South Asia @ UNSW

UNSW Arts & Social Sciences has a vibrant network of scholars who research and teach in South Asian studies across a number of new and traditional humanities and social sciences disciplines, including:

  • anthropology
  • history
  • development studies
  • politics
  • international relations
  • media and literary studies
  • gender studies
  • race and ethnicity
  • the study of border regions, insurgency and militarism

Together, we conduct seminars and organise workshops to discuss research, working with established research clusters in the Faculty such as Imperial, Colonial and Transnational Histories, Asian Media Cultures and Globalisation and Governance.

Our activities align with the UNSW 2025 Strategic Plan which strongly supports research relevant to the Asia-Pacific/Indo-Pacific regions and a commitment to building collaborative institutional and scholarly links with India.

Activities
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Staff associated with South Asia @ UNSW are actively involved in a range of national and international activities including conferences and other special events.

Events at UNSW

For a full list of upcoming and past South Asia events at UNSW, visit our events calendar.

Publications & Journals
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South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies

UNSW is the home of South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, supporting its editor, Associate Professor Kama Maclean, in publishing interdisciplinary scholarly research on the region. Published since 1971, the journal was the first in South Asian studies and it maintains a proud tradition of publishing innovative, peer-reviewed articles, in four issues per year.

Australian Asian Studies Association South Asia Series

UNSW is also the host of the Australian Asian Studies Association South Asia book series edited by Professor Duncan McDuie-Ra and published by Routledge.

Teaching & Research
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UNSW Arts & Social Sciences offers two undergraduate courses on South Asia – Modern India (ARTS2210) and Powerful India (ARTS3212) – offering critical opportunities for research training (including honours) and student mentoring in the field, unavailable at any other institution in Australia.

Our network also collaborates to supervise higher degree research students that fall into our respective areas of expertise.

Recent & Current Higher Degree Students

  • John Zubrzycki: ‘Transnational exchanges in magical knowledge and methodologies, India and the west’
  • Mayuri Sengupta: ‘The Politics of Development among the Reang of Tripura’
  • Rabia Gul Ali: ‘Women and Empowerment Initiatives in Chitral, Pakistan'
  • Yvette Selim: ‘Transitional Justice in Nepal’
  • Matthew Wilkinson: ‘Sovereignty and Masculinity in Nagaland’
  • Roanna Gonsalves: ‘Up Sky Down Sky Middle Water: A collection of short fiction and Writers v/s Money: Negotiating the field of Indian literature in English'
  • John Solomon: ‘Identity Evolution in the Diaspora: the Gradual Disappearance of Untouchability and the Negotiation of Tamil Ethnicity in Singapore, 1819-1965’
  • Nayana Bibile: 'Cartographies of Resettlement: The Performativity of Containment and the Ontological Uncertainties of Certainty'