25 Facts About Nicholas Dirks

Nicholas B Dirks is an American academic and a former Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley.

In June 2020, Nicholas Dirks was named president and CEO of The New York Academy of Sciences.

Nicholas Dirks returned to India to conduct fieldwork for what would become his first book, The Hollow Crown.

Nicholas Dirks left Caltech for a faculty position at the University of Michigan in 1987 where he had the opportunity to teach graduate students for the first time.

In 1997 Nicholas Dirks left Michigan to chair the anthropology department at Columbia University, the oldest department of its kind in the United States.

Nicholas Dirks published his second book, Castes of Mind, in 2001.

Nicholas Dirks convinces us that caste as it is shaped today is hardly a vestige of tradition but is, rather, a precipitate of a historical process mediated through colonialism and nationalism.

In 2004, Nicholas Dirks became a full-time administrator at Columbia, serving as Vice President, and later, Executive Vice President, of the Arts and Sciences and Dean of the Faculty.

Nicholas Dirks left Columbia in 2013 to serve as chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley.

Nicholas Dirks remains on faculty of the history department at Berkeley, an unpaid position that enables him to continue to teach and work for the university.

Nicholas Dirks, who took over the leadership of The New York Academy of Sciences in 2020 and is the Franz Boas Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Columbia, has held numerous prestigious fellowships and awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Foundation residential fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ.

Nicholas Dirks is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Senior Member at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Nicholas Dirks holds honorary degrees from universities in India and China.

Nicholas Dirks spearheaded new interdisciplinary programs including the Berkeley Arts + Design Initiative, and regional multi-institution research efforts such as the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, and global research and exchange partnerships.

Nicholas Dirks was a highly successful fundraiser, which included overseeing the completion of the Campaign for Berkeley.

In 2016, Nicholas Dirks led Berkeley to raise nearly $480 million, which came from almost 100,000 gifts provided by more than 65,000 donors.

Nicholas Dirks helped set university records for the total amount raised and number of gifts received.

Nicholas Dirks assumed the leadership of The New York Academy of Sciences in June 2020.

Various Academy programs have received recognitions during Nicholas Dirks's tenure including a silver Anthem Award for the ISR, a World Changing Idea Award from Fast Company for the ISR, a silver Anthem Award for the Academy's Junior Academy program, and a bronze Anthem Award for the Academy's Scientist-in-Residence program.

Nicholas Dirks navigated the Academy through the COVID-19 pandemic as lockdowns forced the two-century-old institution to significantly adapt its events-based operations.

In particular, Nicholas Dirks has helped to grow the Academy's Frontiers in Cancer Immunotherapies symposium.

Nicholas Dirks helped the Academy establish a merchandise store as another revenue source.

Nicholas Dirks frequently contributes op-eds to media outlets including TIME, The Hill, and The Chronicle of Higher Education focused on Academy efforts as well as other matters pertaining to science, higher education, and policy.

Nicholas Dirks is married to Janaki Bakhle, an alum of Columbia and a professor of history at UC Berkeley.

Nicholas Dirks is the former director of the South Asia Institute at Columbia University and in 2024 published Savarkar and the Making of Hindutva through Princeton University Press.