Ashoka Faculty Exchange Visits in Monsoon 2023
Ashoka faculty members participate in exchange programmes at Amherst College, USA & Linnaeus University, Sweden
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Under the aegis of the Faculty Exchange Programme between Ashoka University & Amherst College, Asst. Professor Sanjukta Datta of Ashoka’s History department visited Amherst, a liberal arts college in Massachusetts, USA in October 2023.
During her visit Prof Datta met several colleagues and senior leaders at Amherst. She gave a public lecture titled, ‘Visible Absence, Invisible Presence: Monastic Management at Mahābodhi’ that was very well received. She also delivered two class lectures for courses, one for Religion in Ancient India, offered by Prof. Maria R. Heim and the second for South Asia in the World until 1800 CE, offered by Mekhola S. Gomes, Assistant Professor, Department of Asian Languages & Civilizations and History at Amherst. Furthermore, she participated and attended a class for courses of her interest like, The Holocaust, offered by Adi Gordon and Visual Culture of the Islamic World, offered by Yael R. Rice both at Amherst.
Beyond Amherst College, Prof. Datta presented her research at the Five College Buddhist Studies Faculty Seminar, run by scholars of Buddhist Studies affiliated to The Five College Consortium (Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and University of Massachusetts) in western Massachusetts.
She also found time to go across to University of Massachusetts, (UMAss) another Ashoka partner, and met with team members in the International Programmes office. She also caught up with Mansi Bahl and Darshith S., two Ashoka undergraduate students on a semester abroad programme at UMass.
She reported that “What stood out to me about Amherst College’s robust liberal arts program is the kind of institutionalized, critical support system that is available for undergraduate teaching in an environment that sustains a remarkably diverse student population. Moreover, a very supportive leave policy also ensures that faculty is able to devote adequate time for their own research and steadily produce stellar research.
The monsoon semester also saw Gaurav Garg, Assistant Professor in the Department of History, visit Linnaeus University (LU) in Sweden as part of a grant collaboration with Ashoka University.
Gaurav Garg gave a talk on “Writing Ontologies of Micro, Macro and In-between Spaces: Writing Urban History in the Age of Global History.” His second talk addressed students in the postcolonial studies MA program and was titled “Colonialism, Postcolonialism and Beyond: History and Modernity in Eric Shipton’s Nanda Devi.” Both talks were very well received.
Gaurav Garg gave a talk on “Writing Ontologies of Micro, Macro and In-between Spaces: Writing Urban History in the Age of Global History.” His second talk addressed students in the postcolonial studies MA program and was titled “Colonialism, Postcolonialism and Beyond: History and Modernity in Eric Shipton’s Nanda Devi.” Both talks were very well received.
Reflecting on his experience Garg said, “The Linnaeus visit was intellectually very stimulating. It was really great to connect with peers, colleagues, and research scholars working on the humanities (broadly) in Sweden and recognizing that even though we may work on different topics we are all confronted with and excited by similar intellectual challenges. I particularly appreciated the deep interest and engagement of the faculty at Linnaeus in my talk on the challenges of writing urban history in the era of global history. It was good to note that scholars from the North and South approach similar issues differently but with dialogue and open engagement, they can also reach broad areas of consensus.”
Eleonor Marcussen, Researcher in History at Linnaeus University and key host of the grant program that supported Prof Garg’s visit said, “Gaurav Garg presented in our master programmes seminar series, and held a class on mountain history that perfectly blended colonial history and environmental history for the interdisciplinary group of students in colonial and postcolonial studies at Linnaeus University. They were in particular intrigued by an exercise in primary source interpretation where Prof. Garg emphasized the importance of contextualized and critical reflection. Many of our students also attended Garg’s presentation on urban history and global history in the research seminar series the LNU Centre for Concurrences in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies.”
In this way continued efforts are made to build stronger ties between Ashoka and its partners. The GESP office pursues opportunities for faculty through Faculty Exchange Agreements and grant supported programmes to deepen institutional collaboration and cooperation, thus bringing opportunities for faculty at Ashoka to engage with their counterparts across the globe.
