South Asian Humanities
This program offers a comprehensive exploration of South Asia and the South Asian diaspora, drawing on a range of disciplinary approaches. Through diverse course offerings, students can study South Asian history, religion, politics, languages, societies and cultures.
Honours Bachelor of Arts
Program Plans
Plan your degree with these academic and co-curricular program overviews.
Tip Sheets
Learn more about further education, applying to jobs & more!
- Foreign Policy Analyst
- Immigration Law
- Marketer
- Archivist
- Professor
Admission Requirements
Regional Requirements
Admissions RequirementsLife in South Asian Humanities
Buzz Around Campus
Kristen Bos initially resisted going into the field of Indigenous studies. “I started out in archaeology and wondered why it was that I and so many other native friends and scholars were doing work in either anthropology or archaeology,” says Bos, an assistant professor in UTM’s Department of Historical Studies.
In 1914, a Buddhist priest worked in secret, translating a sacred text into a forbidden language, publishing it using a printing press smuggled into Kathmandu from India. From that act of defiance grew a century-long movement of resistance that finally saw the ban on the Newar language lifted in 2007.
A night on the town ends with a young woman channeling a Hindu goddess of war to save a friend from attackers. This moment is the turning point in a short story by author Serah Louis, a U of T Mississauga student who is channeling her own South Asian heritage as a notable new voice in Canada’s literary scene.
Sample Courses
This course looks at Bollywood in relation to Indian cinema and culture.
The history of nation-states in South Asia, and their changing political practices and views.
This course examines the emergence of the connected histories of nation-states, space and border-making in modern South Asia.
Other Programs to Consider
Diaspora & Transnational Studies
Diaspora and transnational studies examines the historical and contemporary movements of peoples and the complex problems of identity and experience to which these movements give rise as well as the creative possibilities that flow from movement.
History
History is an ancient discipline, but its modern practitioners are often by necessity interdisciplinary and are frequently positioned at the crossroads of the humanities and social sciences. The curriculum is also characterized by sets of thematic emphases that include imperialism, colonialism and nationalism, culture and society, religion, the environment, source criticism, labour, gender, ethnicity, war and politics.
Sociology
Sociology thus creates theories about a broad range of human activity. Sociologists study how families work; how individuals change over the life course; how norms and laws are made, broken, enforced, and changed; how inequalities of gender, class, and race emerge, continue, and change.