A.K.B. Pillai, a native of Trivandrum, India, completed his master’s degree in English at ECU in 1968 even while simultaneously serving as a teaching fellow in the English Department. Pillai’s master’s thesis, “Walden and Indian Thought,” was later published under the title, Transcendental Self: A Comparative Study of Thoreau and the Psycho-Philosophy of Hinduism and Buddhism. An insightful and dedicated scholar, Pillai had previously completed a master’s degree in English at Kerala University, India, where he then served as professor and chair of the English Department at Kerala’s Sree Sankara College. Following his arrival in the U.S. in March of 1967, Pillai briefly worked as director of the Center for Asian Studies at Hollywood College, Hollywood, Florida, before taking up graduate studies and teaching at ECU. Already recognized as an authority on contemporary India, Pillai presented a paper at the 27th International Congress of Orientalists, held at Ann Arbor, Michigan, even while a graduate teaching fellow at ECU. As an Asian graduate student and teaching fellow at ECU, Pillai was one of the more noteworthy early pioneers in campus diversification during the 1960s.
After ECU, Pillai completed his Ph.D. through Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs in 1975. His dissertation, an examination of Hindu marriage practices, was subsequently published as The Culture of Social Stratification/Sexism: The Economics, Politics, and Rituals of Marriage. A prolific writer, Pillai later addressed sexual violence in his study, Women and Children: Sexual Abuse and Violence: With a Plan to Stop Now! A Total Socio-Cultural Medical Explanation, With Preventive Strategies.
In 1972, Pillai took a position as a professor of anthropology at Ramapo College of New Jersey. Following his retirement 29 years later, in 2001, Pillai worked as a medical anthropologist, receiving international honors for his findings on psychosomatic health and personality development. Even while a faculty at Ramapo, Pillai had founded the Institute of Integral Human Development in New York City, an educational and human service institution devoted to helping people live healthy, happy lives. In 2017, the Kerala Center honored Pillai for his work in the humanities.
Although his time at ECU was brief, Pillai’s popularity on campus as a teacher and graduate student contributed significantly to the ongoing deconstruction of remnants of Jim Crow culture at East Carolina. His later successes as a scholar, teacher, and author make him, furthermore, one of ECU’s most outstanding graduates and an exceptional exemplar of the school’s motto, to serve.
Sources
- “Kerala Center honors Pramila Jayapal and other achievers.” South Asian Times. http://www.thesouthasiantimes.info/news-Kerala_Center_honors_Pramila_Jayapal_and_other_achievers-190823–112.html
- “New York Institute of Integral Human Development, Inc.” http://www.drakbpillai.net/
- Pillai, A.K.B. The Culture of Social Stratification/Sexism: The Economics, Politics, and Rituals of Marriage. Columbia University Ph.D. dissertation. 1975. Later published by Copley Publishing Group, 1987.
- Pillai, A.K.B. Shakespeare's King Lear: A Study of Human Order. Trivandrum, Kerala, India: International Associates for Human and Cultural Development.
- Pillai, A.K.B. Women and Children: Sexual Abuse and Violence: With a Plan to Stop Now!: A Total Socio-Cultural Medical Explanation, With Preventive Strategies. Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India : Distributors, Modern Book Centre, 2013.
- Pillai, A.K.B. Transcendental Self: A Comparative Study of Thoreau and the Psycho-Philosophy of Hinduism and Buddhism. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1985.
- Rabhan, Sandra. “A Man Of Many Experiences, Pillai Expresses Aspirations.” East Carolinian. Vol. 43, No. 12. October 17, 1967. P. 3. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/39308
Citation Information
Title: A.K.B. Pillai
Author: John A. Tucker, PhD
Date of Publication: 7/12/2019