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Category : India

From New York City to Nepal: How Francis X. Clooney, SJ, Became a Leading Scholar of Hindu-Christian Studies

Mar 1, 2023 | Announcements, Climate, Community, Faculty, In Region, India, Nepal, News, South Asia in the News

From New York City to Nepal: How Francis X. Clooney, SJ, Became a Leading Scholar of Hindu-Christian Studies

Francis X. Clooney, a born and bred New Yorker, was following a fairly traditional path toward Jesuit priesthood when he took an unexpected detour that would change his religious and world view forever. Clooney, now Parkman Professor of Divinity at Harvard, is a leading scholar in the Sanskrit and Tamil traditions of Hindu India and the developing field of comparative theology. He has written numerous books, including Hindu God, Christian God (2001) and the more recent Reading the Hindu and Christian Classics (2019). How he found himself at the forefront of Hindu-Christian studies began in 1973 with a trip to Kathmandu, where different religious traditions were not just in books but all around him.

Calling All Harvard Photographers! Submit Pictures to the LMSAI Photo Contest

Mar 1, 2023 | Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Community, Faculty, Fellows, Graduate Student Associates, In Region, India, Myanmar, Nepal, News, Pakistan, South Asia in the News, Sri Lanka, Students

Calling All Harvard Photographers! Submit Pictures to the LMSAI Photo Contest
Calling all Harvard photographers! The Mittal Institute seeks images of South Asia for our inaugural PHOTO CONTEST. Deadline Extended to 5pm EST on Friday, March 10 in the following categories: CATEGORIES: 1. Nature + Landscapes 2. People 3. Urban Landscapes and...

India Fellow Annie Rachel Royson on Using Literary Translation to Study South Asian Culture

Jan 31, 2023 | Announcements, Community, Fellows, In Region, India, News

India Fellow Annie Rachel Royson on Using Literary Translation to Study South Asian Culture

The Mittal Institute offers funding opportunities for scholars and practitioners to engage with the university’s vast resources to advance self-driven, independent research. Annie Rachel Royson joins the Mittal Institute as the second class of India Fellows, based at the LMSAI Delhi office.
During the fellowship, Annie aims to explore key works of translation from colonial South Asia to explore the critical relationship between translation, geography, sacredness, and memory. Annie’s research project will provide a South Asian perspective to the current ‘spatial turn’ in translation studies and will explore the links between translation, landscapes, and memory in the context of colonialism in the region. 

On Greening Underserved Communities in Mumbai: Arshaya Sood GSD’23

Jan 31, 2023 | Announcements, In Region, India, News, Students

On Greening Underserved Communities in Mumbai: Arshaya Sood GSD’23

Arshaya Sood, a Master’s student in the Department of Urban Planning and Design at Harvard Graduate School of Design, spent her summer in Mumbai, India, conducting fieldwork in the Urban Development department at the World Resources Institute Mumbai. Her work, part of an LMSAI student grant, explored urban planning and urban development efforts on the Mumbai Climate Action Plans Urban Greening & Biodiversity action track, under Cities4Forests initiative. The program works with the city and state governments and the community to improve greening efforts within underserved areas of Mumbai. Arshaya shared her experience in the Q&A below.

India Conference at Harvard on February 11-12 Celebrates 20th Year

Jan 31, 2023 | Announcements, Community, India, News, South Asia in the News, Students

India Conference at Harvard on February 11-12 Celebrates 20th Year

This year marks the 20th season of the India Conference at Harvard. The conference, organized by students from across Harvard, will run February 11 and 12 at Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School. The conference theme, “Vision 2047: India at 100 Years of Independence” will explore how India can fulfill her global potential. The conference hopes to build upon its strong legacy of hosting conversations with India’s leading politicians, business leaders, government officials, academics, artists, athletes, philanthropists for meaningful dialogue on India’s path to global recognition. The conference is supported by WNS, with additional contributions from Zydus and the Mittal Institute.

We spoke with conference organizers Anushree Singh (Harvard Business School), Dhananjay Goel (Harvard Kennedy School), Harkirat Bhullar (Harvard College), Umang Daga (Harvard Business School), and Vidhi Lohia (Harvard Kennedy School) about what attendees can expect from the two-day event.

Street Vending E-Carts, Funded by LMSAI Grant, Launch in India

Jan 24, 2023 | Announcements, Community, India, News, Social Enterprise, South Asia in the News

Street Vending E-Carts, Funded by LMSAI Grant, Launch in India

Electric Rehi, or e-Rehri for short, is a 2022 Seed for Change grant recipient that is working towards providing affordable, electric and modular carts for street vendors in Indian cities, making the daily delivery of fresh produce efficient for both the vendors and the consumers alike. Electric vehicle technology is retrofitted to traditional Indian street carts, creating an incremental and affordable transition to green energy. Using this method, any existing cart can be transformed into an electric vehicle while retaining its ability to function as a mechanical tricycle cart. 

Interrogating the Indigenous of Northeast India: Previewing the January Conference

Jan 8, 2023 | In Region, India, News

Interrogating the Indigenous of Northeast India: Previewing the January Conference

On Tuesday, January 17 the Mittal Institute will host the “Interrogating the Indigenous in Northeast India: Political Movements, Cultural Poetics, and the Performative Capital” conference, which will trace “indigenous” as a historical category, investigating the ways in which the indigenous question has become a shared language of social critique in Northeast India. The conference will begin with a keynote lecture on “Indigeneity and Contemporary Northeast India: History and its Contingencies” by Professor Arupjyoti Saikia, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati. We spoke with conference convener Ankur Tamuli Phukan, Mittal Institute India Fellow based in our Delhi office. He shared the motivations behind the conference, and what he hopes attendees can glean from the panel discussions.

Pakistani Artist Komal Shahid Khan Reflects on Her Work & LMSAI Fellowship

Jan 8, 2023 | In Region, India, News

Pakistani Artist Komal Shahid Khan Reflects on Her Work & LMSAI Fellowship

Komal Shahid Khan, based in Islamabad, Pakistan, was a Visiting Artist Fellow at the Mittal Institute in 2016. She received a master’s in fine arts from the Fatima Jinnah Women University in Rawalpindi, Pakistan with a specialization in miniature painting and was awarded a Gold Medal for her thesis show. After graduating, she started her career with a focus on group shows in art galleries in Islamabad/Rawalpindi and later moved to Lahore and Karachi. She also taught at the National College of Arts Rawalpindi, Pakistan, as a Lecturer. In 2016, she held her first solo exhibition titled “Imagined Immortals” in Karachi, Pakistan. We caught up with Komal to learn more about life after her LMSAI Fellowship.

LMSAI Delhi Office Welcomes Monika Setia as Associate Country Director

Nov 30, 2022 | Announcements, Community, In Region, India, News

LMSAI Delhi Office Welcomes Monika Setia as Associate Country Director

We are pleased to welcome Monika Setia as she joins the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute as Associate Country Director in the India office. Monika will assist with building bridges between Harvard and India related to research in and about the region. She will play an instrumental role in increasing LMSAI’s presence in India through coordination with stakeholders in the region. Monika will also be working closely with the Harvard LMSAI office to support Harvard faculty visiting India, building partnerships with academic institutions and support ongoing Harvard faculty research and all endowed fellowships.

Understanding the World Through Art: Explore Vaishnavi Patil’s Research

Nov 16, 2022 | Announcements, Arts Program, Community, Graduate Student Associates, In Region, India, News

Understanding the World Through Art: Explore Vaishnavi Patil’s Research

Vaishnavi Patil, one of the Mittal Institute’s new Graduate Student Associates, is a doctoral candidate in Harvard’s History of Art and Architecture department working on South and Southeast Asia. Vaishnavi received her B.A. in Ancient Indian History and Culture from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, and an MA in History of Art and Archaeology from SOAS, London. She was a Yenching scholar at Peking University, China, receiving an MA in China Studies. In addition to her studies, Vaishnavi has participated in numerous internships, including curatorial training at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Harvard Art Museums.
Vaishnavi is interested in studying female deities, especially mother goddesses, and how production, patronage, and development of religions play a role in the evolution of the mother goddess in South Asia. She is also interested in the text-to-image relationships in South Asian art, particularly the literal and the symbolic in the illustration of a text. Other areas of interest include popular practices, marginalized deities, depiction of evil, and gender issues. Her current research aims to analyze the origins and development of the cult of the mother goddess in South and Southeast Asia, particularly her representations and the popular practices centered on her.