Prof Michael Hutt is Professor of Nepali and Himalayan Studies at SOAS University of London and the Director of the SOAS South Asia Institute. He completed a BA in South Asian Studies, majoring in Hindi literature, in 1980 and a Ph.D. on the history of the Nepali language and its literature in 1984, both at SOAS. A fluent speaker of both Hindi and Nepali, Hutt has published extensively on modern Nepali literature and the politics of the Himalayan region, with a particular focus on Nepal. He was Head of the South Asia Department at SOAS from 1995-9, has served as both Associate Dean (2002-4) and Dean (2004-10) of the Faculty of Languages and Cultures, and was appointed as the chair of the British Academy's South Asia area panel in 2014.