Islamic Studies Program

Phone:

(812) 855-2428

Email:

beckwith@indiana.edu

Department:

Central Eurasian Studies

Campus:

IU Bloomington

Beckwith has taught at IU for 41 years, in which time he has developed 48
distinct courses. He is one of the most prolific and versatile researchers
in the field of Central Eurasian studies. Beckwith is renowned for
revolutionary scholarship that reshapes understanding of how, why and when
the Central Eurasian steppe peoples from Eastern Europe to East Asia
influenced the development of knowledge, religious beliefs and societies,
not only within their homeland but in the neighboring peripheral cultures of
Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia as well. His research
focuses on the history of ancient and medieval Central Asia and the cultures
of those peripheral peoples, as well as the linguistics of Aramaic, Chinese,
Japanese, Koguryo, Old Tibetan, Tokharian, Old Turkic, Uzbek, and other
languages.

He has been named a MacArthur Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, a Fulbright-Hays
Fellow, and a Japan Foundation fellow and has had numerous visiting
appointments around the United States and the world. He has authored 10
books and 49 articles.