Nicholas Dirks

Nicholas Dirks
10th Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley
In office June 1, 2013 – June 1, 2017
Preceded by	Robert J. Birgeneau
Succeeded by	Carol T. Christ
Personal details
Nationality	American
Spouse	Janaki Bakhle
Education	Wesleyan University (BA) University of Chicago (MA, PhD)
Academic background
Thesis	Little kingdoms of South India: Political authority and social relations in the southern Tamil countryside (1981)
Doctoral advisor	Bernard Cohn
Academic work
Discipline	Historical anthropology
Institutions	California Institute of Technology University of Michigan Columbia University University of California, Berkeley
Main interests	British colonial rule
Notable works	The Scandal of Empire (2006)

Nicholas B. Dirks is an American academic and a former Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley. Dirks is the author of numerous books on South Asian history and culture, primarily concerned with the impact of British colonial rule. In June 2020, Dirks was named president and CEO of The New York Academy of Sciences.^[1]

Dirks was born in Illinois but grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, where his father, J. Edward Dirks,^[2] was a professor at Yale University. When the latter received a Fulbright Scholarship in 1963 to teach at the Madras Christian College, the Dirks family relocated to Madras, where Nicholas developed an interest in Indian culture. He completed his undergraduate education at Wesleyan University, where he received a B.A. in African and Asian studies in 1972.^[3] Thereafter, he attended the University of Chicago, where he earned an M.A. in history in 1974 and a Ph.D. in history and anthropology in 1981.^[4]

After teaching at the California Institute of Technology and the University of Michigan, Dirks moved to Columbia in 1997, where he dramatically altered the direction of the anthropology department, championing postcolonial and multidisciplinary approaches, and making a variety of strategic appointments. He was named vice president in charge of Columbia's Faculty of Arts and Sciences as of September 2004.^[5]

In November 2012, Dirks was selected as the Chancellor-Designate of the University of California, Berkeley.^[6] On November 27, 2012, the Regents of the University of California confirmed Dirks as UC Berkeley's next Chancellor.^[7] He took office on June 1, 2013.^[8][9] Dirks announced his resignation from the position on August 16, 2016, and his resignation took effect on July 1, 2017.^[10] He remains a full professor of history and anthropology in UC Berkeley's Graduate School, an unpaid position that enables him to continue to teach and work for the university.^[11]

From 2018 to 2020 Dirks was chancellor and vice-chairman of Whittle School & Studios, a global network of independent schools serving children from 3 to 18.^[12]

In June 2020, Dirks was named president and CEO of The New York Academy of Sciences.^[1]

During his tenure, Dirks aspired to enhance the undergraduate experience, including the formation of a new undergraduate residential college,^[13] the creation of an undergraduate program in data science,^[14] the formation of a task force examining student housing,^[15] and efforts to improve the experiences of intercollegiate athletes at Berkeley.^[16] Dirks spearheaded new interdisciplinary programs including the Berkeley Arts + Design Initiative,^[17] and regional multi-institution research efforts such as the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative,^[18] and global research and exchange partnerships.^[19][20]

Dirks convened a special committee in 2016 to review and make recommendations for improving campus services, policies and practices related to sexual violence, harassment and assault against students, staff and faculty that resulted in a major review of all campus procedures around sexual harassment and assault.^[21] In particular, he presided over decisions to punish astronomer Geoffrey Marcy and then-incumbent Boalt Hall dean Sujit Choudhry.^[22]

Dirks was also a highly successful fundraiser,^[23] which included overseeing the completion of the Campaign for Berkeley.^[24] Prior to Dirks’s arrival, Berkeley had a “terrible record of private fundraising,” according to Harvard Business School professor William C. Kirby in his 2022 book Empires of Ideas: Creating the Modern University from Germany to America to China.^[25] In 2016, Dirks led Berkeley to raise nearly $480 million, which came from almost 100,000 gifts provided by more than 65,000 donors. He helped set university records for the total amount raised and number of gifts received.^[26] Launched by Dirks in 2014 and continued by his successor Carol T. Christ, Berkeley’s Light the Way campaign went on to raise $7 billion.^[27]

Despite these gains, Dirks was criticized by some for his handling of UC Berkeley's budget.^[28] However, many of the financial struggles on the Berkeley campus preceded Dirks’s chancellorship. The 2008 economic crisis resulted in a 20% reduction to the university’s endowment between 2007 and 2009.^[29] Furthermore, state allocations to the flagship campus had been on the decline for decades^[30] prior to Dirks’s chancellorship, with 2009 seeing the university’s “sharpest drop in state financing since the Great Depression,”^[31] according to The New York Times. The state accounted for 50% of Berkeley’s budget in 1990 compared to 13% in 2020.^[32] When Dirks was in charge in 2016, the state allocation was just 57% of its 2007 level.^[33]

Other contentious matters were the size of the fence around the on-campus mansion provided for him by the university^[34] and an emergency door installed in California Hall at university expense.^[35][36] However, it was determined that the fence and the emergency door were security measures, recommended by the University police, to address an increase in incidents in and around the chancellor’s home.^[37] The so-called University House has had a history of violent incidents^[38][39] and the emergency door was installed in a shared office area intended for use by all administrative support staff, not exclusively the university chancellor.

On August 16, 2016, he announced his intent to resign, and on July 1, 2017 his resignation went into effect.^[40][41] In 2017, Dirks and his chief of staff, Nils Gilman, dealt with the aftermath of the Trump election, and various political clashes on the university's campus.^[42] Kirby noted in his book that “the challenges that followed Dirks’s departure did not leave with him.”^[43]

Dirks assumed the leadership of The New York Academy of Sciences (the Academy) in June 2020. During his tenure as President and Chief Executive Officer,^[44] he’s helped the Academy to steady its finances^[45] after a period of budgetary volatility^[46], establish new and innovative programs, and earn various accolades.

Major programs and efforts he’s helped to establish include the Tata Transformation Prize^[47], which supports breakthrough, innovative technologies in scientific disciplines of importance to India’s societal needs and economic competitiveness; the Artificial Intelligence and Society Fellowship Program^[48], which, established in connection with Arizona State University, aims to develop a new generation of multidisciplinary scholars prepared to counsel the future use of AI in society for the benefit of humankind; and the International Science Reserve (ISR)^[49], which mobilizes the global scientific community to respond to complex crises across borders by establishing an open, global network of scientists and preparing them to act when crisis hits.

Various Academy programs have received recognitions during Dirks’s tenure including a silver Anthem Award for the ISR (2023)^[50], a World Changing Idea Award from Fast Company for the ISR (2023), a silver Anthem Award^[51] for the Academy’s Junior Academy program^[52] (2024), and a bronze Anthem Award^[53] for the Academy’s Scientist-in-Residence program^[54] (2024).

Dirks navigated the Academy through the COVID-19 pandemic as lockdowns forced the two-century-old institution to significantly adapt its events-based operations. With events being a source of revenue, he supported efforts to make programs virtual so the Academy could continue to advance impactful scientific and educational programming, while also bringing in funds through registration costs and sponsorships. In particular, Dirks has helped to grow the Academy’s Frontiers in Cancer Immunotherapies symposium. He also helped the Academy establish a merchandise store as another revenue source.

Dirks has also hosted a series of “fireside chats” at the Academy with prominent thought leaders such as Yann LeCun, Turing Award winner and Chief AI Scientist at Meta^[55]; and Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and a partner^[56] at the venture capital firm Greylock Partners.^[57] He also 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. Additionally, he has represented the Academy at high-impact conferences such as the Aspen Ideas Festival^[58], B20 Summit India^[59], DeepFest^[60], and Techonomy.^[61]

Dirks is married to Janaki Bakhle, an alum of Columbia, a professor of history at UC Berkeley. She is the former director of the South Asia Institute at Columbia University.^[62]

• The Hollow Crown: Ethnohistory of an Indian Kingdom, Cambridge University Press, 1988, ISBN 978-0-521-05372-3
• Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India, Princeton University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-691-08895-0
• The Scandal of Empire: India and the Creation of Imperial Britain, Harvard University Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0-674-02724-4
• Autobiography of an Archive: A Scholar’s Passage to India, Columbia University Press, 2015.
• City of Intellect: The Uses and Abuses of the University, Princeton University Press, 2023, ISBN 9781009394437

• Faculty profile, Columbia's Department of History
• Profile, Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University