News Archives • Page 38 of 124 • The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute

Unpacking Binaries in the Art of South Asia

Nov 12, 2020 | Announcements, Arts Program, News

In partnership with Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), the Mittal Institute recently hosted a webinar that delved into the history of art in South Asia. Presented by Laura Weinstein, the Ananda Coomaraswamy Curator of South Asian and Islamic Art at the MFA, she discussed with Jinah Kim, George P. Bickford Professor of Indian and South Asian Art at Harvard University, a new publication from the MFA that explores its South Asian collection, while critiquing the binaries based in Western Enlightenment thought that have historically been applied to art from India and its neighbors.

Hands-on STEM Education with the Soft Robotics Toolkit

Nov 12, 2020 | Announcements, India, News, Social Enterprise

The education system in India relies heavily on traditional ways of teaching. However, evidence suggests that active, exploratory learning rather than traditional knowledge–sharing has a more constructive impact on academic performance, creating more motivation and ongoing interest in the subject as it puts the student in direct contact with the learning materials. The Soft Robotic Toolkit, part of the Mittal Institute’s Multidisciplinary Approach to Innovative Social Enterprises supported by Tata Trusts, uses active, hands-on pedagogy to provide cutting edge, high-quality STEM learning.

Partition’s Legacy: South Asian Art on the Line

Nov 5, 2020 | Announcements, Arts Program, India, News, Partition

Recently, the Mittal Institute teamed up with the Peabody Essex Museum for a discussion on “Partition’s Legacy: South Asian Art on the Line.” Post-independent South Asia is depicted in many forms, with the intent to make sense of its complexities. After the Partition of the subcontinent along the Radcliffe Line, the socio-political ruptures and conflicts that ensued created numerous questions.

Re-envisioning Education in India and Nepal During the Pandemic

Nov 5, 2020 | Announcements, Community, India, Nepal, News

Education has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic as a record number of children are not attending schools due to lockdowns and social-distancing protocols in effect across the world. The crisis has also laid bare the many inequities and inadequacies in the existing education systems around the world, and especially in South Asia. We spoke with Nishant Pandey, the CEO of American India Foundation (AIF), and Rumee Singh, the Founder of Katha4Nepal — two distinguished organizations that have accomplished remarkable work in the field of education delivery during the pandemic.

Vidya Subramanian: From Citizen to Consumer in a Data-Driven Society

Oct 29, 2020 | Announcements, Associates, Fellows, News

This time of the year, we would normally be welcoming the new Mittal Institute Raghunathan Family Fellow to Harvard’s campus in Cambridge. But, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the fellowship has been adjusted to meet the needs of our newly selected Fellow. Vidya Subramanian, an interdisciplinary scholar whose research interests lie at the intersection of technologies and societies, joined us virtually this fall as a Mittal Institute Research Affiliate. She will defer her in-person fellowship term to a time when she can join the team on campus to make the most of Harvard’s intellectual resources and student and faculty interactions.

How Will the 2020 US Election Impact South Asia?

Oct 29, 2020 | Announcements, Associates, In Region, News

Earlier this week, Ronak Desai, Research Associate at the Mittal Institute, moderated a discussion between Ambassador Nirupama Rao, Former Foreign Secretary of India, and Vipin Narang, Associate Professor of Political Science at MIT, as they explored how the potential outcomes of the US presidential election may impact the region of South Asia.

Reimagining Delivery of Mental Healthcare in Under-Resourced Communities

Oct 29, 2020 | Announcements, In Region, India, News, Social Enterprise

Even though mental disorders contribute significantly to the burden of illness in India — making it a nationwide public health priority — most of those affected do not receive evidence-based intervention. In low- and middle-income countries, such as India, non-specialist workers are key in providing healthcare to rural areas. Growing evidence demonstrates that with appropriate training and supervision, they can effectively deliver brief psychological treatments for mental disorders. However, the efforts to scale up these initiatives are prevented by a heavy reliance on the traditional methods of face-to-face training and supervision.

Studying Hindi to Decolonize Disability in South Asia

Oct 22, 2020 | Announcements, News, Students

By Kalpana Mohanty, Doctorate of Philosophy ‘25. In a household with a Tamilian mother and a Bengali father, the common language at home was English. As a result, I had an asymmetric grasp of Hindi where I was able to understand the language almost fluently, but unable to speak it back with the same fluency. My three months of intermediate Hindi lessons at Zabaan, suggested by Professor Maya Jasanoff, was incredibly valuable in helping me rectify this.

Vikram Patel: India’s Mental Health, Before and During COVID-19

Oct 21, 2020 | Announcements, Faculty, India, News

We spoke with Vikram Patel, the Pershing Square Professor of Global Health in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, to learn more about the status of mental health in India and South Asia at large, both before and during the pandemic.

Become a Graduate Student Associate at the Mittal Institute

Oct 16, 2020 | Announcements, News, Students

Every year, the Mittal Institute supports Graduate Student Associates (GSAs) from across the different schools at Harvard who are enrolled in a PhD program and whose research is focused on South Asia. We are now accepting applications for our next round of GSAs at the Mittal Institute.

The Power of Dance in Times of Change

Oct 15, 2020 | Announcements, Community, In Region, India, News

Art is known to transcend barriers and boundaries, binding people across race, religion, and geographies. Dance holds the unique power of bringing relief into a world struggling under the gloom of uncertainty. However, the physical restrictions placed on performers due to the ongoing pandemic have enforced a radical re-imagination of the ways in which dance culture can be practiced and disseminated across the world. Last week, as part of the Harvard Worldwide Week, dance teams representing three global centers and institutes of Harvard University convened to present a program called “Channels of Expression in Times of Change: Music and Dance Across Continents.”

A Virtual Journey into the World of Sanskrit

Oct 15, 2020 | Announcements, News, Students

By Victoria Andrews, Summer 2020 Student Grant Recipient. I began my Sanskrit language training with the South Asian Summer Language Intensive (SASLI) during the summer of 2020. The unusual circumstances of the 2020 pandemic prompted me and the summer program to modify our plans for remote learning. In any other year, for my studies, I would have traveled to and lived in Madison, Wisconsin for the duration of the summer Sanskrit intensive. However, this year, I was able to video into my classes from Cambridge. Embarking on this linguistic endeavor has already proved fruitful for my studies this fall.

Category : News