Graduate Student in South Asian Languages and Literature, Christopher Diamond, was awarded a Foreign Language Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship for the 2013-2014 academic year. He is using the FLAS to pursue advance studies in Bangla (Bengali).
Christopher Diamond earned a BA in Hindi from School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and is interested in Medieval Indian devotional (bhakti) literature that straddles both the Hindi-speaking sphere of North India and the Bengali-speaking world of East India. These two linguistic & cultural fields have always been in dialogue, yet there is a lack of scholarship that uses primary sources in both languages. He wishes to correct this imbalance and perhaps discover new routes of intellectual exchange.
The department congratulates Christopher and wishes him good luck with his studies.