HYI Workshop on “South Asian Studies in China” in collaboration with NYU Shanghai

To further promote teaching and research on South Asian Studies among doctoral students and junior faculty members in the humanities and social sciences in China, the Harvard-Yenching Institute, in collaboration with the Center for Global Asia at NYU Shanghai, will convene the “South Asian Studies in China” Workshop from November 26 to 28, 2026, at NYU Shanghai. Up to 20 doctoral students and junior faculty members (at the Assistant Professor level) in the field of South Asian Studies affiliated with universities in mainland China will be selected to participate in the workshop. Participants will have to be PRC citizens. No registration fee is required to attend the conference, and round-trip travel, accommodation, and meals are provided for selected applicants.

Interested applicants should submit the following materials (in English) by email:

• Application form
• Curriculum Vitae
• Research Proposal (limited to 3 pages, double spacing, with one additional page for bibliography)
• A writing sample
• 2 letters of recommendation

to southasia.workshop.cga@gmail.com by August 1, 2026. Applicants will be notified of the result by September 1, 2026.

You may contact the following lead faculty for questions and clarifications

Tansen Sen at tansen.sen@nyu.edu
Sangeeta Banerji at sb9631@nyu.edu

Upon the completion of the workshop, participants will have an opportunity to apply for the Harvard-Yenching Institute’s fellowship in South Asian Studies in China for the 2027-28 academic year. The HYI representative will share further information and guidelines on the fellowship application and selection process at the workshop.

For the 2027-28 academic year, the Harvard-Yenching Institute plans to select 2 outstanding young fellowship recipients (including doctoral students and faculty who have completed their doctorate within the past 7 years) in the field of South Asian Studies to come to the HYI for a one-year research stay. To be eligible to apply for this opportunity, applicants are required to attend this two-and-a-half-day training workshop first. A list of past recipients of the HYI fellowship can be found on the HYI website.

Please help us publicize the workshop announcement among your promising students and junior faculty in South Asian Studies and encourage them to apply to attend the workshop that the Harvard-Yenching Institute and NYU Shanghai are jointly offering. The workshop participants must work on topics related to South Asian Studies in a discipline in the humanities or social sciences. There is no specific age limit, but we are seeking scholars in an early stage of their career development working on all social science and humanities areas of South Asian studies with an emphasis on academic (not applied or policy oriented) research.

Eligibility for both workshop participation and HYI fellowship program:

1. Applicants must be currently affiliated with a university or research institution in mainland China.
2. This opportunity is limited to P. R. China citizens.
3. Applicants who are faculty members should have received their doctorate within the past 7 years (2019 and after).
4. Applicants must be able to present their research in English, both orally and in writing.

Image: Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Loan from A. Soudavar in memory of his mother Ezzat-Malek Soudavar https://hvrd.art/o/365328