South Asia | Asian Studies Center

Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, MAldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka

Balwant-Dixit

Given Name:

Balwant

Family Name:

Dixit

Photograph:

Rank:

Professor Emeritus

Department:

Pharmacy

Office:

559 Salk Hall, Pittsburgh, PA 15261

Office phone number:

(412) 648-8582

Regional specialty:

South Asia

India

Email Address:

bdixit@pitt.edu

Region:

South Asia

Area of specialization:

Therapeutic effectiveness of indigenous medical herbal preparations

Biography:

Balwant Narayan Dixit was born in a small village in India. After completing his high school education in 1949, he entered Fergusson College in Pune. His goal was to become a physician. His plans changed, however, when, in 1949 his father died suddenly. He instead trained as a custom tailor to help support his education. While running his own business, he earned two B.S. degrees–one in biology and one in industrial chemistry, followed by an M.S. degree in biochemistry. Dixit then accepted a position as a research assistant in pharmacology at Baroda Medical College. For six years he worked with a team of investigators evaluating the therapeutic effectiveness of several indigenous medical herbal preparations. Dixit continued his education and was awarded an M.S. degree in Pharmacology. Dixit came to the University of Pittsburgh as an International Fellow in Pharmacology and after completing his Ph. D. in 1965 was appointed assistant professor.  With subsequent promotions, in 1973 he was selected to chair the Department of Pharmacology.  During his two-year tenure (1976-78) as the Interim Dean of the School of Pharmacy, Dixit reorganized programs in the School of Pharmacy and established the Departments of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmaceutics, as well as a program in Clinical Pharmacokinetics, a Drug Information Center, and a full service pharmacy in the Student Health Service. Dixit has also served as Associate Dean for graduate studies and research, Director of Affirmative Action, Director of the Animal Care Facilities and Director of Continuation Education in the School of Pharmacy. The faculty and the alumni of the School of Pharmacy selected Dixit for its Distinguished Alumnus Award. After 50 years of service at the University of Pittsburgh School Of Pharmacy, on January 31, 2013, Dixit retired as professor of pharmacology. Dixit has been active in university governance and has served on numerous school wide and university wide committees.  He was elected to the Faculty Assembly, the University Senate Council and the University Graduate Studies Council; currently he is an elected member of the Senate Budget Policies Committee, and it’s past Secretary.  Since his college years, Dixit had a strong interest in the performing arts, and soon after his arrival in Pittsburgh in 1962 he was instrumental in establishing the India Association of Pittsburgh. Then in 1985, Dixit coordinated all classical music programs for the Festival of India in U.S.A. Subsequently, Dixit established the Center for the Performing Arts of India (CPAI) as an exchange agreement between the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and the University of Pittsburgh. Since then, each year the Center invited leading Indian classical musicians who visited various universities and colleges throughout the United States to present concerts, workshops and lecture demonstrations. The Center became nationally recognized for the quality of its programs and its organization. Since its inception CPAI organized some 80 concert tours and presented over 1,800 performances of Indian classical music at numerous venues, including more than 70 universities and colleges throughout USA and Canada.  Dixit has been able to raise an amount close to 2 million dollars to support the activities of CPAI.  CPAI has no staff and it is an entirely as a voluntary effort.   Dixit receives no financial compensation from anyone or any organization for his work as the Director of CPAI. For his work in promoting the performing arts of India, Dixit has received the following awards: (1) Distinguished Service Award of the Asian Studies Program of the University of Pittsburgh, (2) Pride of India Award of the Indian American Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, presented by the Mayor of the City of Pittsburgh, (3) Lifetime Recognition Award presented by the University of Nebraska organization RAAG, (4) the title of Kala Vipanchee, presented by Padmavibhushan Balmuralikrishna, at a special function held at the Madras Music Academy in 1999, (5) Award of Excellence presented by the Brihan Maharashtra Mandal of North America at their national convention at Calgary, Canada in 2001, (6) Chhandayan Jyotsna Award presented by Chhandayan of New York in 2005, (7) Seva Rathna Award(Distinguished Service Award), presented on April 15, 2006, by Bhairavi Fine Arts Society of USA at the 29th Thyagaraja Music Festival, Cleveland, OH. (8) Lifetime Recognition Awardfor the promotion of Indian classical music throughout USA & Canada, presented in 2007 byBasant Bahar, a premier cultural organization located in Bay Area (California). Dixit has conducted a study on the “Performance Related Injuries by Indian instrumental musicians.”  His current interest is in investigating and understanding the scope of, "Mental Illness, Alcoholism and Substance Abuse in Indian Immigrants to North America." As well as studying “Retirement Options for Indian Immigrants to USA.”

Patrick-Beckhorn

Given Name:

Patrick

Family Name:

Beckhorn

Photograph:

Rank:

Graduate Student

Department:

Anthropology

Regional specialty:

Asia

South Asia

India

Email Address:

pwb5@pitt.edu

Region:

South Asia, India

Area of specialization:

labor, migration, and gender in South Asia

Staff Title:

Graduate Student

Biography:

Professor Patrick Beckhorn is a graduate student at the University of PIttsburgh Department of Anthropology whose studies focus on labor, migration, and gender in South Asia, specifically India.  He focuses on cycle rickshaw pullers in Delhi and North India.  His interests of study are in migrant support networks, different scales and experiences of time regarding migration patterns,  the relationship between circular migration and masculinity in India, and anarchic elements of informal laborers' social organization.

Vijai P.-Singh

Given Name:

Vijai P.

Family Name:

Singh

Photograph:

Rank:

Professor

Department:

Sociology

Office:

2607 Wesley W. Posvar Hall

Office phone number:

412-624-7563

Regional specialty:

South Asia

India

Email Address:

singh@pitt.edu

Area of specialization:

Sociology of Science; Inequality; Scientific Innovations and Economic Transformation; Urban Policy; Comparative Study of the Processes of Production of Scientific Knowledge in the U.S. and Western Europe, and the Role of Political, Economic, and Social Institutions; Sustainable Development, Poverty, and Economic Policies at Federal and Local Levels in India

Qualifications:

PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1970

Phil-Williams

Given Name:

Phil

Family Name:

Williams

Photograph:

Rank:

Professor Emeritus

Department:

Public and International Affairs

Office:

3932 Wesley W. Posvar Hall

Office phone number:

412-648-7637

Regional specialty:

South Asia

Email Address:

ridgway1@pitt.edu

Qualifications:

PhD, University of Southampton, 1988

Publications:

2012 “The Terrorism Debate Over Mexican Drug Trafficking Violence” in Terrorism and Political

Violence, Vol. 24, No. 2; Special Issue: Intersections of Crime and Terror.

2010 “Organized Crime in Iraq: Strategic Surprise and Lessons for Future Contingencies.” Prism Vol 1 No. 2, pp. 47-68.

2010 “Afterword: criminal violence in Mexico – a dissenting analysis”, with Paul Kan, Small Wars & Insurgencies, Vol. 21, No. 1, (Special Issue: Narcos Over the Border: Gangs, Cartels, Mercenaries and the Invasion of America).

Jennifer Brick-Murtazashivili

Given Name:

Jennifer Brick

Family Name:

Murtazashivili

Photograph:

Rank:

Associate Professor

Department:

Public and International Affairs

Office:

412-648-7611

Office phone number:

3619 Wesley W. Posvar Hall

Regional specialty:

Asia

South Asia

Email Address:

jmurtaz@pitt.edu

Area of specialization:

Political Economy of Development; Politics of Central and South Asia; Politics of the Former Soviet Union; Afghanistan; State Building; Informal Institutions and Customary Governance; Political Islam

Biography:

Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili is an Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. She is writing a book on the role of customary and village governance in the state-building process in Afghanistan for which she conducted interviews and focus groups in more than 30 Afghan villages across six provinces over the span of two years. In the policy world, she has managed U.S. Government democracy assistance for the United States Agency of International Development in Uzbekistan and drafted legislative materials for the new Afghan Parliament as a consultant for the United Nations Development Program in Kabul. She has lived for more than seven years in various parts of Central Eurasia, primarily in Uzbekistan and Afghanistan. Jennifer was a research fellow at the Institute for Legal Studies at the University of Wisconsin - Madison Law School and served as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Uzbekistan. She has a Ph.D. in Political Science and a M.A. in Agricultural and Applied Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison as well as a B.S.F.S. from Georgetown University.

Qualifications:

PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2009

Publications:

2012 “Colored by Revolution: The Political Economy of Autocratic Stability in Uzbekistan.” Democratization

2012 “Soviet Union in Central Asia,” in Volume 4: Cultural Sociology of West, Central, and South Asia; Part 3, 1900 to Present: Soviet Union in Central Asia

2012 “Osama bin Laden,” in Volume 4: Cultural Sociology of West, Central, and South Asia; Part 3, 1900 to Present: Soviet Union in Central Asia

Mrinalini-Rajagopalan

Given Name:

Mrinalini

Family Name:

Rajagopalan

Photograph:

Rank:

Associate Professor

Department:

History of Art and Architecture

Office:

221 Frick Fine Arts Building

Office phone number:

412-648-2400

Regional specialty:

South Asia

Email Address:

mrr55@pitt.edu

Region:

South Asia

Area of specialization:

Global Histories of Modern Architecture & Urbanism; Comparative Histories of Preservation around the World and Particularly in India; Architectural History; Theory and Criticism of Modern and Contemporary Architecture in non-Western Contexts

Biography:

Mrinalini Rajagopalan is an architectural historian of India and is particularly interested in the impact of British colonialism on the architectural, urban, and preservation cultures of modern India. She is currently working on a book manuscript tentatively titled: Building Histories: The Construction and Contestation of Delhi’s Architectural Heritage from the Colonial Past to the Postcolonial Present. She is also co-editor of Colonial Frames, Nationalist Histories: Imperial Legacies, Architecture, and Modernity. At Pitt she offers courses on modernist architecture in Western and non-Western contexts; global urbanisms in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; and the history of architectural preservation. Before coming to Pitt, Rajagopalan held fellowships at Yale University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and New York University. She was also a visiting scholar at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in 2010.

Qualifications:

PhD, University of California, Berkeley, 2007

Publications:

2012 Colonial Frames, Nationalist Histories: Imperial Legacies, Architecture, and Modernity (Surrey, U.K.: Ashgate Publishing Limited). Co-edited with Madhuri Desai.

2012 “From Colonial Memorial to National Monument: The Case of the Kashmiri Gate, Delhi” in Mrinalini Rajagopalan and Madhuri Desai, eds., Colonial Frames, Nationalist Histories: Imperial Legacies, Architecture, and Modernity (Surrey, U.K.: Ashgate Publishing Limited), pgs. 73-101.

2011 “A Medieval Monument and its Modern Myths of Iconoclasm: The Enduring Contestations over the Qutb Complex in Delhi, India” in Dale Kinney and Richard Brilliant, eds., Reuse Value: Spoliation and Appropriation in Art and Architecture from Constantine to Sherrie Levine

Shalini-Puri

Given Name:

Shalini

Family Name:

Puri

Photograph:

Rank:

Associate Professor

Department:

English

Office:

609A Cathedral of Learning

Office phone number:

412-624-2824

Regional specialty:

South Asia

Email Address:

spuri@pitt.edu

Region:

South Asia

Area of specialization:

Postcolonial Literary and Cultural Studies; Caribbean Studies; Feminism; Marxism

Biography:

Shalini Puri works on postcolonial theory and cultural studies of the global south with an emphasis on the Caribbean. Her award-winning book The Caribbean Postcolonial: Social Equality, Post-Nationalism, and Cultural Hybridity explores the relations amongst nationalisms, feminisms, and assesses various theories and histories of cultural hybridity. She continues to be interested in researching the cultural practices, conflicts, and solidarities which have arisen out of the overlapping African and Asian diasporas set in motion by slavery and indentureship. She is completing a book entitled The Grenada Revolution in the Caribbean Present: Operation Urgent Memory, which studies the conflicting cultural memories of the Grenada Revolution as they surface in the arts, everyday life, landscape, and the diaspora. It explores the legacies of the Grenada Revolution for egalitarian politics in the region. She is co-editor (with Kofi Campbell) of the Palgrave Macmillan series New Caribbean Studies.

Qualifications:

PhD, Cornell University, 1994

Publications:

2013 “Finding the Field: Notes on Caribbean Cultural Criticism, Area Studies, and the Forms of Engagement.” Small Axe 41: 58-73; special issue on “What is Caribbean Studies?”

2011 “Memory-Work, Field-Work: Reading Merle Collins and the Poetics of Place.” Routledge Companion to Caribbean Literature. Eds. Alison Donnell and Michael Bucknor. Routledge.

2010 “Introduction: Legacies Left,” Legacies Left: Radical Politics in the Caribbean Special Issue of Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies 12.1: 1-10.

Neepa-Majumdar

Given Name:

Neepa

Family Name:

Majumdar

Photograph:

Rank:

Associate Professor

Department:

Film and Media Studies

Office:

617K Cathedral of Learning

Office phone number:

412-624-5578

Regional specialty:

South Asia

Email Address:

nmajumda@pitt.edu

Region:

South Asia

Area of specialization:

Film and Media Studies; Cultural Studies; South Asian Cinema

Biography:

Neepa Majumdar is Associate Professor of English and Film Studies. Her research interests include star studies, film sound, South Asian early cinema, documentary film, and questions of film history and historiography. Her book Wanted Cultured Ladies Only: Female Stardom and Cinema in India, 1930s to 1950s (University of Illinois Press, 2009) won an Honorable Mention in the 2010 Best First Book Award of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies. Her essays have appeared in The Canadian Journal of Film Studies, South Asian Popular Culture, and Post Script, as well as collections such as The Continuum Companion to Sound in Film and Visual Media (ed. Graeme Harper, 2009), Film Analysis: A Norton Reader (ed. R. L. Rutsky and Jeffrey Gieger, 2005), and Soundtrack Available: Essays on Film and Popular Music, (ed. Arthur Knight and Pamela Wojcik, 2001).

Qualifications:

PhD, Indiana University, Bloomington, 2001

Publications:

2012 “Teaching Indian Cinema: The Burden of Representation and Other Dilemmas of National Cinema Pedagogy” in Teaching Film, eds. Lucy Fischer and Patrice Petro

2011 “Importing Neorealism, Exporting Cinema: Indian Cinema and Film Festivals in the 1950s,” Global Neorealism: The Transnational History of a Film Style. Eds. Robert Sklar and Saverio Giovacchini, University Press of Mississippi,

2010 “Sant Tukaram (1936),” The Cinema of India: 24 Frames Series. Ed. Lalitha Gopalan Wallflower Press

Susan Zulema-Andrade

Given Name:

Susan Zulema

Family Name:

Andrade

Photograph:

Rank:

Associate Professor

Department:

English

Office:

628L Cathedral of Learning

Regional specialty:

South Asia

Email Address:

sza@pitt.edu

Region:

South Asia

Area of specialization:

Comparative Literature

Biography:

Susan Z. Andrade is associate professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh and is affiliated with the French and Italian department as well as with the programs in African Studies, Asian Studies, Cultural Studies, and Women’s Studies. Her book on gender politics, public sphere politics, and women’s literary traditions, The Nation Writ Small: African Fictions and Feminisms, 1958-1988, was published by Duke UP in 2011. She co-edited Atlantic Cross-Currents/Transatlantiques (Africa World Press, 2001) and guest-edited a special issue on comparative African fiction for the journal, NOVEL, in 2008. With David Shumway of Carnegie Mellon University, she organized the Realisms Seminar in 2008-9. She is currently working on Realism (versus Modernism) in postcolonial literatures from Africa and South Asia, much of which has been presented at the Modernist Studies Association. In December 2011, she organized a conference at Pitt on Anglophone Asian Novels, which is part of a large project on the novel in Asia. Andrade is specialist reader in postcolonial studies for the PMLA Advisory Committee. She also serves on the Editorial Board of Ariel: A Review of International English Literature and Research in African Literatures. She will be in India from January to May 2014 on a Senior Scholar Fulbright-Nehru Award.

Qualifications:

PhD, University of Michigan, 1992

Publications:

2012 “Realism, Reception, 1968, and West Africa” in Modern Language Quarterly special issue, “Peripheral Realisms,” 73.3: 289-308.

2011 “Representing the Slum Non-Magically” in Legacies of Modernism: Historicizing Contemporary Fiction. Ed. David James, Cambridge UP, pp. 253-278.

2011 “Adichie’s Genealogies: National and Feminine Novels” Research in African Literatures 42.2: 91-101.

M. Najeeb-Shafiq

Given Name:

M. Najeeb

Family Name:

Shafiq

Photograph:

Rank:

Professor

Department:

Education

Office:

5911 Wesley W. Posvar Hall

Office phone number:

412-648-1832

Regional specialty:

Email Address:

mnshafiq@pitt.edu

Region:

South Asia

Area of specialization:

Economics of Education; Education Reform; Social Benefits of Education; Human Capital Decisions; Development Economics; Comparative Education; Labor Economics; Behavioral Economics

Qualifications:

PhD, Columbia University, 2005

Publications:

2014 “Are student protests in Arab states caused by economic and political grievances? Empirical evidence from the 2006-07 Arab Barometer,” Peabody Journal of Education 89(1).

2013 “Gender gaps in mathematics, science and reading achievements in Muslim countries: A quantile regression approach,” Education Economics 21(4), pp. 343-359.

2013 “Accounting for risk of non-completion in private and social rates of return to higher education,” Journal of Education Finance 39(1), pp. 73-95.