Volume I, No. 1, Winter 2001

from the editor

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Traditional scholarship on South Asia is today well represented in a variety of excellent journals, including: Bridges: Berkeley Research Journal on South & Southeast Asia, Contemporary South Asia, Journal of Asian Studies, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Journal of South Asian Women Studies, Modern Asian Studies, SAGAR: South Asia Graduate Research Journal, South Asia, South Asia Economic Review, and South Asia Research.  This list could be substantially longer, but I am certain our readers will understand my point.  There are numerous scholarly avenues for exploring the richness of South Asian civilizations through these many journals.  What is missing from this list and, indeed, anyone's list, is a journal devoted exclusively to teaching about South Asia.  While there are many good journals and magazines which address to some degree the teaching of South Asian topics to undergraduates, such as the excellent publication of the Association for Asian Studies, Education About Asia, none has chosen to focus solely on South Asia that is, until now.

I have long thought, given the large number of South Asianists across the globe, that such a journal would be useful, and a welcome addition to our growing field.  This idea gained momentum in 1999 when I (through my home institution, Missouri Southern State University) applied for and received a materials and resource development grant through the National Security Education Program to fund Project South Asia, a digital library of teaching resources about South Asia for colleges and universities.  A major facet of our grant proposal was the creation of Teaching South Asia.  We suggested that Teaching South Asia be free to its readers and available to anyone with access to the Internet, unlike other (usually print) journals.  It took two years to develop, but Teaching South Asia: An Internet Journal of Pedagogy had finally arrived and we happily present to you our premier issue.

Published semi-annually, this new electronic journal will feature articles, written by teaching professors from around the world, addressing issues and problems of course and curriculum development relating to South Asia, from introductory courses in World History and International Studies, to upper division specialty courses in the field. Teaching South Asia will act as a forum for teaching professors discussing new and innovative ways of infusing the study of South Asia into the undergraduate and post-graduate classroom in a wide range of courses, and will lay important emphasis on interdisciplinary teaching methods. It will contain sections dealing with the art and craft of teaching about South Asia, the state of the field, notes and comments, review articles, syllabi, and book/video/software reviews. Unlike traditional print journals, for which rising paper, printing, and mailing costs are a factor, Teaching South Asia will provide more space for discussion and thus serve to stimulate faculty involvement in the pedagogical aspects of South Asian studies in ways that no print journal can.

The premier issue of Teaching South Asia contains contributions from 10 South Asia scholars and teaching professors who work and teach in three different countries (four from India, four from the United States, and two from Australia) and, indeed, on three different continents.  We hope that future issues will contain contributions from an equally wide array of locations.  If Teaching South Asia is to be successful as a forum about post-secondary teaching, it must continue to attract contributors internationally.

We invite you to explore our new journal, to offer suggestions for items you would like to see covered in future issues and, most especially, if you have academic credentials in the field, to consider contributing an article or other item for publication in the next issue of Teaching South Asia.

Karl J. Schmidt is associate professor of History and assistant director of the Honors Program at Missouri Southern State College, where he teaches South Asian history.  His publications include An Atlas and Survey of South Asian History (London and Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1995).  He directs the Southern-in-India program, a student study abroad experience in Hyderabad, India.  Dr. Schmidt is also director of Project South Asia, a digital library of teaching resources for colleges and universities.

Copyright  2001 Teaching South Asia (ISSN 1529-8558) and Karl J. Schmidt.  All rights reserved.  No part of this article may be reprinted in any form without written permission from Teaching South Asia or Karl J. Schmidt.