Profile
Founded in 1962 the South Asia Institute (SAI) of Heidelberg University (Germany) is an interdisciplinary research and teaching centre focussing on South Asia (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maledives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka). The SAI aims to impart intercultural competence by combining social and economic sciences with historically and philologically orientated cultural sciences. Students are taught at the following departments: Anthropology, Cultural and Religious History, Development Economics, Geography, History, International Economics, Modern South Asian Languages and Literatures, and Political Science. In order to improve communication and institutional exchange the SAI operates several branch offices in South Asia (Delhi, Islamabad, Kathmandu and Colombo). Based on a Memorandum of Understanding with Tribhuvan University (T.U.) the Kathmandu Office was founded in 1987. Since that time the Office cooperates with partners in the region of research. Close institutional links exist with the Centre for Nepal and Asian Studies (CNAS), which include jointly organised talk progammes of renowned scholars. Another partner is the Social Science Baha (SSB), who now publishes the “European Bulletin of Himalayan Research” (EBHR), edited at the SAI in Heidelberg. From 1st August 2011 onwards, the branch office has moved to Bhanimandal, Lalitpur in the neighbourhood of the UK Department For International Developmemnt (DFID) and the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC). It is there located in between the NGO Saathi and the Small Grant Program (SGP) of United Nations Development Project UNDP. It hosts a small library open to local and international visiting scholars. Research is carried out in quite a number of fields. Several members of the SAI are engaged in the high level Collaborative Research Centre on “Ritual dynamics” at Heidelberg University. Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), one of the sub-projects of this interdisciplinary research is dealing with “Life-cycle rituals in Nepal”. Others work on their graduate and postgraduate thesis’s.
OUR FOCUS:
EXCHANGE FOR DEVELOPMENT:
The aim of us as a regional branch of South Asia Institute is to improve cultural and institutional exchange for the development on both sides: Has our profile touched your interest? Can we serve you in any way of counseling or advice? Or would you like to work with us on Joint Programs; or can you supply or counsel us on Interesting Literature or are you interested on research opportunities as fieldwork or internships, then please do contact us at:
Address:South Asia Institute,
University of Heidelberg
Kathmandu Branch Office
Neer Bhavan,
Sanepa, Kathmandu
Nepal
Phone/Fax : 00977 1 5526915
Mobile : 9851053753
Email: kathmandu@sai.uni-heidelberg.de or
saiktm@mos.com.np
