New York: New York's leading university, The New School, has named an Indian-origin academician as director of its centre of trans-regional study, which is focussed on research on the relations between India, China and the US.

Sanjay Reddy, associate professor of economics, has been named academic director of the New School's India China Institute (ICI) along with Mark Frazier, professor of politics.

Frazier and Reddy would develop the ICI's exploration of the relationships between India, China and the United States by launching new research programmes and partnerships between the university and other global institutions.

"India and China represent rising nations states and civilizational spaces which scholarship and teaching in the United States cannot afford to ignore," Reddy said.

"They are jointly reshaping the world economy, polity and society," he added.

Reddy's research focuses on global political economy, development and poverty, with a particular focus on contemporary India.

He has taught at Columbia, Princeton and Harvard, from which he earned his PhD in economics.

He has also consulted for development agencies and institutions like Oxfam, UNICEF and the World Bank.

Frazier had most recently served as a professor of Chinese Politics and director of International and Area Studies at the University of Oklahoma.

He earned his PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley.

"Discussions of relations between China and India tend to assume that their future will be one of either cooperation or conflict," Frazier said.

"ICI programming and research present a more complex picture of the dense networks and lively exchange of ideas and technologies among Chinese and Indians," he added.

Founded by The New School in 2004, ICI supports research, teaching and discussion on the relationships between India and China, two of the world's emerging economic and political powers, and their interactions with the United States.

Directed by Ashok Gurung, ICI is the hub of an international network of scholars, leaders, and opinion-makers, which encourages discussion through fellowships, public events and inter-institutional collaboration.

The New School was founded in 1919 and currently has more than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students in design and the social sciences, the humanities, management, and the performing arts.