Central Washington University Faculty Papers, Usha Mahajani, 1957-1978 (bulk 1967-1976)

Usha Mahajani was a professor of Political Science at Central Washington State College (presently Central Washington University) from 1967 until the time of her death in 1978. She was born in Poona, India on February 6, 1933, the daughter of Dr. Genesh Sakayam and Indumati Mahajani. She received her undergraduate degree at Rajasthan University in Jaipur in 1952 at the age of nineteen. The following year she studied at Smith College in Northhampton, Massachusettes and in 1954 received her Master of Arts degree in International Relations. From 1954 to 1957, Professor Mahajani attended graduate school at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, where she attained a Ph. D. in International Relations with a special focus on Southeast Asian politics. Her first instructing position was at Delhi University in the fall 1958. The next year she was hired as Assistant Research Officer in the Historical Division of the External Affairs Ministry of the Government of India. Three years later she relocated Canberra, Australia to participate in a research fellowship at Australian National University. Professor Mahajani was appointed as an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Central Washington State College in 1967. She was promoted to full professor in 1969. She was a very active member of the anti-war movement and fought for women’s equal rights during the early and middle 1970s. She authored over eighty scholarly papers and two books on Southeast Asian history and politics. She was considered to be one of the foremost experts on the subject during the later her years of her life. Usha Mahajani passed away on September 3, 1978, from medical treatment complications related to a brain tumor.