Spat Over Movie Screening, Professor’s Exit Lays Bare ‘Toxic’ Academic Culture & ‘Petty’ Politics at SAU
Fareeha Iftikhar | 26 September 2024 | The Print
New Delhi: The South Asian University (SAU) in Delhi has been hurtling from one controversy to another—a reflection of how “petty” internal politics has overshadowed academic pursuit at the young university that was started as a unique academic project aimed at building a South Asian community of learners.
After Sasanka Perera, a professor from Sri Lanka and founding member of the sociology department at SAU, was allegedly forced to take voluntary retirement in July, a heated exchange has now erupted on social media platform X among former and current students of the institute, exposing the university’s “toxic academic culture”.
In July, there was uproar in the university after a student referenced American linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky’s criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his research proposal. This was followed by his supervisor—Perera—taking voluntary retirement, leading to criticism of how the university is allegedly undermining academic freedom….