South Asia Department Staff
Head of Department
Personal Advisors
Year 1- Please note all Year 1 UG students have been allocated an individual personal advisor
Year 2- Mr Naresh Sharma
Years 3/4 - Prof Rachel Dwyer
Undergraduate Admissions Tutor
Undergraduate Programme Convenors
Dr James Caron (BA South Asian Studies)
Dr Francesca Orsini (BA Sanskrit and...)
Dr Francesca Orsini (BA Bengali and...)
Dr Francesca Orsini (BA Hindi and...)
Prof Michael Hutt (BA Nepali and...)
Postgraduate Programme Convenors
Prof Michael Hutt (MA South Asian Studies & MA Languages and Cultures of South Asia)
Dr Amina Yaqin (MA in the Study of Contemporary Pakistan)
Research Tutor
Please note that for Masters Students the Admissions Tutor and Personal Tutor is the Postgraduate Programme Convenor.
Academic Staff
Rachel Dwyer
Professor of Indian Cultures and Cinema
Hindi Cinema; Indian popular culture; Indian film; Hinduism; new middle classes; Mumbai/Bombay; Gujarati language and literature; Gujarati diaspora esp UK and East Africa; comparative Indian literature. - Tel: 020 7898 4294
- Email: rd3@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 457
- On Sabbatical:2012-13, Terms 1 & 2
Michael J Hutt
Professor of Nepali and Himalayan Studies
Nepali literature; the Nepali media; Nepali politics; Bhutanese refugees. - Tel: 020 7898 4286
- Email: mh8@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 448
- Office Hours: Tuesdays 16:00-17:00/Thursdays 11:00-12:00
Francesca Orsini
Reader in the Literatures of North India
Hindi Literature; North Indian literary cultures; Hindi; Urdu. - Tel: 020 7898 4242
- Email: fo@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 419
- Office Hours: Thursday 10:00 - 12:00
Whitney Cox
Senior Lecturer in Sanskrit
Sanskrit literature and literary theory, Tamil literature, intellectual and cultural history of South India, History of Saivism - Email: wc3@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 458
- On Sabbatical:2012-13
Amina Yaqin
Senior Lecturer in Urdu and Postcolonial Studies
Urdu language and literature; post-colonial literature and theory; gender studies; South Asian literatures in English; feminism in a Third World context; gender and politics in Pakistan - Tel: 020 7898 4305
- Email: ay@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 470
- Office Hours: Wednesdays 10:00-12:00
James Caron
Lecturer in Islamicate South Asia
Islam in South Asia; Afghanistan and Pakistan; Indo-Persianate sociocultural history; transnational non-Western history; activism and social movements.
- Tel: 020 7898 4295
- Email: jc84@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 468
- Office Hours: Mondays 13:00-17:00 / Fridays By appointment
Senior Lectors
Rakesh Nautiyal
Senior Lector in Hindi
Hindi language - Tel: 020 7898 4304
- Email: rn17@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 454
- Office Hours: Wednesdays 11:30-13:30/Fridays 11:00-13:00
Krishna Pradhan
Senior Lector in Nepali
Nepali Language - Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4297
- Email: kp15@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 460
- Office Hours: Mondays 11:00 - 13:00
Naresh Sharma
Senior Lector in Urdu and Hindi
Urdu and Hindi language - Tel: 020 7898 4296
- Email: ns19@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 454
- Office Hours: Tuesdays 14:00-15:00 / Thursdays 14:00-15:00
Teaching Fellows
Sahana Bajpaie
Teaching Fellow in Bengali
- Email: sb165@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 419
- Office Hours: Fridays 11:00-13:00
William Radice
Teaching Fellow in Bengali; Research Associate
Bengali language and literature; Tagore; Michael Madhusudan Dutt; 19th century Bengal; literary translation; poetry in Bangladesh. - Email: wr@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 468
John Stevens
Teaching Fellow in Bengali
The interconnected histories of modern West Bengal, Bangladesh and Britain; comparative religion and political theology in India and Britain; postcolonial theory; the historical construction of gender, race, class and nation; social, cultural and transnational history. He is a regular visitor to India and Bangladesh for research purposes.
- Email: js98@soas.ac.uk
Research Associates
Louise Harrington
Research Associate
Comparative partitions; South Asian literature and film; Irish literature and film; colonial and postcolonial studies; transnational migration and diaspora studies.
- Email: lh11@soas.ac.uk
Mara Malagodi
Postdoctoral Research Associate
South Asian laws and politics, especially Nepal, India and Pakistan; comparative constitutional law; law and conflict; human rights
- Email: mm112@soas.ac.uk
Renate Söhnen-Thieme
Research Associate
Sanskrit language and literature; classical Indian religions; folklore and music of Baltistan - Tel: 020 7898 4293
- Email: rs2@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 376
Hanne-Ruth Thompson
Research Associate
Structural and descriptive linguistics, syntax, semantics, Bengali grammar and lexicography, philosophy of language
- Email: hr@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 468
Emeritus Professors
Christopher Shackle
Emeritus Professor of the Modern Languages of South Asia
Punjabi and Urdu languages and literatures; regional languages of Pakistan and North-West India; Sufism and Islam in South Asia; Sikhism and its scriptures; comparative literature of the Islamic world.
