Bangladesh Chair

The establishment the “Bangladesh Chair: Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Professorial Fellowship” is to promote academic exchange between the SAI and academic institutions in Bangladesh and to anchor the view of the country and its development more firmly in South Asian research. The visiting professorship is aimed at researchers from Bangladesh who are closely associated with the disciplines represented at the SAI - including geography, history, modern linguistic South Asian studies, cultural and religious history of South Asia, political science, development economics and ethnology. They will contribute to research and teaching at the South Asia Institute in their respective fields. The visiting professors will be selected in consultation between the South Asia Institute and a corresponding committee in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.

The South Asia Institute brings together research and teaching on South Asia and neighboring cultural regions at Heidelberg University. It combines social sciences, economics and geosciences with historically and philologically oriented cultural studies and thus offers a broad basis for contemporary South Asian studies. The SAI has branch offices and representations in India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and maintains bilateral exchange programs with the countries of South Asia. The new visiting professorship complements the Heinrich Zimmer Chair for Indian Philosophy and Intellectual History, the Allama Iqbal Professorial Fellowship with a focus on Pakistan and the Sri Lanka Chair.

Prof. Harun-or-Rashid is Professor of the Bangladesh Chair in the winter semester 2021/22.