Clockwise from top left: Tresa Abraham; Sachin Kumar; Rose Sebastian; Fatima Fayyaz; Hitesh Vaidya
The Mittal Institute’s Cambridge and India offices foster South Asian scholarship by hosting Fellows and Visiting Artist Fellows. Our Fellows are scholars and practitioners who come to Harvard to pursue independent, self-directed research and engage with the university’s world-class resources. Visiting Artist Fellows are mid-career artists from across South Asia who spend two months on campus, collaborating with Harvard faculty and students as they explore the region’s social, political, cultural, and economic issues through art. In the 2025–26 academic year, we are delighted to welcome four new Fellows and one Visiting Artist Fellow.
New Fellows
Tresa Abraham is the Raghunathan Family Fellow. Her primary research interest lies in colonial culture. Her focus has been on the use of wild animals in power negotiations in colonial India. Dr. Abraham’s current research at Harvard will be on the cultural history of taxidermy in India.
Sachin Kumar is the Mittal Family Climate Fellow. He is a recognized leader in Artificial Intelligence, who specializes in the intersection of AI technology and societal impact. Currently serving as an Assistant Professor at the Cluster Innovation Centre, University of Delhi, he is also the Executive Officer of the University of Delhi Foundation. His research focuses on leveraging AI/ML to solve urban societal challenges, specifically climate change and sustainability in urban environments.
Rose Sebastian is the Jamnalal Kaniram Bajaj Fellow. She is also a fellow with Harvard Kennedy School’s STS (Science and Technology Studies) Program. Her longtime research interest in cultural studies, museum studies, and modern India has recently branched off to her current postdoctoral project on the science museums in post-independence India.
Fatima Fayyaz will be the Spring 2026 Syed Babar Ali Fellow. Her primary field of research is Persian mystical and epic literature, spanning Iran and the broader Persianate world, including Central Asia, Afghanistan, and South Asia. For her post-doctoral research fellowship at Mittal Institute, Harvard, Fatima will be doing a comparative study of āshūrā poetry in Urdu and Persian, tracing its development from the 16th century onward in South Asia and Iran.
Visiting Artist Fellow
Hitesh Vaidya is the fall 2025 Visiting Artist Fellow. He is a visual artist and educator based in Bhaktapur, Nepal. His practice explores how everyday objects, spaces, and rituals quietly shape collective memory, bridging traditional culture with contemporary life. During his fellowship, Vaidya is researching models for community-rooted contemporary art spaces in Bhaktapur. His project draws on participatory art, curatorial practice, and local histories to bridge gallery culture with everyday audiences.