Walter Hakala

Walter Hakala.

Walter Hakala

Walter Hakala

Director of Undergraduate Studies
Associate Professor

Interests

Literature and languages of North India and Central Asia; lexicography; Mughal and early colonial South Asian history; South Asian Islam, Sufism and epigraphy

Works in Progress

  • “Vernacular Literacy and the Urdu Public Text,” a book-length study of the Urdu language through inscriptions, and other non-paper sources
  • “Two New Kinds of Fire: Syphilis and Capsicum in Early Hindvi Vocabularies,” forthcoming in Objects, Images, Stories: Simon Digby’s Historical Method, edited by Francesca Orsini
  • (with Lisa Mitchell) “The Lexicography of the Languages of South Asia from c. 1750 to Present,” forthcoming in The Cambridge World History of Lexicography, edited by John Considine

Selected Publications

Negotiating Languages book cover.
Negotiating Languages book cover.

Awards and Fellowships

  • University at Buffalo Council on International Studies and Programs Award for Outstanding Contributions to International Education, 2020
  • University at Buffalo Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development & Humanities Institute Research Funding in the Arts & Humanities, 2019-2020
  • University at Buffalo Baldy Center Research Grant, 2018-2019
  • University at Buffalo Experiential Learning Network Faculty Fellow, 2018-2019
  • Short-term Senior Fellowship in Iranian Studies, American Institute of Iranian Studies, 2018
  • Honorable Mention, Bernard S. Cohn Book Prize, South Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies, 2018
  • UB Exceptional Scholar Award for Young Investigators, 2017
  • UB President Emeritus and Mrs. Meyerson Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching and Mentoring, 2017
  • The Edward Cameron Dimock, Jr. Prize in the Indian Humanities, American Institute of Indian Studies, 2015
  • Faculty Fellow, Honors College, 2015-2017
  • University at Buffalo Office of the Vice President for Research / Humanities Institute Seed Money in the Arts and Humanities Fund, 2015
  • University at Buffalo Office of the Vice President for Research/Humanities Institute Faculty Fellowship, fall 2013.