New Bequest Endows South Asian Studies Librarian and Collections at the Penn Libraries

A newly established bequest from Adele Santos and Michael Meister, W. Norman Brown Professor Emeritus of South Asia Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, will deepen the Penn Libraries’ work to connect students and scholars with the world and foster a richer understanding of its people, cultures, and ideas. This $4 million estate gift will endow the Michael W. Meister Librarian of South Asian Studies and support the Michael W. Meister South Asian Collections Endowed Fund.

“As one of the foremost scholars of South Asian art and architecture, Michael has spent his career demonstrating what becomes possible when extraordinary scholarship is paired with extraordinary collections,” says Brigitte Weinsteiger, H. Carton Rogers III Vice Provost and Director of the Penn Libraries. “Through this remarkable gift, Adele and Michael are ensuring that future generations of students and scholars will have both the collections and the expert guidance they need to discover, interpret, and deepen our understanding of South Asia. We are profoundly grateful for their generosity and their confidence in the Penn Libraries.”

The gift will provide support for compensation, travel, research assistants, and related expenses for the newly endowed Meister Librarian of South Asian Studies, as well as support for the development, preservation, and accessibility of collections related to South Asian Studies at the Penn Libraries.

Santos and Meister’s gift comes at a transformative moment for Penn’s global collections. A major renovation is currently underway to create the Zilberman Family Center for Global Collections, a dedicated space that will bring together the Libraries’ internationally focused collections, expertise, teaching, and programming. Slated for completion in fall 2027, the Zilberman Center will provide a new home for this work, and the Meister endowments will strengthen the South Asian scholarship and collections at its heart.

“Michael’s contributions to the Penn Libraries’ South Asia image collection helped shape the study of temple architecture and sculpture, and I’m honored to carry forward the curatorial work he so valued,” says Jef Pierce, Assistant Director of the Zilberman Family Center for Global Collections and South Asian Studies Librarian, who will be named the Meister Librarian of South Asian Studies. “This gift will sustain that legacy, enabling generations of researchers to explore South Asia’s rich visual and material history through one of the world’s finest collections devoted to the region.”

“Michael Meister was for decades the preeminent American scholar of Hindu temple architecture,” says Deven Patel, Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Comparative Literature at Penn, as well as a colleague of Meister’s before his retirement. “His meticulous research — and the intellectual generosity with which he shared it — continues to influence the field and the work of generations of scholars. To me, he is also a dear friend: a quiet, steady presence who provides sage counsel, dry wit, and often a very good laugh.”

A specialist in the art of India and Pakistan, Meister served as Chair of the Departments of South Asia Studies and History of Art and as Director of Penn’s South Asia Center. He was also Curator of Indian Art, Asian section, at the Penn Museum and Curator of the South Asia Art Archive. A renowned scholar of temple architecture, the morphology of meaning, and other aspects of the art of the Indian sub-continent, his honors include two Fulbright awards, a J. Paul Getty Trust Interpretive Research award, a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, and American Institute of Indian Studies and American Institute of Pakistan Studies grants.