The launching of Sputnik I in 1957 led to the federal government's most significant participation in modern foreign language and area studies research and training in history – the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) of 1958.
The first NDEA grant to expand language and area studies in the UW-Madison Department of Indian Studies was acquired in 1960. With this grant, the UW-Madison South Asia Area Center (later renamed the Center for South Asia) was established.
The Center for South Asia is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year at UW-Madison.
The center, an affiliated National Resource Center (NRC) Program, conducts a broad range of activities that include instruction, outreach, scholarly research, maintenance of library resources, and teacher training.
Collectively, these activities represent a programmatic effort that focuses on particular regions of the world and the relevant issues connected to those regions, and they constitute a national capacity in modern foreign language training and area and international studies.
UW-Madison actually has the largest number of NRCs in the country:http://www.wisc.edu/international/centers.php
A number of celebratory activities are planned for later in the year, some to coincide with the Annual Conference on South Asia in October 2010.
For more information, please email Lalita du Perron at 608-262-3209 orduperron@southasia.wisc.edu