Susanne Hoeber Rudolph, the William Benton Distinguished Service Professor Emerita, and Lloyd I. Rudolph, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, will each receive the prestigious Padma Bhushan Award, the Government of India announced Jan. 25.
The Padma Bhushan is the country’s third-highest civilian honor. It is awarded to recognize distinguished service of a high order to the nation, in any field. The president of India will confer the awards at a ceremony in the spring of 2014.
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“We are grateful for the honor awarded to us,” said Lloyd Rudolph. “The 11 years we have lived in India, most of them with our family, doing research and writing have been a deeply rewarding experience.”
The Rudolphs joined the University of Chicago’s Department of Political Science in 1964. Susanne Rudolph studies comparative politics with special interest in the political economy and political sociology of South Asia, state formation, Max Weber, and the politics of category and culture.
She has served as president of the Association of Asian Studies and of the American Political Science Association (2003-04). She has co-authored eight books with her husband, Lloyd Rudolph, including Postmodern Gandhi and Other Essays in 2006. She also served as master of the Social Science Collegiate Division, director of the Center for International Studies, director of the South Asia Language and Area Center, and twice as chair of the Department of Political Science. She is a recipient of the College’s Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.
In 2008, Oxford University Press published a three-volume, career-spanning collection of the writings of Lloyd and Susanne Rudolph, titled Explaining Indian Democracy: A Fifty-Year Perspective.
Lloyd Rudolph served as chair of the Committee on International Relations and the Master of Arts Program in the Social Sciences and as chair of concentrations in Political Science, Public Policy, International Studies and South Asian Studies in the College. He is a recipient of a 1999 Faculty Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching.
The Rudolphs now divide their time between Kensington, Calif.; Barnard, Vt.; and Jaipur, Rajasthan.
The University of Chicago will open a major new academic center in Delhi in March 2014, supporting and expanding opportunities for collaboration among scholars and students from India and Chicago, across academic disciplines. The Center in Delhi will be a home for research and education for University of Chicago faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates working in India and throughout South Asia, as well as Indian researchers and students representing a wide array of institutions, and scholars from around the world.
—Prof. Jacqueline Stewart
