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The Mittal Institute’s Highlights of 2024

The Mittal Institute’s Highlights of 2024

As 2024 draws to a close, we reflect on the meaningful research, engaging events, and vibrant community that define the Mittal Institute. To bid the year a proper farewell, we’ve curated a list of our most newsworthy highlights. And as we step into 2025, we do so with a sense of optimism and ambition. Here’s to a year filled with possibility, progress, and purpose.

The Mittal Institute Presents the 2023–24 Year in Review and Arts Program Reports

The Mittal Institute Presents the 2023–24 Year in Review and Arts Program Reports

The Mittal Institute is excited to announce the release of the 2023–24 Year in Review and 2023–24 Arts Program reports. Like every year, the comprehensive Year in Review Report includes updates on all major faculty-led programs, lists awards and fellowships, highlights the work of students, student organizations, and scholars, and summarizes events and other achievements. The Arts Program Report highlights the incredible impact and accomplishments of the Mittal Institute’s various arts initiatives, which include fellowships, exhibitions, and events. Both reports offer valuable insights into the institute’s mission of connecting Harvard with South Asia. 

Fueling Innovation: Seed for Change Grant Recipient e-Rehri’s Journey of Growth and Impact

Fueling Innovation: Seed for Change Grant Recipient e-Rehri’s Journey of Growth and Impact

Looking back at the journey of the Seed for Change competition 2022 winner, e-Rehri, exemplifies how bold ideas can create lasting impact. Born from a vision to support informal vendors in Chandigarh, this initiative has grown into a transformative solution for mobility, sustainability, and livelihoods. From its first prototype addressing lockdown challenges to the deployment of an electrified fleet, e-Rehri has become a testament to innovation driven by community needs.

Applications Now Open: Visiting Artist Fellowship

Applications Now Open: Visiting Artist Fellowship

The Mittal Institute’s Visiting Artist Fellowship is a unique opportunity for mid-career visual artists from around South Asia to spend eight weeks on the Harvard campus. The program differs from a typical artist residency program in that it is research-centered, providing artists with the vast resources of Harvard’s intellectual community to enhance their artistic practice. Applications are open until January 2, 2025.

The Impact of Climate Change on Child Development: A Spotlight on the Work of Mittal Institute Associate Fatima Zahra

The Impact of Climate Change on Child Development: A Spotlight on the Work of Mittal Institute Associate Fatima Zahra

Dr. Fatima Zahra, a Mittal Institute Associate, spearheads research at the intersection of human development, labor markets, and artificial intelligence with a focus on the future of learning and work. Several of her projects look at Bangladesh, where she is originally from, including her studies on how climate change impacts child development and what employment barriers Rohingya fathers face in refugee camps. The Mittal Institute spoke with her about her motivation and approach to study climate change in Bangladesh and how socioeconomic and political factors are essential to understanding its impacts.

Introducing Waheed Ahmad, First Benazir Bhutto Leadership Program Fellow from Afghanistan

Introducing Waheed Ahmad, First Benazir Bhutto Leadership Program Fellow from Afghanistan

This year’s Benazir Bhutto Leadership Program Fellow is Waheed Ahmad, the first fellow from Afghanistan. He brings over a decade of experience at the intersection of national security, governance, and development. Waheed most notably served as a senior National Security staff of the Afghanistan Democratic Government (2001-2021). He fled Afghanistan as the U.S. withdrew from the country and the Taliban took power in Kabul. Once in the U.S., he served as Resident Practitioner at the Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention (I-GMAP) at Binghamton University, focusing on human rights issues in Afghanistan. He is now a Mason Fellow pursuing his MC/MPA at the Harvard Kennedy School. We spoke to Waheed about his past, his time at Harvard, and his future plans.

Three Harvard Law School Students Receive Internships at the Supreme Court of Pakistan

Three Harvard Law School Students Receive Internships at the Supreme Court of Pakistan

This winter, three Harvard Law School students will be the inaugural cohort of interns with the Supreme Court of Pakistan, based in Islamabad, Pakistan, through a new program facilitated by the Mittal Institute called the HLS J-Term Clinical Internship. The purpose of this judicial internship is to expose these candidates to the workings of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Through this internship, candidates will get an opportunity to attend the court proceedings at the Supreme Court, prepare bench-memorandums, conduct legal research, draft opinions, assist the Honorable Justice on complex cross-cutting legal issues, and contribute to the overall functioning of the Chambers. Meet the three winners, Rimsha Saeed, Hussain Awan, and Hurya Ahmed.

The 1970 Bhola Cyclone and the Birth of Bangladesh

The 1970 Bhola Cyclone and the Birth of Bangladesh

In 1970, East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) was hit by a cyclone that killed 300,000 to 500,000 people. Prof. Mushfiq Mobarak, Yale University, and Prof. Sultan Mehmood, New Economic School of Moscow, provide empirical evidence that the cyclone’s devastation and the Pakistani government’s “callous response” to it were instrumental in galvanizing support for an independence movement. The two authors share their work in this Q+A ahead of a November 15 Joint Seminar on South Asian Politics.

Waste Pickers and Methane Emissions

Waste Pickers and Methane Emissions

In an essay for the 1800 Histories project based at the Harvard Center for History and Economics, which explores the local conditions at key sites that play a disproportionate role in methane emissions, WIEGO founder and Mittal Institute Steering Committee member Martha Chen writes about the impact waste pickers have on methane emissions in Delhi, India.