Category : Community
Sep 9, 2022 | Announcements, Community, News
We are back on campus with in-person events and an exciting line-up of speakers on key topics impacting South Asia. We’ll be launching two Mittal Institute books, including one on Meritocracy in India and China and the other on the 1947 Partition of British India; hosting a conference on Pakistan’s 75 years of independence; and featuring our Visiting Artist Fellows with an opening reception. We are also looking forward to hosting Ali Sethi on September 14 for a tribute to “75 Years of Azadi: A Celebration of South Asia.”
Sep 8, 2022 | Announcements, Community, In Region, News, Pakistan, South Asia in the News, Students
The torrential monsoon rains in Pakistan have eclipsed the label of a mere natural disaster; Pakistan is undergoing a humanitarian crisis. In the past two months, the heaviest rainfalls on record have killed over 1,300 people and have severely impacted 33 million others. The National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) estimates that over half a million homes have been destroyed. Relief efforts are direly needed given the rapidly-worsening situation. Harvard College Pakistani Students Association is raising funds to provide victims with meals, shelter, sanitary products, and more. Please donate what you can so we can help give much-needed funds to those suffering in Pakistan and please share this far and wide so we can raise much-needed awareness for this perilous situation.
Aug 31, 2022 | Announcements, Community, Faculty, In Region, News, South Asia in the News
The start of the new academic year at Harvard coincides with a pivotal moment in history for South Asia: August 15 marked 75 years since the end of British rule on the subcontinent. To mark this momentous year, the Mittal Institute is launching a series of events celebrating and commemorating 75 years of “azadi” or “freedom,” and many of the Institute’s faculty and affiliates took a moment to reflect on this momentous occasion in several opeds and interviews.
Aug 30, 2022 | Announcements, Community, News, Pakistan, South Asia in the News
Call for Papers: The Pakistan Conference: 75 Years of Independence
May 25, 2022 | Announcements, Community, In Region, News
From the Hijab Ban to the Political Crisis in Pakistan, We’ve Curated 10 Not-to-be-Missed Events from the Last Year The academic year is just wrapping up here in Cambridge, and we wanted to take an opportunity to share with you a specially curated sampling of...
Apr 20, 2022 | Announcements, Arts Program, Community, News
The Mittal Institute’s Visiting Artist Fellowship (VAF) is part of a thriving Arts Program at the Institute that seeks to expand opportunities to connect South Asia’s rich and varied artistic culture to the Harvard community, as well as enhancing the arts in South Asia through access to Harvard’s vast resources. As part of this program, the VAF provides a unique opportunity for outstanding mid-career visual artists from South Asia to come to the Harvard campus. We spoke with the Institute’s Arts Program Manager, Sneha Shrestha, to learn more about the VAF program, what makes a successful candidate, and how she hopes the program will grow in the future.
Mar 15, 2022 | Announcements, Arts Program, Community, In Region, India, News
Professor Doris Sommer, a Mittal Institute Steering Committee member, recently visited the Indian city of Pune to launch the Pre-Texts project, a pedagogy based on interpretation through the arts. She is partnering with Professor Yugank Goyal of FLAME University in Pune, where the project is being housed. Pre-Texts is an arts-based training program for teachers of literacy, critical thinking, and citizenship. While the number of readers has grown worldwide, reading comprehension stays alarmingly low because students need to use texts in order to understand them. With Pre-Texts, students master texts by using them to create visual and performative arts.
Mar 15, 2022 | Announcements, Arts Program, Community, In Region, India, News
The Mittal Institute sat down with Dr. Sharmila Sen, Editorial Director of Harvard University Press, to learn more about the Murty Classical Library of India collection and the new volumes published this winter. Harvard University Press, founded in 1913, has published many bestsellers and critically-acclaimed books for general readers and scholarly/professional audiences. Dr. Sen strategizes and oversees Harvard University Press’ overall book acquisition program.
Mar 10, 2022 | Announcements, Community, Graduate Student Associates, In Region, India, News
Ronak Jain, a Mittal Institute Graduate Student Associate, is a 4th year Ph.D. student in Economics at Harvard University. Her research interests lie in the intersection of economic development and behavioral economics. Her work seeks to understand how beliefs and preferences shape economic and psychological outcomes of individuals and communities, with a regional focus on South Asia. She is a former Harvard Kennedy Scholar. She also serves as a Resident Advisor for Graduate Students in the GSAS Residence Halls at Harvard.
Mar 8, 2022 | Announcements, Arts Program, Community, News, Social Enterprise
The Mittal Institute welcomed a new VAF Artist, Mehwish Abid, to campus this week, for the start of her eight-week research fellowship at Harvard. The program connects artists from South Asia with Harvard’s intellectual resources, and allows a platform for mid-career artists to conduct independent research that explores critical issues in South Asia through the lens of art and design.
Mar 8, 2022 | Announcements, Community, Faculty, In Region, News, Social Enterprise, South Asia in the News
Milind Tambe, the Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science and Director of Center for Research on Computation and Society at Harvard University, has prioritized public health and wildlife conservation as two key areas of focus for his work with artificial intelligence.
Mar 1, 2022 | Afghanistan, Announcements, Community, Fellows, News, South Asia in the News
Fara Abbas, a Fellow with the Negotiation Task Force, based at Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, is a specialist on Afghan affairs with over 10 years of in-country experience on security, peace, and development. She fled Afghanistan in August after the Taliban takeover, and a stipend by a number of Harvard entities – including the Mittal Institute – is supporting her year-long Fellowship at Harvard.
