Category : Nepal
Sep 29, 2025 | Announcements, Arts Program, Nepal, News
Hitesh Vaidya, the Mittal Institute’s newest Visiting Artist Fellow, is a visual artist and cultural practitioner based in Bhaktapur, Nepal. Vaidya’s practice explores how everyday objects, spaces, and rituals quietly shape collective memory, bridging traditional culture with contemporary life. Drawing on the lived histories of Bhaktapur, Kathmandu, and Patan, Vaidya interprets the city through its domestic rhythms, communal architectures, and interpersonal relationships. We spoke with him about his work and what he hopes to explore during his fellowship.
Sep 22, 2025 | Announcements, Faculty, Faculty Climate Grants, In Region, Nepal, News
In Nepal’s Koshi Province, climate change is worsening floods, droughts, and other threats to smallholder farmers. A new research project, “Documenting Women’s Leadership in Climate Resilience Building in Koshi Province, Nepal,” funded through the Mittal Institute’s inaugural faculty climate research grant program, seeks to capture how women-led organizations are driving grassroots adaptation efforts. Led by Vincenzo Bollettino, Director, Program on Resilient Communities at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative; Director, National NGO Program on Humanitarian Leadership and Patrick Vinck, Research Director, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative; Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the study uses interviews and focus groups to examine how women’s networks build resilience, the barriers they face, and their influence on local decision-making.
Aug 20, 2025 | Afghanistan, Announcements, Arts Program, Associates, Bangladesh, Faculty, Fellows, In Region, India, Myanmar, Nepal, News, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Students
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.
Feb 10, 2025 | Climate, Nepal, News, Students
The Mittal Institute awarded 14 student grants this winter, allowing students to set out for locations across South Asia to complete research, internships, or language studies. Allen Wang, a Master in Design Studies (Ecologies) student from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, traveled to Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley and Pokhara to complete a research project, “A climate-resilient future for the trekking industry in Nepals Everest region.” Allen details his experience in this grant report.
Dec 3, 2024 | Afghanistan, Announcements, Arts Program, Associates, Bangladesh, Faculty, Fellows, In Region, India, Myanmar, Nepal, News, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Students
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.
Oct 7, 2024 | Announcements, Arts Program, Community, Nepal, News
This fall, the Mittal Institute welcomes a new Visiting Artist Fellow from Nepal: Saurav Ghimire, a fiction and docu-fiction filmmaker who explores how to subtly disguise personal elements to achieve a universal story. Learn about his artistic motivations and save the date for the October 22 Art Exhibition and Film Screening.
Oct 1, 2024 | Nepal, News
On Friday, September 27, 2024, Rt. Hon. KP Sharma Oli, Prime Minister of Nepal, spoke to more than 400 students, affiliates, and faculty at Harvard Kennedy School’s JFK Jr. Forum. The Mittal Institute co-sponsored the event together with the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School, the Harvard Center for International Development, and the Asia Center at Harvard University.
Apr 3, 2024 | Announcements, Nepal, News
Sneha Shrestha, known by her artistic alias IMAGINE, is a Nepali artist who gracefully incorporates her native language and meshes the aesthetics of Nepali manuscripts with graffiti influences. We are also lucky enough to call her one of our own, as she is the Mittal Institute’s Arts Program Manager. We had the privilege of discussing her recent milestone as the first Contemporary Nepali artist to have her work permanently acquired by the MFA. We also eagerly anticipate insights into her latest exhibit in New York and the opening of her solo show, Ritual and Devotion.
Feb 12, 2024 | Faculty, Nepal, News
The Harvard Buddhist Studies Forum launched its spring semester events series with a February 7 talk by Todd Lewis, Distinguished Professor of Arts and Humanities at the College of the Holy Cross and Research Associate in Harvard’s Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies. His talk, co-sponsored by LMSAI, explored “Reconfiguration and Revival: Newar Buddhist Traditions in the Kathmandu Valley (and Beyond).” We spoke with Todd to learn more about the motivations behind his research on South Asian religions, and what society can glean from their teachings
Mar 8, 2023 | Announcements, Climate, In Region, Nepal, News, Students
Leren Gao, a Master’s of Theological Studies candidate at Harvard Divinity School, spent her summer learning Sanskrit in Kathmandu, Nepal. With her goal of eventually pursuing a Ph.D. in the field of Tibetan Buddhist Studies, Sanskrit is a valuable language to learn for Leren. She shared her experience.
Mar 1, 2023 | Announcements, Climate, Community, Faculty, In Region, India, Nepal, News, South Asia in the News
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.
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! 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...
