no chair of Sanskrit in London

[Lars Martin Fosse]

>
>Discussions are underway at SOAS within the Department for South Asian
>Studies (Head of Dept.: Dr Mike Hutt) about a successor for Prof. Wright,
>but at the present time things do not look promising, to say the very
>least.  SOAS is going through a period of severe belt-tightening, with
>cuts of over twenty teaching positions being necessary to balance the
>books, because of another round of government funding reductions.  When
>any post is vacated at present, it is viewed as "natural wastage", and no
>attempt is made to fill the post unless pressing reasons are evident for
>doing so.

Sad news, Dominik. Would you happen to know if there exists a list of
Sanskrit positions in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the United States?
I fear that Sanskrit positions would have to be defended in more than one
place in the years to come, and that it would be a good thing to collect all
relevant data on Sanskrit teaching in the "Western" world, that is in the
areas mentioned above. If we pool such data, anybody struggling to uphold a
threatened Sanskrit position would have a data base upon which to draw!

Best regards,

Lars Martin