Professor Sugata Bose, highly regarded for implementing Tufts' program in South Asian studies, will be leaving the University at the end of this semester to accept an endowed chair at Harvard.
Bose said he hopes to build a South Asian studies curriculum at Harvard modeled after the Tufts program.
A professor at the school of Arts and Sciences and at Fletcher, Bose will be the first South-Asian historian to fill Harvard's Gardiner Chair in Oceanic History and Affairs - a position which has remained unoccupied for over two decades. The chair has traditionally been held by historians who focus on the Western hemisphere, but Harvard specifically sought a professor specializing in South Asian studies. Bose was given a fully tenured professorship.
"Harvard does not have a South Asian center - it has more of a focus on East Asia and the Middle East," Bose said. "Everywhere you see a more global vision and I think that was reflected in Harvard's choice.... It's an area that is becoming more and more important by the day."
While Bose's departure leaves somewhat of a void in Tufts' history department, the South Asian studies program will continue, thanks in part to history professor Ayesha Jalal, who also specializes in this area.
"We are more than blessed in having another great scholar and teacher... we're not going to be hurting too much," Provost Sol Gittleman said. "We've had only one for years, the second is a super luxury.... In another field we'd have to find a new person, but in this we don't."
Gittleman described Bose's professorship at Tufts as "an epiphany for everyone," saying he has been a great teacher and scholar. "We were one of the first schools to realize that there were a billion people that we need to teach about," Gittleman said. The center Bose founded has grown to the point that Tufts now offers a "small but qualified" PhD program in South Asian studies.
Bose stressed that Tufts' South Asian studies program, established in 1989, was unique for its time. Several members of the Tufts community, including Gittleman, helped make Bose's vision a reality. "The provost had the dynamism to make decisions and help me set up a center for my studies," he said.
As a result of these efforts, the University has become a pioneer in South Asian discourse. "Tufts became the focal point of South Asian conferences in the New England area," Bose said. "Students here have exposure to what was the best of scholarship."
Bose's specific interests relate to modern South Asia and the Indian Ocean south rim, and he currently teaches in the undergraduate history department, as well as at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. While his reputation and area of focus has led him to receive offers of employment from other universities throughout his 17-year tenure at Tufts, he did not choose to accept them, saying that Tufts has become a "home away from home."
"Harvard made me a very attractive offer... it was something I could not refuse," Bose said.
Harvard's offer of a full tenured professorship is a testimony to Bose's success as an educator and an historian. "They looked around the world for the best person they could get, and found that person five miles away," Gittleman said.
Bose hopes the proximity of his new position to Tufts may lead to the creation of a Boston South Indian Consortium.
"I believe what I have built up will endure even in my absence, and I have full confidence that the momentum I created will help Tufts continue to be a leader," Bose said. "I'm tremendously honored and excited by the Harvard appointment, but I think I'll keep coming back here to build links in my field... after all, I won't be too far away."
