Staff

Arnold P. Kaminsky

Director, Yadunandan Center for India Studies

Arnold P. Kaminsky is Professor of Asian Studies and History at California State University, Long Beach, and former Chair of the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies. Dr. Kaminsky received his Ph.D. in Indian History from UCLA in 1976.   

A strong advocate of linkages between university and K-12 educators, he is the recipient of awards from the National Foundation for the Improvement of Education Award, sponsored by NEA for enhancing understanding and curricular development of Asian history and culture in the Middle School; a NEH Focus Grant for “Infusing Southeast Asia into the Middle and High School World History Curriculum,” and a Freeman Foundation Grant to infuse Asia into the teacher education curriculum. In recognition of his efforts and the outstanding success of these projects, Dr. Kaminsky received one of the National Education Association’s highest honors, the William G. Carr Memorial Award.

For four years, Dr. Kaminsky headed a U.S. Department of State Colleges and University Affiliations Grant establishing a Faculty Development and Research Center at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia.  This effort helped reestablish higher education in Cambodia in the aftermath of the “killing fields,” and guided Cambodian faculty in achieving international standards of teaching, research and publication.  Most recently, he has been working with the National Knowledge Commission of India in establishing Teacher Education and Academic Leadership programs between the CSU, the Knowledge Commission, and Indian universities.

Dr. Kaminsky currently serves on the board of a number of regional and national professional organizations. He is the author of The India Office, 1880-1910 as well numerous articles on the administrative history of India in the 19th and 20th centuries. His forthcoming publications include
Imperialism and Nationalism in South and Southeast Asia: Essays in Honor of D.R. SarDesai (of which he is co-editor) and Propaganda and the Raj: Britain, India and America in World War.

Bipasha Baruah

Associate Director, Yadunandan Center for India Studies

Bipasha Baruah is Assistant Professor of Geography at California State University, Long Beach. Dr. Baruah earned her doctorate in 2005 at the Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University, Toronto.

Prior to accepting her appointment at CSULB, Dr. Baruah was a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto. She conducted her doctoral and postdoctoral research in collaboration with the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in Ahmedabad, India. Her dissertation titled "Sisters Are Doing It for Themselves: Challenges and Opportunities in Landed Property Ownership for Informal Sector Women in Urban India," uses gender as an analytical construct to explore property ownership and tenancy relationships in urban South Asia.

Her research interests revolve around women and economic empowerment, non-governmental organizations, informal sector economies and livelihoods, gender budgeting, and poverty alleviation monitoring and evaluation. Dr. Baruah has served as a gender specialist on the Canadian International Development Agency’s (CIDA) Eastern Caribbean Economic Management Program and as a consultant on gender and environmental issues to Foreign Affairs Canada.

Ryan Dalton

Student Assistant, Yadunandan Center for India Studies

Ryan Dalton is a graduate student of History at California State University, Long Beach. Ryan earned his bachelor's degree in 2006 at CSULB.

He joined the Yadunandan Center for India Studies in March of 2008. His undergraduate focus included a wide range of regional histories including the Middle East, Russia, Latin America, and China, culminating in a research project identitfying Chinese youth cultural and national identity in the wake of anti-foreign protests in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

His current research in the graduate program focuses on gender, sexuality, and national identity in contemporary China. Ryan has been studying Mandarin Chinese for the past three years and is a recipient of the Strategic Language Initiative (SLI) scholarship. Ryan is also a co-chairperson of the History Graduate Students Association (HGSA) and a part-time employee of the History Department at CSULB.