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About Us

About Us

The Centre was originally established as the Centre of Spanish Studies in the early 1970s and subsequently expanded to include Portuguese and Italian programme and was renamed in 2004 as Centre of Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Latin American Studies(CSPILAS) as part of School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. This is one of the leading Centre in Spanish and Latin American Studies in South East Asia. The Centre has developed relations with several international Universities and Institutes to carry out research in various fields related to Hispanic Studies. It has grown into a specialized Centre dealing with language, linguistics, literature of Spain and Latin America, culture & civilization of the entire Hispanic world, inter-disciplinary studies and also involves inter-action with other disciplines like History, Sociology, Philosophy and Socio-Political Studies as well as comparative literature. Besides this the Centre has its own research focus on Acquisition of Spanish language and FLT especially on L3 & L4 platform. It also has a major research project on Digital Aspects of Acquisition of Spanish as a Foreign Language in India under the aegis of University Grants Commission, Government of India. There are several projects under the UGC-UPOE programme is in progress. Recently, two new massive projects “ePG-Pathshala” and “MOOC” under the National Mission on Education through ICT of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India is continuing in the centre to develop the online post graduate courses on pan India level to cater to the needs and aspirations of Indian students .

 

To facilitate the research and development, interaction with scholars from India and abroad are very much part of Centers' academic activities. Through bilateral cooperation between India and Spain; visiting faculty from Spain are regularly invited for tenure of two years from the last two decades. Recently, the Centre has been integrated as a participating institution in a European Commission’s (EU) Erasmus Mundus Consortium for a Masters Programme in the Learning of Spanish in Multicultural and International Contexts. The Centre annually publishes a research journal “Hispanic Horizon” which has high academic visibility in India and outside. Apart from this, the Centre also organizes International/National Conferences and Seminars regularly. The Centre’s annual academic activity is “Antonio Binimelis Memorial Lecture” in which distinguished Professors/ Academicians/Scholars of Hispanic/Spanish discipline are invited for lectures; and students who topped in their class are also awarded on this occasion.

 

The Centre is a pioneering institution in the country. Founding of the Centre gave a tremendous boost to the teaching, research and development of the Spanish language in India. This is the first Centre in the country which has introduced Graduate, Masters and doctoral degree programme of studies in Spanish. CSPILAS faculty members (Spanish) are recipient of several prestigious International Fellowships and International awards. Dr. Rafael Iruzubieta Fernandez, a Spanish national and a liberal donor/endowment of which enriches Spanish studies in the University has been conferred with "Padma Shri" in 2010 the prestigious National Award of India. Faculty members of the Centre has also provided consultancy to Ministries of Govt. of India, UN organizations, ILO, World Bank, ADB, several public sector organizations in India. Many faculty members are in the board/panel of several Universities, organizations and commission in India. Apart from this, faculty members also appeared on TV and radio programmes. Today, majority of Hispanic faculty in India are alumni of this Centre.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.