Category : Community
May 17, 2023 | Community, India, News, South Asia in the News, Students
Scienspur, a program that offers free STEM courses to economically disadvantaged students across India, is built on the philosophy of igniting scientific curiosity. All courses are free, and all instructors volunteer their time – something that its students explain is particularly unique. “Very few programs have an interest in helping others with their career, without any profit…it has inspired my classmates and I to give back to others’ education, when our own time comes,” says Ebinesh S, a photonics major from the University of Madras, India. “It was an honor to be a part of an organization that works to elevate scientists from every corner of the globe.”
May 17, 2023 | Community, News, South Asia in the News, Students
Jonathan Ripley, Preceptor, has been teaching the Tamil language at Harvard University since 2012. Tamil, one of the longest-surviving classical languages of India, is offered as a class to Harvard students, faculty and staff. We spoke to Jonathan about his language learners, and his own journey with Tamil.
May 11, 2023 | Community, India, News, South Asia in the News
The Mittal Institute’s Graduate Student Associates showcased their research, what they have been working on this semester, and highlights of past field work experiences at the annual Graduate Student Associate Showcase. GSAs Sarah Shaukat, Akhil Thomas and Ronak...
May 10, 2023 | Afghanistan, Arts Program, Community, Faculty, Fellows, In Region, India, News, Pakistan, South Asia in the News
Scholars, practitioners and a packed audience gathered for the Mittal Institute’s flagship spring event, the Annual Cambridge Symposium, to present work and discuss ideas central to South Asia. This year’s conference focused on the theme of “resiliency.” The day...
May 4, 2023 | Community, India, News, South Asia in the News
Last evening, Madhur Jaffrey delighted a full-house crowd for the Mittal Institute’s prestigious Harish C. Mahindra lecture. Jaffrey regaled the audience with stories from her upbringing in British India, her foray into acting, and how she became an icon of South...
Apr 25, 2023 | Community, India, News, South Asia in the News
This year’s Mahindra Lecture will feature Madhur Jaffrey, in conversation with Prof. Abhijit Banerjee of MIT, taking place on May 4th. After the public talk, we will be hosting a public cocktail hour reception at the Harvard Faculty Club. Madhur Jaffrey is an...
Apr 12, 2023 | Arts Program, Community, Faculty, India, News
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.
Apr 11, 2023 | Arts Program, Community, India, News
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.
Mar 29, 2023 | Announcements, Community, Faculty, News, South Asia in the News, Sri Lanka
On Friday, March 24, President Ranil Wickremesinghe joined the Harvard community live from Sri Lanka for a discussion moderated by professors Tarun Khanna, Harvard Business School, and Asim Khwaja, Harvard Kennedy School. The event, co-sponsored by the Center for International Development at Harvard and the Mittal Institute, covered a wide range of topics, from the recently announced IMF deal to social, economic, and political reforms to human rights issues and the way forward for the country.
Mar 29, 2023 | Announcements, Community, Faculty, News, South Asia in the News
This past fall, Harvard University welcomed Prof. Martha Selby as the Sangam Professor of South Asian Studies. She joined us from the University of Texas at Austin, where she taught since 1999. A scholar of South Asian literature, she shared more about her work and previewed her upcoming April 6 talk on “Sangam Tamil Lecture – Loss in Love and War: On Grief and Longing in Old Tamil Poetry.”
Mar 29, 2023 | Announcements, Community, Faculty, News, South Asia in the News
As we enter the fourth year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Shikha Kukreti, MPH, BDS, is focused on exploring the attitude of healthcare workers to vaccines, and their psychological wellbeing during the pandemic. A researcher with the Lancet Citizens Commission and a Ph.D. candidate at National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan, Shikha is spending the spring at the Mittal Institute. We spoke with her about her project.
Mar 22, 2023 | Announcements, Climate, Community, Faculty, In Region, News, South Asia in the News
The Mittal Institute has embarked on a major climate change initiative focused on South Asia, hosted at our Harvard Global Research Support Center India, an affiliate of Harvard University. This focus comes as Harvard awarded the Mittal Institute two multi-year grants to catalyze climate change research in South Asia. To build on the initiative, the Mittal Institute will host an inaugural climate change workshop on March 30-31 in New Delhi. The sessions will convene an interdisciplinary group of experts, policymakers and academics to set collective research and strategic priorities. LMSAI Director Tarun Khanna, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at Harvard Business School, spoke with us about LMSAI’s climate focus, and previewed the upcoming workshop.
