We are a group of SOAS Anthropology students and we are raising money to keep the Helen Kanitkar Library running at SOAS

Dr Helen Kanitkar was for many years a Lektor in the Department of Anthropology at SOAS. Students and staff from that period will recall the warmth and pastoral care she extended to generations of students. No knock on her door ever came at an inconvenient moment. When Dr Kanitkar passed away in 2001, her husband Hemant funded the refurbishment of the departmental library, which has been Helen's particular love. Additionally, he donated 800 of her books to what was reopened as the Helen Kanitkar Library and Research Centre (HKL) - Anthropology's Departmental Library at the School of Oriental and African Studied (SOAS), University of London. When Hemant also sadly passed away, he left a legacy which established studentships for research into the religions that had fascinated them.

The HKL contains a  LARGE number OF valuable resources to SOAS students

Copies of popular anthropological texts used on BA and MA courses, as well as videos and other resources have provided vital resources for generations of SOAS Anthropology students. Particularly valuable to current students are the outstanding examples of BA Independent Study Projects, MA dissertations, MPhil upgrade documents and PhD theses from which inspiration and guidance can be taken.

The HKL is also a study place for anthropologist, somewhere for writing and research, as well as for informal meetings and the exchange of ideas between BA, MA and research students. 

In the words of one SOAS student, 'the HKL has been fundamental to any and all success in my degree programme'. 

Fifteen years on, we have exhausted Hemant’s legacy and need your donations to keep this vital resource alive.

Your donations will enable the Anthropology Department to continue to appoint a Student Librarian who is responsible for coordinating volunteers, cataloguing books and dissertations, and fulfilling Helen Kanitkar's ambitions of bringing students together in a place where diversity and difference are celebrated. The position has also provided valuable work experience for SOAS students and we hope to be able to continue to offer this opportunity.

Please help us continue the generous Kanitkar legacy and the living reminder of a much-loved colleague.

More information about the HKL and the Kanitkar's kind donations: http://bit.ly/1V7fd1c 

Leave a legacy: http://bit.ly/1NIYY4H