(TDS) Bureau office South Africa & Asia
Interview with an Academic: Professor Sasanka Perera , Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences of South Asian University "
-This month the Global Editor for Foreign Exchange The Diplomatic Society, Srimal Fernando was pleased to interview 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 intuition 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. May be 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. May be 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 data bases. 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.
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