Below you will find a list of colleges, and universities in North America that regularly offer instruction in South Asian Languages. Please contact us if you do not see your institution listed, would like to edit your institution’s offerings, or add contact information for your program.
| Name of Institution | Languages Offered | Website and Contact Information |
| ALIA (Apex Language Institute of America) | Urdu (also Hindi & Arabic) | ALIA |
| Boston University | Hindi-Urdu | Department of World Languages and Literatures; Hindi-Urdu: Shilpa Parnami |
| Brown University | Hindi-Urdu, Sanskrit | Hindi-Urdu: Center for Language Studies; Ashok Koul Sanskrit: Department of Classics; David Buchta See Also: Center for Contemporary South Asia |
| Columbia University | Bangla, Hindi, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Urdu | South Asia Institute Bengali: Dwijen Bhattacharjya db174@columbia.edu Hindi-Urdu: Rakesh Ranjan rr2574@columbia.edu; Aftab Ahmad aa3070@columbia.edu Punjabi: Sandeep Singh Chohan singh.sandeep522@gmail.com Sanskrit: Jonathan Peterson jp4536@columbia.edu |
| Cornell University | Hindi-Urdu, Kannada, Nepali, Pali, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sinhala, Tamil, Tibetan | Department of Asian Studies Bangla: Razima Chowdhury rc856@cornell.edu Burmese: Yu Yu Khaing yk696@cornell.edu Hindi: Sujata Singh sujatasingh@cornell.edu Nepali: Hom Acharya hpa8@cornell.edu Sinhala: Bandara Herath mph82@cornell.edu |
| DeAnza College | Hindi (College Credit also available to High School Students) | Hindi: Nilu Gupta |
| Duke University | Hindi | Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies; Hindi: Satendra Khanna, Kusum Knapczyk kusum.knapczyk@duke.edu, Anshul Jain |
| Emory University | Hindi, Tibetan | Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies Hindi: Brajesh Samarth, Kashika Singh kashika.singh@emory.edu Tibetan: Tsepak Rigzin |
| Harvard University | Hindi-Urdu, Sanskrit, Tamil, Tibetan (Classical), Additional languages often offered not as part of regular curriculum | Department of South Asian Studies Hindi-Urdu: Richard Delacy, Hajnalka Kovacs Sanskrit: Patrick Cummins patrickcummins@fas.harvard.edu Tamil: Jonathan Ripley Tibetan: Leonard van der Kuijp vanderk@fas.harvard.edu |
| Indiana University, Bloomington | Bangla, Hindi, Sanskrit, Urdu | Dhar India Studies Program Contact: Rebecca Manring |
| Indus Arts Council | Urdu | Urdu Classes for K-12 Contact IAC Urdu Admin |
| Institute of South Asian Language Studies | Bengali, Hindi, Persian, Punjabi, Urdu | Website: https://sals.institute/ Contact whusain1@sals.institute |
| Johns Hopkins University – SAIS | Hindi, Sanskrit | Center for Language Education Hindi: Sanskrit: Christopher Minkowski cminkow1@jhu.edu |
| McGill University | Sanskrit, Tibetan, Urdu-Hindi | South Asian Studies Program Sanskrit: Andrea Farran andrea.farran@mcgill.ca Tibetan: Lara Braitstein lara.braitstein@mcgill.ca Urdu-Hindi: Pasha Khan |
| Michigan State University | Hindi, Tamil, Urdu | Linguistics & Germanic, Slavic, Asian and African Languages Hindi and Urdu: Rajiv Ranjan Tamil: Vidya Mohan mohanvid@msu.edu |
| New York State University, Buffalo | Hindi | South Asian Studies |
| New York University | Hindi, Urdu | Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Hindi: Gabriela Nik. Ilieva gni1@nyu.edu Hindi: Rajni Bhargava Urdu: Tahira Naqvi See also: South Asia at NYU |
| North Carolina State University | Hindi-Urdu | Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures Hindi-Urdu: Sujata Mody; Nilakshi Phukan |
| Northwestern University | Hindi-Urdu, Sanskrit, Tibetan | Department of Asian Languages and Cultures Hindi-Urdu: Rami Nair; David Boyk Sanskrit: Mark McClish mark.mcclish@northwestern.edu Tibetan: coming soon in Fall 2025 |
| Oakton Community College | Hindi-Urdu | Department of Modern Languages Hindi-Urdu: Ifitikhar Haider |
| Pennsylvania State University | Hindi | Department of Asian Studies Hindi: Ritu Jayakar |
| Princeton University | Hindi-Urdu, Sanskrit | Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS) Hindi- Urdu: Robert Philips Sanskrit: Nataliya Yanchevskaya Urdu-Hindi: Fauzia Farooqui |
| Rutgers University | Hindi, Urdu | Department of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures Hindi: Anuja Kabra Urdu: Shaheen Parveen |
| Stanford University | Hindi, Tibetan, Sanskrit | Language Center Hindi: Anupama Sarna Punjabi: Kuldeep Singh kuldeeps@stanford.edu Sanskrit: Fred R. Porta Tamil: Kristina Rogahn krogahn@stanford.edu Telugu: Kiran Kumar Simhadri simhadri@stanford.edu Tibetan: Pema Bhum pema95@stanford.edu Urdu: Gregory Maxwell Bruce gbruce@stanford.edu |
| Syracuse University | Hindi | Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics Hindi: Tej K. Bhatia; Bhanushri Sisodia |
| University of British Columbia | Hindi-Urdu, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tibetan | Department of Asian Studies Hindi-Urdu: Sunil Bhatt Punjabi: Kiran Sunar kiran.sunar@ubc.ca Sanskrit: Janet Um janet.um@ubc.ca Tibetan: Sonam Chusang sonam.chusang@ubc.ca |
| University of California, Berkeley | Bangla, Hindi, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu | Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies Bangla: Abhijeet Paul Burmese: Kenneth Wong kennethwong@berkeley.edu Hindi: Nora Koa noram@berkeley.edu Punjabi: Jvala Singh jvalasingh@berkeley.edu Sanskrit: Luther Obrock luther_obrock@berkeley.edu Tamil and Telugu: Bharathy Sankara Rajulu bharathy@berkeley.edu See Also: Institute for South Asia Studies |
| University of California, Davis | Hindi-Urdu, Punjabi | Department of Middle East/South Asia Studies Hindi-Urdu: Poonam Chauhan; Shagufta Fatema Punjabi: Arshinder Kaur aplkaur@ucdavis.edu; Kuldeep Singh kldsingh@ucdavis.edu |
| University of California, Los Angeles | Hindi-Urdu | Asian Languages and Cultures Hindi-Urdu: Gyanam Mahajan; Sarfaraz A. Farooque farooque@humnet.ucla.edu |
| University of California, Santa Barbara | Sanskrit, Tibetan | Department of Religious Studies Sanskrit and Tibetan: Gregory Hillis |
| University of Chicago | Bangla, Hindi, Marathi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Tibetan, Urdu | Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations Bangla: Mandira Bhaduri mbhaduri@uchicago.edu Hindi: Jason Grunebaum jgrune@uchicago.edu Marathi: Sujata Mahajan sujata1@uchicago.edu Sanskrit: Lidia Wojtczak lidiaw@uchicago.edu Tibetan: Karma Ngodup karma@uchicago.edu Urdu: Romeena Kureishy romeenak@uchicago.edu |
| University of Colorado at Boulder | Hindi-Urdu | Asian Languages and Civilizations Hindi-Urdu: Nidhi Arya Nidhi.Arya@Colorado.EDU |
| University of Hawaii, Manoa | Hindi-Urdu, Sanskrit | Indo-Pacific Languages Hindi-Urdu: Sai Bhatwadekar Sanskrit: Jesse Knutson |
| University of Houston | Hindi | Modern and Classical Languages Hindi: Bhavya Tiwari btiwari@uh.edu |
| University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign | Hindi | Department of Linguistics Hindi: Mithilesh Mishra |
| University of Kansas | Hindi, Tibetan | East Asian Languages & Cultures Tibetan: Leigh Spurrier Khandro lkhandro@ku.edu |
| University of Massachusetts – Five College Foreign Language Resource | Bangla, Burmese, Hindi, Nepali, Urdu | Center for World Languages No regular faculty |
| University of Michigan, Ann Arbor | Bangla, Hindi, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Urdu | Asian Languages and Cultures Bengali: Faijul Hoque Hindi and Punjabi: Pinderjeet K. Gill Hindi-Urdu: Syed Ekhteyar Ali Sanskrit: David Brick Tamil: Pathima Fasmila Raviraj raviraj@umich.edu Urdu: Mohammad Umar Anjum uanjum@umich.edu |
| University of Minnesota, Twin Cities | Hindi-Urdu | Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Hindi-Urdu: Meraj Ahmed |
| University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill | Hindi-Urdu | Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Hindi-Urdu: John Caldwell; Vaibhavi Chaturvedi vaibhavi@unc.edu; Afroz Taj |
| University of Pennsylvania | Bangla, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu | Department of South Asia Studies Bangla: Haimanti Banerjee; Sreeparna Sarkar srsarkar@sas.upenn.edu Gujarati: Raki Desai raki@sas.upenn.edu Hindi-Urdu: Joshua Pien Kannada: Vijayalakshmi Swaminathan vijs@sas.upenn.edu Malayalam: James Kurichi drkurichi@gmail.com; Priyamvada Nambrath pnamb@sas.upenn.edu Marathi: Milind Ranade Punjabi-Hindi: Amrit Gahunia Sanskrit: Kashi Gomez kashig@sas.upenn.edu Tamil: Vasu Renganathan Telugu: Afsar Mohammad (Telugu) Urdu: Mustafa Menai (Urdu) |
| University of Pittsburgh | Hindi | Less-Commonly-Taught Languages Center Hindi: Vibha Shetiya |
| University of Texas, Austin | Bangla, Hindi, Malayalam, Sanskrit, Tamil, Urdu | South Asia Institute Hindi: Dalpat Rajpurohit; Gautami Shah; Zeltzyn Rubi Sanchez Lozoya zrubi@austin.utexas.edu Malayalam: Darsana Manayathu Sasi Sanskrit: Manasicha Akepiyapornchai ma.ake@austin.utexas.edu Urdu: Shanaz Hassan; S. Akbar Hyder |
| University of Toronto – Mississauga | Urdu | Department of Language Studies Urdu: Zain R. Mian |
| University of Virginia | Hindi-Urdu, Sanskrit | Department of Middle Eastern & South Asian Languages & Culture Hindi-Urdu: Griffith Chausée; Abdul Nasir Sanskrit: Robert Hueckstedt |
| University of Washington | Bangla, Hindi, Sanskrit, Urdu | Department of Asian Languages and Literature Bangla: Binata Chowdhuri binatac@uw.edu Hindi-Urdu: Jameel Ahmad; Amruta Chandekar Sanskrit: Joseph Marino; David Fowler dsfowler@uw.edu |
| University of Wisconsin, Madison | Hindi, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Urdu | Department of Asian Languages and Cultures Hindi-Urdu: M. Farooq Asif Sanskrit and Tibetan rweiss@wisc.edu See Also: South Asia Summer Language Institute |
| Vanderbilt University | Hindi-Urdu, Sanskrit | Department of Asian Studies Hindi-Urdu: Divya Chaudhry Sanskrit (& Hindi-Urdu): Elliott McCarter |
| Vassar College | Hindi | Language Program Hindi: Anita Mehta amehta@vassar.edu |
| Wake Forest University | Hindi-Urdu | Middle East and South Asia Studies Program Hindi-Urdu: Peter Knapczyk |
| Washington University | Hindi, Urdu | Department of Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies Hindi: Meera Jain; Madhavi Verma Urdu: Toqeer Shah |
| Wesleyan University | Hindi-Urdu | South Asia Studies Hindi-Urdu: Hafiz FazaleHaq |
| Yale University | Hindi, Sanskrit, Other Directed Studies | South Asian Studies Council Hindi: Swapna Sharma; Mansi Bajaj Sanskrit: Aleksandar Uskokov |
| York University | Hindi-Urdu | Department of Languages, Literatures & Linguistics Hindi-Urdi: Shobna Nijhawan |
SALTA 