A group photo of the HUM SAB EK curatorial team, panel speakers, and Mittal Institute affiliates.
The HUM SAB EK (We Are One) exhibition, hosted by the Mittal Institute, was successfully launched on April 15, 2024, at CGIS South in Cambridge. The opening event celebrated the powerful responses of India’s Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the way a dynamic team of Harvard graduate students, along with SEWA members themselves, put together a comprehensive multi-media exhibition at Harvard. The room was packed with guests from Harvard and beyond, including Harvard faculty representing a wide range of schools and departments; affiliates of the Mittal Institute; and students, some of them involved in the project, along with their friends.
(Right photo, from left to right) Sarita Gupta, Kapilaben Bhailalbhai Vankar, Reemaben Nanavaty
Attendees were treated to a captivating opening talk by esteemed SEWA member Kapilaben Bhailalbhai Vankar and SEWA Executive Director Reemaben Nanavaty, who were in conversation with Sarita Gupta, Vice President of US programs at the Ford Foundation. Kapilaben recalled the difficulties she and other informal workers experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially during India’s lockdown in March 2020, and the Delta wave in 2021. Exploring SEWA founder Elaben Bhatt’s philosophy of an “economy of nurturance,” Kapilaben described how the community navigated the pandemic and the societal response by jointly ensuring food security, education and livelihoods. This proves that SEWA’s five decades of efforts to build resilient communities by strengthening mutual cooperation and empowering women have been successful.
(Left photo, from left to right) Satchit Balsari, Rishi K. Goyal; (Right photo, from left to right) Shariq M. Shah, Robert McCarthy
Next, Dr. Satchit Balsari was in conversation with Dr. Rishi K. Goyal, Director of Medical Humanities, ICLS, and Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Columbia University. Balsari and Goyal discussed the importance of transdisciplinary research approaches and how this exhibition employed tools from the arts and humanities to convey public health research findings. Qualitative approaches, Balsari and Goyal agreed, play a critical role in contextualizing research findings and communicating science to society. Balsari, who had never curated an exhibition before, emphasized how fortunate he was to have “tapped into the best resource this university has – its fantastic students.” Together, the team curated 12 installations at CGIS South that immerse the visitors in the lives and spaces inhabited by the working poor in India.
Learn more about the ideation of the exhibit here, and how Harvard students created the installations here.
Hiteshree Das, MDes ’25 (GSD), Lead Student Designer and Co-Curator, then introduced the audience to each of the installations. She showed how each of them vividly portrays the experiences and resilience of India’s informal economy, which comprises 90% of India’s labor force. From visual displays to poignant oral histories, each exhibit offers a window into the lived realities of navigating the greatest public health crisis of our times.
Afterward, it was time to step out of the Tsai Auditorium into the CGIS South concourse to discover the installations while enjoying South Asian food. The atmosphere buzzed with lively conversations about the exhibit and beyond, and with meaningful connections among the South Asian community at Harvard.
(Left photo, from left to right) Satchit Balsari, Vikram Patel; (Right photo) Hiteshree Das
For those who were unable to attend, the exhibition will be on display for self-guided tours until August 20, 2024. Beyond that, it will continue its journey of storytelling and exploration at the World Bank’s headquarters in Washington DC, the Clinton Global Initiative in New York, and eventually in India.