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Category : India


Mapping Color in History to Transform the Study of South Asian Art

Mapping Color in History to Transform the Study of South Asian Art

Deep in a bank vault of Mumbai’s Asiatic Society lies a revered treasure that is much studied in textbooks but rarely seen. The early 16th-century painted manuscript (dated 1516 CE), one of the oldest of its kind in the world, requires a committee’s approval to see the light of day – a committee that had remained elusive to Prof. Jinah Kim, an expert in South Asian art, for years. But last September, her proposal to study the painted manuscript finally got the go-ahead, and capturing the color from the rare piece of work may just change the study of South Asian art – and maybe all of Asian art – forever.

Renowned Artist Nilima Sheikh on the Joys of Creativity

Renowned Artist Nilima Sheikh on the Joys of Creativity

The Mittal Institute’s inaugural Distinguished Artist Fellow, Nilima Sheikh, will soon join us in residence on the Harvard campus from her home of Baroda, India. A renowned painter, Nilima has been a career artist for more than 50 years. We spoke with her about what led her to apply for a DAF, and her hopes for her experience.

Investigating Interfaith—in India and at Home

Investigating Interfaith—in India and at Home

Throughout its 150th anniversary year, Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences’ GSAS Voices is foregrounding the stories of some of its most remarkable alumni and students as they speak about their work, its impact, and their experiences at the School. Diana Eck, PhD ’76, is a Mittal Institute steering committee member and professor of comparative religion and Indian studies at Harvard University, where she also served as a faculty dean of Lowell House. Eck talks about her decades of work studying the religious traditions of India, the founding of the Pluralism Project, and how she learned to teach as a student at GSAS.

Jay Iyer ’25 on Unlocking the Secrets of Rare Brain Disease in India

Jay Iyer ’25 on Unlocking the Secrets of Rare Brain Disease in India

Jay Iyer ’25, a Molecular & Cellular Biology and Statistics dual concentrator, is working to unlock the secrets of rare brain disease. He spent a summer interning at three hospitals across India, where he explored the state of neurological healthcare and worked to pitch a new iPad application that uses machine-learning to aid in the diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. He shares a personal account of his experience with neurological diseases, and his quest for further medical innovations. 

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

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

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...

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

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.