Professor Suranjan Das has just completed his current second terms as the Vice-Chancellor of Jadavpur University. He was earlier Professor of History at the University of Calcutta and served the same University as its Pro-Vice Chancellor (Academic) from 14 March 2002 to 01 May 2008 and Vice-Chancellor for the period between 02 May 2008 and 14 July 2015. Professor Das is also Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of Exeter, UK. He is presently the President of the Association of Indian Universities, New Delhi, the Hony Director, Netaji Institute For Asian Studies, Kolkata, and Chairman, Board of Governors, Centre For Studies In Social Sciences, Kolkata.
A graduate of Presidency College, Kolkata, Professor Das has a distinguished academic record — securing First Class First positions in BA (History Honours) and MA (History) of the University of Calcutta and a D.Phil. degree of Oxford University. He specialises in South Asian History and Politics, especially identity politics, socio-cultural transformation and nation-building. He has been involved with a number of prestigious international research projects, the two recent ones being a collaborative research project with Exeter University on `Decolonizing the Curricula’ under the auspices of the British Council’s Going Global Partnership Scheme, and the other on the impact of the Covid pandemic on the female school children of India under the auspices of the Anglia Ruskin University, He had earlier successfully completed prestigious collaborative projects with two British institutions: one with King’s College London, on ‘Mapping Domestic Drivers of Indian Foreign Policy’ and the other with the University of Hull, UK, on ‘From Periphery to the Centre: Federalization of the Indian Foreign Policy Making process’ under the UGC-UKERI programme. Professor Suranjan Das has authored six monographs, co-authored five books, edited/co-edited nine volumes, and published thirty-six articles in refereed journals and edited volumes, which are widely cited. He has been also associated with research projects funded by such other international bodies as the Wellcome Trust, Leverhume Foundation and Frederick Stiftung.
Professor Das was a Distinguished Fellow, Australia India Institute, University of Melbourne, Honorary Professor at the Hull University, a British Academy Visiting Professor in 2000 and a Visiting Scholar, among others at the Maison des Sciences De L’Homme (Paris), Mershon Centre of Ohio State University (USA), the University of New Mexico (USA), the University of Illionis at Urbana-Champaign (USA) and the Oxford Brookes University (UK). He was a recipient of the USIS International Visitorship Programme. He had been a member of Indian Government delegations to international Education Summits. He was President of Modern India Section of the Indian History Congress (2003) and the General President of the Punjab History Congress for the 2014 session. He is a recipient of many national and international awards and fellowships.
Professor Das has served in policy formulation bodies concerned with higher education in India like the University Grants Commission, and Indian Council of Historical Research. He was Vice-Chairman, Board of Trustees of Indian Museum, Kolkata, member of the Executive Committee of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi, member of the Governing Council, Indian Council of World Affairs, New Delhi, member of the Executive Council of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council, Bengaluru, and member of the Executive Council of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata. He is a member of the Higher Education Council of West Bengal.
