Mission

In accordance with the mission and core values of UT Austin, SAI programs and activities support the expression of a wide variety of perspectives and viewpoints on the South Asia region and international affairs more generally. SAI’s core mission is to cultivate and sustain an academic space at UT Austin that supports scholarship, creative work, and community engagement opportunities focused on South Asia. SAI implements this mission through the following related objectives:

• Advance area and language studies in the broader field of South Asian Studies and support new scholarship and training that is vital to understanding how South Asia will transform in the coming decades.
• Produce globally-informed South Asia specialists prepared to meet the nation’s needs.
• Concentrate UT’s focus on South Asia and gather all related activities at UT within SAI by continually expanding our faculty, student, and departmental affiliations and by seeking unique, creative partnerships within UT as part of new grant opportunities and the development of new programs.
• Develop and implement academic programs, grants, sponsored events, and community projects and partnerships that lead to ground-breaking programs and generate international, national, regional, and statewide recognition.
• Continually enhance SAI’s position as a vibrant center for scholarship, teaching, public discourse, community engagement, and the comprehensive study of issues that impact the region of South Asia and its diverse communities and diasporas.