The Mittal Institute, with the support of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Lancet Citizens’ Commission on Reimagining India’s Health System, organized a series of panel discussions by leading scientists and frontline clinicians on the latest evidence-based updates for COVID-19 care. Our goal through these talks is to assist with the management of COVID-19 and improvement of health outcomes in South Asia.
Bennett Comerford, a second year Graduate Student Associate with the Mittal Institute, is a doctoral candidate in the Committee on the Study of Religion at Harvard University. His work focuses on the intersections of religion, literature, race and coloniality in nineteenth-century Bengal. He is a past recipient of language and research fellowships in Bangladesh and India. The Mittal Institute sat down to learn more about Bennett and his research.
Each year, the Mittal Institute’s Seed for Change competition encourages Harvard students to develop a vibrant ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship in India and Pakistan. Grant prizes are awarded to interdisciplinary student projects that positively impact societal, economic, and environmental issues in India and Pakistan. One Winter 2020 recipient was “Sahayak,” the brainchild of Ambika Malhortra ’20, Aeshna Prasad ’21, Harvard Graduate School of Design alumnae who both earned a Master of Architecture in Urban Design.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, schools globally have wrestled with the challenges of delivering hands-on learning projects. Enter the Soft Robotic Toolkit, part of the Mittal Institute’s Multidisciplinary Approach to Innovative Social Enterprises, supported by Tata Trusts. This program, as detailed in a MI November interview, uses active, hands-on pedagogy to provide cutting edge, high-quality STEM learning. The project provides students with kits, each of which contain the parts and instructions to create a soft robot, teaching students everything from the creation of silicone materials to the assembly of pieces.
Tianjia (Tina) Liu, who newly joins the Mittal Institute as a Graduate Student Associate for academic year 2021-2022, is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. She is a NSF Graduate Research Fellow and affiliated with the Atmospheric Chemistry Modeling Group. Her research focuses on using satellite data and atmospheric modeling to quantify the impacts of fires on air quality and public health in India, Indonesia, and globally. Prior to attending Harvard, Tina received her B.A. in Environmental Science at Columbia University. The Mittal Institute interviewed Tina about her interdisciplinary research, in a Q&A that follows.
In the second webinar by the Lancet Citizens’ Commission, Srinivasan Jain from NDTV India moderated a timely and important discussion with panelists who have either been directly involved in activities relating to the containment of COVID-19 pandemic or its related care in India over the past few months. The panelists, which included Mirai Chatterjee from SEWA Bharat; Dr Ajay Nair from Swasth Organisation; Sunita Rani, an ASHA Worker; and Dr Priyadarsh from YuMetta Foundation, addressed issues such as COVID-19 preparedness, saving lives, impact on healthcare workers, and protecting mental health.
Despite the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mittal Institute forged ahead, furthering scholarship and partnerships on South Asia’s arts, sciences, humanities, and more. Read more about MI’s latest research and programs in our 2020-2021 Year In Review, now available digitally, by clicking here. For a preview, read the report’s opening “Letter From the Director” by Tarun Khanna, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at Harvard Business School and Director of the Mittal Institute.
Meena Sonea Hewett, Executive Director of the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard (MI) has spent the past decade growing and cultivating the work of the Institute both at Harvard and across South Asia. Now, as she departs the University, we spoke with Meena about her past 10 years of service, and her most important achievements.
Satchit Balsari, Assistant Professor in Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Steering Committee member of the Mittal Institute, co-authored a comment in The Lancet on evidence-based, affordable interventions to manage COVID-19 in India. His co-authors include a range of other medical professionals: Zarir Udwadia, Department of Pulmonary Medicine, P.D. Hinduja Hospital and Medical Research Center, Mumbai, India (ZU); Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Breach Candy Hospitals & Research Centers, Mumbai, India; Ahmed Shaikh, Department of Emergency Medicine, New York Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY, USA; Abdul Ghafur, Department of Infectious Diseases, Apollo Cancer Hospital, Chennai, India; and Sushila Kataria, Department of Internal Medicine, Medanta Hospital, Gurgaon, India.
The Mittal Institute recently concluded the 2020–2021 Visiting Artist Fellowship, which annually brings four mid-career visual artists to Cambridge to engage with Harvard faculty and students, participate in art exhibitions, and perform research using Harvard’s intellectual resources to further their art practice. Due to COVID-related programming changes this year, the fellowship was reimagined, bringing 13 of the top applicants from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal to the virtual world for a series of four online seminars curated to support the artists’ long-term practice. In these courses, the artists participated in thought-provoking discussions centering on art history, creative writing, urban design, and more, with both their peers and the expert facilitating the class. For the final installment of the VAF Lecture Series, the Mittal Institute welcomed Asim Waqif, a Delhi-based artist whose international work revolves around architecture, ecology and design.
Vaishnavi Patil, a Ph.D candidate in the Harvard Department of History of Art and Architecture, was a recipient of a Mittal Institute’s Winter 2020 Student Grant. Her digital humanities project brings together scholarship based on literature, numismatics and archaeological evidence to provide a comprehensive timeline for South Asian History. Read more about her endeavor in her own words.