SWEDISH SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES NETWORK

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SASNET visit to NIAS and Copenhagen Business School

On Thursday 4 March 2010, Anna Lindberg and Lars Eklund made a visit to Copenhagen in order to first meet Dr. Geir Helgesen, Director for the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS), and then proceed to the Asia Research Centre (ARC) at Copenhagen Business School to meet the Research Director, Prof. Anthony D’Costa, and colleagues at ARC. The visits were part of SASNET’s ongoing strategic work to strenghten collaboration with Nordic institutions engaged in South Asia related research and other activities.

Nordic Institute of Asian Studies

Web page: http://nias.ku.dk/

Lars Eklund, Anna Lindberg and Geir Helgesen.

NIAS has existed for more than 40 years, and is nowadays hosted by and integrated into the University of Copenhagen, but is still mainly funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers under a contract with the institute. NIAS emphasizes research-based knowledge and information on Asia and the institute contributes to the international recognition of and respect for Nordic Asia research. Furthermore, the institute coordinates a Nordic, networked research school, The Asian Century Research School and the NIAS SUPRA Programme for Nordic Master and PhD students.
In agreement with the Nordic Council of Ministers and Nordic universities with an interest in Asian studies NIAS has also established the Nordic NIAS Council as a platform for a strengthened partnership in the Asia Studies Environment.
More information about NIAS.

In our discussions with Dr. Geir Helgesen we focused on possible forms of SASNET–NIAS collaboration, and ways to share information from SASNET’s databases on South Asia related research in Sweden. We also brought up the issue whether it would be possible to expand SASNET’s activities to also include South Asia related research in other Nordic countries. This may be an alternative if funding can be secured for such a venture.

Asia Research Centre/Copenhagen Business School

Web page: http://uk.cbs.dk/research/departments_centres/institutter/arc/

Anna Lindberg, Anthony D’Costa, Bente Faurby, Kjeld Erik Brødsgaard and Sudipta Bhattacharyya.

The Asia Research Centre (ARC) at Copenhagen Business School is on of several current ambitious Danish initiatives to undertake high-quality research on current developments in the Asian region, including India and South Asia. ARC organises workshops, international conferences and guest lectures on Asia. Since November 2009, ARC is housed in brand new premises in a beautifully restored building that used to be the heart of the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Factory (now being part of Copenhagen Business School) at Porcelænshaven 22 in Frederiksberg – right in the middle of Copenhagen.

Starting from the fall of 2009, Senior Visiting Professors from India play an important role at Copenhagen Business School (CBS). A Memorandum of Understanding on a visiting professorship scheme was signed in July 2009, and each year the Government of India (through the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, ICCR) in consultation with CBS will appoint a new Senior Visiting Professor in Indian Economics or Social Sciences, to be hosted by the Asia Research Centre.
ICCR has similar agreements with around 30 other universities all over the world, such as Sorbonne University in Paris, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA, and University of KwaZulu Natal, Durban, South Africa. The Indian Professors are selected among candidates from India's leading universities and business schools. More information

This initiative came from Professor Anthony D'Costa, CBS' first Professor of Indian Studies, and we were much interested to find out the experiences of this visiting professor scheme.
A meeting was therefore held for us to meet not only Prof. D’Costa, but also Prof. Kjeld Erik Brødsgaard, Director for Asia Research Centre at Copenhagen Buiness School, Ms. Bente Faurby, Administrator at ARC, and Dr. Sudipta Bhattacharyya, holding the first visiting ICCR Chair in Indian Economics at ARC during the academic year 2009-2010. Dr. Bhattacharyya has a PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, but works as a Reader in Economics at the Department of Economics and Politics, Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, West Bengal, India.

Prof. D’Costa himself came to ARC in April 2008, from an appointment as Professor at University of Washington, Tacoma-Seattle, USA where he was employed for 18 years. His position as Professor of Indian Studies at ARC is financed by he A.P. Møller – Maersk Group, a global company employing about 120,000 people in around 130 countries. The purpose of establishing the professorship was to develop the study of Indian economics, organization and management at CBS and in Denmark.