Effects of Title VI cuts in US Area Studies

[Whitney Cox]

I just received this announcement today:

http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/32-million-grants-awarded-fulbright-hays-doctoral-dissertation-research-abroad

On 3 October 2012 09:23, Andrew Ollett <andrew.ollett at gmail.com> wrote:

> Actually, Title VI also covers the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation
> Research Abroad (DDRA) program. Many students of Sanskrit (and other
> premodern languages) have done research funded through this program. In FY
> 2011 it was cancelled due to major cuts in Title VI. In FY 2012 Title
> VI/Fulbright-Hays received about the same amount of funding as FY 2012, but
> the program was suddenly reinstated and awards have been made. Nothing
> definite as yet for FY 2013.
>
> See: http://www.nhalliance.org/bm~tags/title-vi/,
> http://www2.ed.gov/programs/iegpsddrap/index.html.
>
> On Wed, Oct 3, 2012 at 10:10 AM, Jonathan Silk <kauzeya at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> dear Madhav,
>>
>> Actually, although the rationale of this always escaped me, what you
>> wrote is not quite so: I indeed received two years of FLAS funding to study
>> Sanskrit with you in the 1980s! The story I always heard is that someone
>> found a census of India in which some village claimed Sanskrit as their
>> everyday tongue, and this qualified it under title VI. Whatever the truth
>> of the story was, it would indeed be difficult to make the case that
>> Sanskrit is a 'strategic language' in any normal sense of that expression!
>>
>> Very best, Jonathan
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Oct 3, 2012 at 3:54 PM, Madhav Deshpande <mmdesh at umich.edu>wrote:
>>
>>> Hello Tim,
>>>
>>>      Sanskrit has never been funded through the federal title VI money,
>>> since it was restricted to modern languages only.  For the sake of the
>>> modern languages of South Asia, we are all concerned about these cuts, and
>>> hope that the Congress will reinstate the money.  But given the political
>>> situation in the US Congress, I am very pessimistic.  Hope I am wrong.
>>>
>>> Madhav Deshpande
>>>
>>> On Wed, Oct 3, 2012 at 9:45 AM, Ulrich T. Kragh <utkragh at hum.ku.dk>wrote:
>>>
>>>>  Dear members of the Indology List,
>>>> I have heard and read that the US Congress in 2011 made a nearly 40%
>>>> (ca. $50 Mill.) cut in the federal Title VI funding to all language
>>>> programs and Area Studies in the USA. For background information, see for
>>>> example:
>>>>
>>>> http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/04/15/international_education_takes_hit_in_2011_budget
>>>>
>>>> I would like to know, especially from the American members of the list,
>>>> whether and how these cuts have affected programs of Sanskrit, Hindi,
>>>> Tamil, and Indian studies in the USA and/or in the study-abroad programs.
>>>>
>>>> Further, is there any news as to whether the lost funding will be
>>>> reinstated in the 2012 budget now being negotiated in the Congress or are
>>>> the cuts likely to remain?
>>>>
>>>> From a concerned European colleague,
>>>> Tim
>>>>
>>>> Dr. Ulrich Timme Kragh
>>>> IIAS, Leiden University
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Madhav M. Deshpande
>>> Professor of Sanskrit and Linguistics
>>> Department of Asian Languages and Cultures
>>> 202 South Thayer Street, Suite 6111
>>> The University of Michigan
>>> Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1608, USA
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> J. Silk
>> Instituut Kern / Universiteit Leiden
>> Leiden University Institute for Area Studies, LIAS
>> Johan Huizinga Building, Room 1.37
>> Doelensteeg 16
>> 2311 VL Leiden
>> The Netherlands
>>
>>
>


-- 


Dr. Whitney Cox
Senior Lecturer in Sanskrit
Department of the Languages and Cultures of South Asia,
SOAS, University of London
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square
London WC1H 0XG


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