the centre. CSAS was established in 1981 and is a key research centre of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at University of Toronto with core faculty across the University of Toronto's downtown St. George, UTSC and UTM campuses. CSAS hosts and organizes many public lectures and academic events throughout the school year. The CSAS examines "South Asia" and its regions as objects of knowledge, from mythic to governmental, to geopolitical, and "Postcolonial." CSAS programming addresses questions as wide-ranging as the workings of postcolonial democracy, law and activism; histories and contemporary configurations of the sacred and secular; political economy and cultures of capitalism; media, technology and the public sphere; the material and imaginative terrains of literary and visual cultures; and the present life of ancient civilizations.
Graduate and Undergraduate Study
CSAS does not grant undergraduate or graduate degrees, but has a collaborative program for students interested in pursuing a MA or PhD who have already been accepted to study at the University of Toronto. The Collaborative Master's and Doctoral Program in South Asian Studies focuses on basic methodological grounding for students working towards their research degrees. The program builds from an interdisciplinary and critical study of South Asia and as starting point to examine the development of global processes. The CSAS offers a minor in South Asian Studies for undergraduate students that is a part of the Contemporary Asian Studies program at the Asian Institute. The South Asian Studies minor begins with an introduction into the study of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Students can also take a variety of undergraduate courses from other departments and faculties that can be used toward a CSAS minor.
, "Nationalism, Internationalism and Cosmopolitanism: Some Observations from Modern Indian History." Chen Kaige, Xie Fei, Bart Testa, Chen Biqiang, on the panel, "A Century of Chinese Cinema: Buried Treasures of Chinese Silent Cinema." Elizabeth J. Perry's, "The Culture of Chinese Communist Resilience: Mining the Anyuan Revolutionary Tradition." Wang Hui's, "The Beginning of China's Twentieth Century: Revolution and Negotiation in the Era of 'Awakening of Asia.'"
, "Electronic Publication and the Critical Intellectual in the Post-Print Era: An Asia-Pacific Perspective." Saeed Naqvi's, "How Have 170 Million Indian Muslims Remained Moderate?" Arjun Appadurai's, "The New and the Now: Globalization and the Politics of the Déjà Vu." Dai Qing's, "China's "Rise" and the Environment's Decline."
Graduate and Undergraduate Study
Not all of the research centres that are a part of the Asian Institute offer taught programs, however, in association with the Dr. David Chu Program in Asia-Pacific Studies and the Centre for South Asian Studies, the Asian Institute runs several undergraduate and graduate programs.
