Doctor of Philosophy in History - South Asia

South Asia as a region of study spans the modern nation-states of Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives, Bhutan, and Burma. Home to nearly 1.8 billion people, it is the most populous geographic and cultural region in the world. South Asia is also one of the most linguistically diverse regions in the world. With around 650 languages across four language families (Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic, and Tibeto-Burman), it is the site of diverse literary and historical traditions. It has a key place in historiographical developments in ancient, medieval, and modern periods. Substantial South Asian diasporic populations currently reside in Europe, North America, the Caribbean, Australia, the Pacific islands, and Africa.
The Department of History has a strong specialization in modern South Asian history covering wide topics of social, economic, and cultural history within South Asia and the Indian Ocean World. Faculty share historical and thematic emphases on gender, religion, class, politics, and labor, and employ interdisciplinary methods in their research and pedagogy, drawing on anthropology, feminist political economy, and religious studies. The department also benefits from the expertise of faculty in the history of the British Empire, Middle Eastern history, and African history. Faculty affiliates include South Asia specialists in Global Studies and Religious Studies alongside scholars who regularly teach South Asian topics in Film and Media Studies and Political Science. This makes interdisciplinary and transnational research one of the key strengths of our department's South Asia program. For qualification in the field of South Asian history, the Department of History offers the following six courses which count towards requirements for South Asia examinations as either first, second, or third field in the Ph.D. degree.