PhD in South Asian Studies in Cambridge United States | Harvard University

The Department of South Asian Studies provides doctoral programs culminating in a Ph.D. degree. Graduate studies are customized to each student's academic pursuits, with the expectation that all doctoral candidates will engage deeply with primary language sources and contribute to interdisciplinary explorations of South Asian languages, histories, and cultures. The Department maintains long-established graduate tracks in Sanskrit and Indian Studies as well as Tibetan and Himalayan Studies. We encourage applicants to develop innovative doctoral proposals within South Asian Studies, which may focus on specific regions, academic disciplines, historical periods (including contemporary South Asia), or interdisciplinary approaches. South Asian Studies scholars have been at the forefront of groundbreaking interdisciplinary research worldwide, and our program aims to foster such scholarly innovation at Harvard. Language proficiency forms the cornerstone of all our Ph.D. programs, with faculty expertise spanning Hindi-Urdu (encompassing Avadhi, Braj, and modern variants), Middle Indic languages (Pali, Prakrit), Nepali, Sanskrit (Vedic and Classical), Tamil (both Classical and Modern), and Tibetan (Classical and Modern). The Department additionally facilitates instruction in Bahasa Indonesia, Bengali, Burmese, Gujarati, Sindhi, and Thai, while Persian courses are available through the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. Our approach stresses meticulous engagement with South Asian texts and traditions, their cultural and intellectual contexts, and the multidisciplinary methodologies required for their analysis. Students are urged to examine their research topics through historical lenses while considering their relevance to living South Asian traditions and current debates in humanities and social sciences.