Rows left to right from top left: Abir Abdullah, Muhammad Ayaz, Saurav Ghimire, Parul Gupta, Masuma Halai Khwaja, Nilanjana Mukherjee, Arpit Shah, Sarah Umer, Sarthak Agarwal, Arnaaz Ameer, Shreya Raj Bhutani, Priyamvada Gannavarapu, Fatima Hamdani, Bhavya Jain, Elizabeth Karron, Iqra Saleem Khan, Nikhil Kumar, Phusathi Liyanarachchi, Naomi Mehta, Prutha Parmar, Vaishnavi Patil, Pradish Poudel, Adhitya Raghavan, Hilton Simmet, Kartik Srivastava, Poorna Swami, Saravanan Thangarajan, Shaharyar Zia.
The Mittal Institute’s Cambridge Office fosters South Asian scholarship by hosting Fellows, Visiting Artist Fellows, and Graduate Student Associates. Fellows are scholars and practitioners who come to Harvard to utilize the university’s resources to contribute to self-driven, independent research. Graduate Student Associates (GSAs) are graduate and Ph.D. students from across the different schools at Harvard who conduct research focused on South Asia. This Academic Year 2024-25, we welcome 4 new and returning Fellows, 4 new Visiting Artist Fellows, and 20 new and returning GSAs.
New Fellows
Muhammad Ayaz is the Syed Babar Ali fellow. He is a researcher dedicated to exploring the impact of globalization of production on developing countries. His research interests focus on economic, social, and environmental upgrading in global value chains (GVCs), corporate social responsibility, and the role of intermediary actors in the governance of GVCs.
Nilanjana Mukherjee is the Bajaj Visiting Fellow. Her work has involved questions of space, place, landscape, and cartography in literary narratives and visual cultures. She especially engages with the history of British imperial transactions in South Asia and traces connections with the present. She is also interested in studying intersections of discourses on gender with nationalism, Bangla literature, Indian art movements, mobilities, architecture, and public spaces.
Arpit Shah is the Raghunathan Fellow. He is an interdisciplinary researcher who works at the intersection of urban studies and the environment. Arpit’s recent work has examined the justice implications of urbanization and climate change on communities in South Asia.
Returning Fellow
Sarah Umer has been a Fulbright Fellow since January 2024. She is an associate professor in the College of Art and Design, University of the Punjab Lahore. Her research includes the study of art, ancient civilizations, and religions, predominantly in the South Asian region.
New Visiting Artist Fellows
Abir Abdullah, a Bangladeshi photographer and educator, is known for his impactful work on climate change and human resilience. Abir’s career highlights include working as a Staff Photographer at Drik Picture Library, and Photojournalist for the European Pressphoto Agency. He served as Principal at Pathshala South Asian Media Institute and now teaches photography workshops at Alliance Française de Dhaka.
Saurav Ghimire is a Nepali filmmaker with a Master’s in Film Direction. His second short film, Songs of Love and Hate (17 mins, Nepal-Belgium), had its world premiere at the Berlinale Generation 14plus competition, where it was awarded Special Jury Mention.
Parul Gupta lives and works in the Delhi National Capital Region, India. Parul’s works are based on her interest in architectural phenomenology and movement in architecture where our bodies and movements are in endless dialogue with our buildings.
Masuma Halai Khwaja graduated with distinction from the National College of Arts (NCA) in Lahore, Pakistan. She has showcased her work at five solo exhibitions in Pakistan and numerous curated group shows across the globe, including Qatar, China, Belgium, Germany, Singapore, the USA, Colombia, and Dubai.
New Graduate Student Associates
Arnaaz Ameer is a S.J.D candidate at Harvard Law School. Her doctoral dissertation is focused on exploring post-war reparations, and lessons from private law remedies.
Shreya Raj Bhutani is a Master of Urban Planning student at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She is interested in the intersection of socioeconomic status, gender, and property in South Asian diasporic communities.
Priyamvada Gannavarapu is an architect currently pursuing a Master of Architecture in Urban Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. As a designer, she is dedicated to exploring the dynamics of sustainable urban development in the context of globalization.
Fatima Hamdani is a graduate student at Harvard Graduate School of Design, pursuing a Master of Design Studies with a focus on Ecologies. Her research investigates the socio-cultural and historical dynamics of urban spaces in South Asia, particularly focusing on Karachi, Pakistan.
Bhavya Jain is an architect from India, pursuing an MDes (Ecologies) at Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Her work questions the relations between socio-ecological networks, infrastructures, and the built environment; and how they take form and shape in our building practices.
Elizabeth Karron is a Ph.D. student in the History of Science Department at Harvard University. Her research examines how the modern history of global health has been shaped by the ecological disruption, disease transmission, and migration brought about by nineteenth-century empires.
Iqra Saleem Khan is an adjunct professor at Northeastern Law and an SJD candidate at Harvard Law School. Her dissertation explores the role of Family Law Exceptionalism (FLE) in the postcolonial nation-building projects of Bangladesh and Pakistan, and the rise of Blasphemy Law in the latter as a counter-exceptional domain of national identity.
Nikhil Kumar is a Ph.D. candidate in Public Policy (Economics Track). His research focuses on development economics, labor economics, and political economy.
Phusathi Liyanarachchi is a Sri Lankan poet. She’s pursuing a Master of Theological Studies at the Harvard Divinity School with a focus on Gender, Sexuality, and Religion. Her research interests lie at the intersections of literature and religious studies with a focus on grief, mourning, psychoanalysis, and gender.
Naomi Mehta is an architect who is currently pursuing her graduate degree in Urban Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She works across different scales, from architectural design to urban policy issues, which she has been actively exploring in different contexts of the world through the lens of climate and social equity.
Prutha Parmar is currently pursuing a Master in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. She is passionate about driving social change through innovative solutions and grassroots development initiatives.
Pradish Poudel, MD, is a primary care physician and social entrepreneur and has been actively involved in championing Health Equity Justice since 2017. Dr. Poudel is pursuing an MSc in Global Health Delivery at Harvard Medical School.
Adhitya Raghavan is an MBA candidate at Harvard Business School, where he is passionate about sustainable energy solutions and sustainable technology.
Poorna Swami is a Ph.D. student in the Department of South Asian Studies, with a secondary field in Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies. Her research interests include South Asian feminist histories, Urdu and Hindi print cultures, Third World intellectual networks, and performance.
Saravanan Thangarajan is pursuing a Master of Medical Science in Global Health Delivery at Harvard Medical School, where he is driven by a passion for improving health outcomes in vulnerable populations, particularly in the realms of climate resilience and social justice.
Returning Graduate Student Associates
Sarthak Agarwal is a doctoral student of Population Health Sciences with a focus on Public Health Nutrition. His academic interests include food security and nutrition as well as the policies and laws governing them.
Vaishnavi Patil is a doctoral candidate at Harvard University in the History of Art and Architecture department working on South and Southeast Asia. She is interested in studying female deities, especially mother goddesses in South Asia. Her work seeks to understand the networks of transmissions of ideas and imagery, the role of artists, patrons, and devotees in shaping religion, and the reciprocity and connectedness in the religions of South Asia, through the sacred feminine.
Hilton Simmet is a Ph.D candidate in Public Policy and a Research Associate with the Program on Science, Technology and Society at Harvard Kennedy School. His research centers on the relationship between political theory and public policy, with a particular focus on how research paradigms seeking to address inequality reflect underlying ideas of political order.
Kartik Srivastava is a Ph.D candidate at Harvard University’s Kennedy School. His research focuses on development economics, labor economics, and political economy.
Shaharyar Zia is Ph.D candidate in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard, who studies the histories and cultures of Muslim societies.