Envisioning A University, Social Science and Academic Culture in South Asia: An Interview with Professor Sasanka Perera
Interview with
Professor Sasanka Perera, the Founding Chairman and Professor in the
Department of Sociology and Dean, Faculty of
Social Sciences of South Asian University (SAU).
Srimal Fernando (SF): Give a brief background of yourself?
Professor
Sasanka Perera (Professor): I had most of my
school education in Sri Lanka except for one year I spent in Australia in 1978 or so on a
scholarship. That was my real first opening to the world beyond
home. As part of growing up and going to
school, I have lived in different
parts
of the country. As government servants, whenever my parents were
transferred, they simply packed up their goods, collected their family
and went where they were asked to go. Unlike today, they did not seek
the intervention of politicians to make changes to their transfer
orders. But after we came to Colombo in 1971, we stayed there. My
undergraduate
education
was at the University of Colombo in the early 1980s where I studied
Sociology, Political Science and English. This time is important to me
for another very different reason, beyond academic matters as I also met
my wife there. I went to
University
of California in 1986 to study Anthropology. I had come to the
conclusion by this time that cultural anthropology offered me the best
possibilities for
more seriously studying the political upheavals Sri
Lanka
was experiencing at the time. From University of California, I received
my MA, CPhil and PhD degrees. From 1991 to 1992, I conducted post-
doctoral
research at Princeton University with Professor Gananath Obeyesekere. I
returned to Sri Lanka by late 1992 and joined the teaching staff of the
Department of Sociology in 1993. I resigned from the University of Colombo in 2011 to come to South Asian University.
For me though, my life is not only about academics; I write poetry when adequately inspired; I spend considerable time with
photography if I can find the time; I am
interested in blogging; and I have a passionate interest in
art, an interest which I share with my wife Anoli, who is a practicing
artist. I have now transformed my passion in art into an academic enterprise as well.
SF: From the point of view as the Dean of Social Sciences of South Asian University (SAU) in India, what is your opinion about the current university system of India?
Professor: India has such an extensive university system spread
across all kinds of levels, it is almost impossible to give a coherent
and extensive opinion. After all, unlike the relatively small university
system in Sri Lanka, India’s system includes central, state and private
universities, deemed universities and many many
colleges.
Despite the number, however, I can see that the quality of training
offered by these institutions vary considerably from place to place. On
the other hand, despite the thinking that has gone into creating major
universities, I can see in the Indian system the same kind of
deteriorations in academic quality I have seen in Sri Lanka and other
parts of
South
Asia. This has resulted from politics seeping into these institutions
in a very unhealthy manner as well these institutions’ inability to
attract the best possible people. This has ensured the rapid erosion of
the intellectual space we call ‘academic freedom.’ For me, being an
academic is not a matter of simply holding a job. It is a vocation; it
is a way of life; it is a passion; and above all, it is a
responsibility. To be all this, one needs a specific frame of mind in
addition to training. I am not sure if these attributes are shared by
many people who come to universities as teachers nowadays in India as
well as in South Asia more generally. Even so, it seems to me that some
key universities in India still have a core group of thinking people who
produce significant research which unfortunately we clearly miss in
countries like Sri Lanka. This is particularly more visible in the human
sciences as opposed to technical fields.
SF: How do you evaluate the South Asian University (SAU) performance within the University system within the South Asian countries?
Professor: South Asian University started operations only in 2010 and the
Faculty
of Social Sciences and all other programs except for Development
Economics and Computer Science in 2011. So it is still too early to talk
about an evaluation in a comprehensive sense. After all, we are
scholars, not magicians. We cannot build an institution by simply waving
a magic wand. In real terms, we are building an institution under very
difficult conditions when comparable institutions in the entire region
have undergone serious disruptions. In this context, I think we are
doing reasonably well though there is quite a bit of room for serious
improvements in the way we think and do things. But even so, if I am to
simply focus on my own Faculty, I am quite happy with the progress we
have made so far. Intellectually, I think we are doing quite well. We
have done so many things including designing of courses and
extra-curricular and outreach activities which usually takes more
traditional and established universities decades to do. Being relatively
small, I think helps quite a bit. We are not burdened with traditions.
In fact, we are in the process of building our own traditions, and
hopefully our own place in history which I hope we can be proud of in
the future. So let us wait for a few years and see how we actually
perform in South Asia.
SF: Can you name some of the major post graduate, masters, doctoral
courses and research programs that are being offered by the South Asian
University (SAU) to the South Asian and to other International students
outside the region?
Professor: At the moment, we offer programs both at the MA/MSC and Mphil/PhD levels. These are offered in
Sociology,
International Relations, Development Economics, Legal Studies, Computer
Science, Mathematics and Bio Technology. When the university goes into
its second phase, we are expected to have an undergraduate program as
well as an expansion of our current disciplinary makeup.
SF : Out of the current International student enrolment,
approximately how many numbers of students represent from India,
Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Afghanistan and the
Maldives and follow various courses at the Faculty of Social Sciences?
Professor: In terms of absolute numbers, if you take the two MA
batches in Sociology and International Relations in the Faculty at the
moment, we have 6 students from Afghanistan, 14 from Bangladesh, 2 from
Bhutan, 3 from Pakistan, 2 from Sri Lanka, 1 from the Maldives, 10 from
Nepal and 52 from India. From the two Mphil/PhD candidates in both IR
and Sociology, we have 2 from Afghanistan, 2 from Bangladesh, 2 from Sri
Lanka, 3 from Nepal and 6 from India. So we have some representation
from each South Asian country. But numbers also show that in my Faculty
as well as in the university more generally, some countries are
under-represented. The Maldives, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Pakistan are
among these. More specifically, what I mean is this: though students
come to our university even from these underrepresented countries, their
numbers do not come anywhere close to the seats available for them. As
far as I am concerned, some serious outreach work needs to be done
specially in these countries to attract more students to our Faculty as
well as to the university. But this is not simply the responsibly of the
university alone. After all, this is an initiative of SAARC for which
all the member states contribute financially. So I think the
organizations overseeing higher education in these countries also need
to play an active role in directing interested students towards our
university. After all, we conduct entrance examinations annually in all
the SAARC countries.
SF: What are your thoughts about your Faculty and the relationship with the past and present South Asian students?
Professor: Well, I can only offer a partial answer. The other part
will have to come from students themselves. Maybe you should also do an
interview like this with them at some point. On the whole, we challenge
our students to excel and move beyond classes. In a sense, all the
activities of Faculty of Social Sciences are at least in part geared
towards this. The Departments of Sociology and International Relations
host their own regular seminar series. These bring in experts in the
specific subjects to talk to us but we also often blur our own
disciplinary borders in what we do. ‘Cinema and Society’ program from
the Department of Sociology which is open to the entire university
encourages students to critically and self-reflectively view films on a
regular basis. And sometimes we offer the opportunity for them to talk
with film-makers and scholars about these films. The annual lecture
series, ‘Contributions to Contemporary Knowledge’ hosted by the Office
of the Dean invites a scholar of repute from anywhere in the world to
present their work so our students as well as teachers might be
motivated to engage with their ideas and to think out of the box. These
are our gifts not only to folks in SAU, but to everyone in Delhi who
might have an interest. There is a blog run by the students from the
Department of Sociology called ‘Rickshaw’ open to everyone in the
university and beyond as a forum to express their ideas. We expect our
students to necessarily take part in all these activities and also help
organize these events. But quite frankly, I think the course work and
these activities are sometimes too much for them. We know that some
people drop out. And others complain that we expect too much work from
them. Yet others actively take part on many of these events. For me all
this is part of our reality. If what one wants is a simple degree, they
can always get it from anywhere. Maybe even online. If this is the
expectation, then I really don’t see why anyone should think of coming
to my faculty because there are many other places where life would be
much easier. But if what is needed is a nuanced education and serious
intellectual and cultural growth, then they can come to us. But it is
tough. Personally, I did not resign from my previous job in a university
that is over 100 years old and embark on building this institution to
simply hang around or only to teach. I expect my colleagues and students
to think on similar lines.
SF: Through what major partner/s or agencies does the Faculty of
Social Sciences at the South Asian University (SAU) work to promote
higher education among South Asian and in other Asian or African
countries?
Professor: As far as I am concerned, in the short run, we cannot have
an impact in the higher education sectors in these countries directly.
In the short run, what we can hope for is to only improve ourselves as
an institution in making sure that the research we do and the training
we offer are of the highest quality. By that I mean, we must attract
well qualified academics to our Faculty, and attract motivated and
intellectually curious young people to come to us for their education
from these countries. In the short and medium term, this is my
expectation and this is what we have focused on. This is also
achievable. And in this respect, I think we are doing well within the
constraints we have. More specifically, we also have to encourage
younger teachers in universities and colleges in these countries who
might need advanced training to come to our Faculty. This has already
happened to some extent, and whenever we see such candidates, we would
consider them seriously as long as other prerequisites are met. In the
long run, if these plans work out well, that would mean that we will be
training young people for these countries. And when they go back to
their home countries, to their institutions and to their universities
after their training with us, at that time I am sure our impact on
higher education and the social structure of these countries at least in
some spheres would be visible. But this is a long term plan which needs
much planning and a lot of patience.
On the other hand, my Faculty has received a number of requests for
collaborative work from institutions in other countries. But we could
not put any of these into practice as the regulations for collaborations
and for signing MOUs are still not in place. This is a significant
lapse that we have to address. Nevertheless, both the Department of
Sociology and the Department of International Relations have worked with
a number of international funding agencies to organize a series of
conferences and a summer school already. And these will continue. So
far, our efforts through such collaborations have only been in Delhi and
India given the reality of our location. But if we are to be more
successful, these kinds of efforts also must necessarily move to other
South Asian countries and beyond the region as well. For example, the
Department of Sociology has taken a principled decision which has been
cleared by the Board of Studies of the Faculty of Social Sciences to try
and organize a few conferences in Colombo and Kathmandu to begin with
if funds and suitable local partners can be found. What this means is
that our presence will be more clearly felt in these cities and these
countries while we can also directly impact knowledge production in
these countries. But this too is a goal that still needs to be fulfilled
in the future. But if we can do this, then I am sure colleagues and
students from these countries would want to come to our Faculty because
our reputation in their own contexts would be self-evident.
SF: What are the challenges faced by your Faculty? And what steps
has the University taken to improve the facilities, performance and the
image of your Faculty at South Asian University (SAU)?
Professor: When we first came in, our major challenge was the lack of
a library. But over the last three years, we have established a small
and reasonably well-stocked library which also offers access to
significant online databases. It is also an efficient and responsive
library. This is a major improvement and I can see that it will grow. It
would be nice to see better office spaces where academic colleagues and
administrative staff can work in more comfort and spend more time in
the university helping build some sense of community, which I think
still lacks. But as I said before, we are still building this place.
Over time, hopefully infrastructure would also improve. One can always
be hopeful. Besides, it is not a crime to dream. On the other hand, by
and large I think the administration has been fairly responsive to our
needs, particularly when compared to other intuitions of this kind. But I
think the capacity for creative thinking and the way in which South
Asia and the world beyond could be re-imagined differently from the
somewhat colorless thinking of nation states is something that the
University in general can take more serious note of. But in the end, how
we perform as a Faculty and how our image is created is up to the
Faculty itself and not anyone else’s responsibility. So far, whatever
image we might have built is our own; whatever our lapses might be, are
also our own.
SF: Is there anything in addition that you would like to include?
Professor: Yes. For me, the idea of this university which came from a
small group of serious thinkers in South Asia is grand idea. It
deserves to work. But for that, we need help from governments, people
and organizations. We need constructive criticism from people within and
beyond the university to improve what we have begun. Within the
university itself, we also must think creatively. On this count, the
university must necessarily improve. Its South Asian character also
cannot be restricted to mere words. Our student body is reasonably well
representative of the region though as I have said before, some
countries are underrepresented. But the situation is very bad when it
comes to teachers. Of about 60 odd teachers, only about five or so are
from countries outside of India. Most of them are in my Faculty.
Personally, I find this situation quite embarrassing if not just wrong.
It is in this context that the university is about to launch a visiting
professor scheme to attract scholars from these underrepresented
countries to come and teach in our university for short stints. But in
the long term, this will not work, and we have to go out of the way to
seek and bring the best possible minds from these countries to our
university as fulltime teachers. This must be the university’s priority.
It is certainly one of mine.
(Republished From Foreign Exchange Diplomatic Society Of South Africa)
