Vasu has been teaching Tamil at Penn Language Center since 1996 and previously taught at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and University of Washington, Seattle.
Office Hours
By appointment
Education
- PhD in South Asia Studies, University of Pennsylvania
- M.A. in Asian Languages and Literatures, University of Washington
- PhD in Linguistics, Annamalai University, India
- M.A. in Linguistics, Annamalai University, India
- B.S. in Chemistry, University of Madras, India
Research Interests
His research interests include Tamil language literature - religious literature and Sangam literature, Tamil linguistics, South Asian History and natural language processing besides pedagogy.
Courses Taught
- TAML 0100/5100 Elementary Tamil I
- TAML 0200/5200 Elementary Tamil II
- TAML 0300/5300 Intermediate Tamil I
- TAML 0400/5400 Intermediate Tamil II
- TAML 1500/5500 Advanced Tamil
- TAML 1600/5600 Readings in Classical Tamil
Selected Publications
- 2023. Tamil Language in Context: A comprehensive Approach to learning Tamil. (Revised third edition), Department of South Asia Studies, University of Pennsylvania.
- 2021. “Exploring Inter-Textuality between Medieval Tamil Inscriptions and Bhakti Literature”. In Murugaiyan, Appasamy and Parlier-Renault, Édith (Eds.). Oxford: Indica et Buddhica Publishers. Pp. 29-50.
- 2021. "Hegemony of Religious Texts and Development of Tamil Ritual System called Thamiḻ Arccaṉai." In Tirāviṭap Poḻil: The Journal of Dravidian Studies, Vol. 1, Issue 2, April-June, 2021, Vallam, Thanjavur, India.
- 2019. Tamil Conversation Book. Department of South Asia Studies, University of Pennsylvania.
- 2018. இலக்கியப் பயணங்களும் தமிழர் வரலாறும் (in Tamil: Literary Journeys and Tamils' history) Kalachuvadu Publishers, Nagercoil, Tamilnadu, India
- 2016. Computational Approaches to Tamil Linguistics, Cre-A. Chennai, India.
- 2010. An English Dictionary of the Tamil Verb (Associate Editor), Department of South Asia Studies University of Pennsylvania. Chief editor: Harold F. Schiffman.
Affiliations
- Lecturer, Penn Language Center & Department of South Asia Studies
- Life Member, International Association for Dravidian Languages, Kerala, India
- Life Member, Tamil Linguistics Association, Coimbatore, India
- Member, Association of Dravidian Linguistics, Annamalai University, India
- Treasurer, International Association for Information Technology for Tamil (INFITT), San Francisco, United States
- Member, Association for Asian Studies, Ann Arbor, Michigan
- International Advisory Board Member, Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching (e-FLT), Singapore
- Treasurer and Executive Committee member, South Asian Language Teachers Association (SALTA)
CV (file)
vasu.pdf207.91 KB
CV (url)
