Bush nominates Choksy

Prof Jamsheed Choksy of Indiana University (IU) has found a place on the prestigious US National Council on the Humanities. The six-year appointment by President George Bush began January 27, 2008.

A research scholar on the history of Central Asia, the Near East and South Asia, Choksy has a number of publications to his credit, and has been a frequent speaker at the K. R. Cama Oriental Institute where he had delivered the Government Research Fellowship Lectures in 1998 and at various Zoroastrian congresses and other scholastic meets.

Jamsheed Choksy: Bush nominee

Choksy’s Evil, Good, and Gender: Facets of the Feminine in Zoroastrian Religious History was published in 2002; Conflict and Cooperation: Zoroastrian Subalterns and Muslim Elites in Medieval Iranian Society in 1997 with a New Persian (Farsi) translation in 2002; and Purity and Pollution in Zoroastrianism: Triumph over Evil based on study of the Vendidad in 1989. He is currently writing a book on the history of Iranian religions under contract for Harvard University Press notes Indiana University’s "Experts and Speakers Faculty Profile.” Choksy was an associate editor of the Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender, 4 vols (New York: Macmillan, 2007) and has published many articles and numerous encyclopedia entries. He is a frequent presenter at international conferences, notes the website.

The son of Sri Lanka’s legal eagle and one-time finance minister Kairshasp Choksy, Jamsheed greeted his appointment with the words "It is an honor to have been nominated by the President. If confirmed by the Senate, I look forward to serving this great nation and ensuring the vibrancy of the humanities in our society. There’s always a need to keep reinvigorating the humanities, because they provide the foundation that glues our society together.”

Born in Bombay and raised in Colombo, Choksy has studied at Columbia and Harvard Universities in the US. Now a US citizen, he is a professor of Central Eurasian studies and history, an adjunct professor of religious studies, and an affiliated faculty member of India studies and ancient studies at IU. He also has served as chairman of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures and as director of the Middle Eastern Studies Program at IU.