Dirks is the author of numerous books on South Asian history and culture, primarily concerned with the impact of British colonial rule.

[4] Dirks’s career spans five decades and includes experience in higher education both as a member of the faculty as well as in administration, in addition to positions in the nonprofit sector.

Such a book might break new ground, taking us into hitherto uncharted regions of Indian society; or it might with penetrating insights, reopen stale debates about the ‘big’ issues of structure and process; or it might, yet again, challenge existing modes of enquiry.

Dirks left Caltech for a faculty position at the University of Michigan in 1987 where he had the opportunity to teach graduate students for the first time.

Dirks convinces us that caste as it is shaped today is hardly a vestige of tradition but is, rather, a precipitate of a historical process mediated through colonialism and nationalism.”[12] In The American Historical Review, Sanjay Joshi observed, “The greatest strength of this book perhaps is its location of the discussions about caste firmly within the domain of colonial politics and history.”[13] Saurabh Dube in The Economic and Political Weekly echoed the praise, writing “The scope of the study is large, its sentences sculpted, its words measured, and its polemic provocative.

This enabled him “to promote interdisciplinary study across all of the liberal arts and sciences.”[15] In this role he oversaw six schools, 29 departments, and several special programs and labs.

Michael Fisher, emeritus Robert S. Danforth Professor of History at Oberlin College, said of the book, “Dirks own extensive research and writing as a historian of India provide him with a perspective that enriches his rereading of the Empire’s origin’s in scandal and elucidates them for scholars and lay readers alike.”[16] Dirks left Columbia in 2013 to serve as chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley.

[18] In a book review for the Wall Street Journal, Indiana University professor emeritus Leslie Lenkowsky wrote “[Dirks] laments that failures of governance and mission ‘have led so many to lose faith, trust, and confidence in the world of higher education.’” Lenkowsky concluded “Anyone wanting to understand why even the best American universities are in such a state will learn a lot by reading the reflections of [Dirks] even if solutions remain elusive.”[19] A review in Inside Higher Ed called it “a rich, accessible and eloquent examination of what it will take for public higher education to live up to its democratic promise.” The review’s author, University of Texas at Austin historian Steven Mintz, continued “I found it deeply moving, even wrenching at times….I have read many recent autobiographical accounts by senior academic administrators, and Dirks’s is the most honest, incisive and personally revealing.”[20] Dirks, who took over the leadership of The New York Academy of Sciences in 2020 and is the Franz Boas Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Columbia,[21] has held numerous prestigious fellowships and awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Foundation residential fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ.

[29][30] Dirks convened a special committee in 2016 to review and make recommendations for improving campus services, policies and practices related to sexual violence, harassment and assault against students, staff and faculty that resulted in a major review of all campus procedures around sexual harassment and assault.

[34] Prior to Dirks’s arrival, Berkeley had a “terrible record of private fundraising,” according to Harvard Business School professor William C. Kirby in his 2022 book Empires of Ideas: Creating the Modern University from Germany to America to China.

[45][46] However, it was determined that the fence and the emergency door were security measures, recommended by the University police, to address an increase in incidents in and around the chancellor’s home.

[50][51] In 2017, Dirks and his chief of staff, Nils Gilman, dealt with the aftermath of the Trump election, and various political clashes on the university's campus.

During his tenure as President and Chief Executive Officer,[54] he’s helped the Academy to steady its finances[55] after a period of budgetary volatility,[56] establish new and innovative programs, and earn various accolades.

Major programs and efforts he’s helped to establish include the Tata Transformation Prize,[57] which supports breakthrough, innovative technologies in scientific disciplines of importance to India’s societal needs and economic competitiveness; the Artificial Intelligence and Society Fellowship Program,[58] which, established in connection with Arizona State University, aims to develop a new generation of multidisciplinary scholars prepared to counsel the future use of AI in society for the benefit of humankind; and the International Science Reserve (ISR),[59] which mobilizes the global scientific community to respond to complex crises across borders by establishing an open, global network of scientists and preparing them to act when crisis hits.