Clockwise from top left: Naiza Khan; P. Arun; Nobonita Rakshit; Muhammad Ayaz; Abir Abdullah; Masuma Halai Khwaja; Parul Gupta.
The Mittal Institute’s Cambridge and New Delhi offices foster South Asian scholarship by hosting Fellows, Visiting Artist Fellows, and Graduate Student Associates. This spring 2025 we welcome seven new researchers and welcome back two scholars.
New Distinguished Artist Fellow
Naiza Khan is this year’s Distinguished Artist Fellow who will be on campus in April 2025. Her multidisciplinary practice encompasses drawing, sculpture, archival material, and film, intertwining themes of land, body, and memory. By engaging with museum collections and the circulation of objects tied to migration across the Indian Ocean, Khan’s art critiques contemporary crises related to borders and migration. She works between London and Karachi, continuing to create work that bridges personal and political histories.
New Mittal Institute India Fellows – New Delhi Office
P. Arun is working with Prof. Sugata Bose, Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs, Department of History, Harvard University. His project titled “Postal and Telegraph Surveillance in Late Colonial India, 1900-1940s,” investigates the presence of postal and telegraph surveillance in late colonial India, focusing on surveillance measures deployed against colonial subjects and anti-colonialists.
Nobonita Rakshit is working with Prof. Doris Sommer, Ira and Jewell Williams Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and of African and African American Studies Department, Harvard University during her Mittal Institute India Fellowship. Her project “Water Crisis, Hydropolitics, and Graphic Literature: Towards an Interdisciplinary Mapping of India’s Water War” will explore how the participatory art form of graphic narratives serves as a powerful response to India’s anthropogenic water crisis.
New Fellow
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.
New Visiting Artist Fellows
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.
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.
Returning Researchers
Arpit Shah, the Raghunathan Fellow, 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.
Ian Talbot, Mittal Institute Visiting Scholar, is Emeritus Professor in the History of Modern South Asia at the University of Southampton, where he was formerly Head of the History Department and Founding Director of the Centre for Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies. His current research interests focus on the Environmental History of South Asia. His previous research was on British diplomacy in Pakistan.