This academic year, there are two new Afghan student groups on campus: the Afghanistan Caucus at Harvard Kennedy School and the Harvard Afghan Students’ Association at Harvard College. The Mittal Institute spoke with Sal Parsa, co-founder of the Afghanistan Caucus, about their inaugural event on February 20 and further plans to foster a sense of unity and purpose among Afghan students and alumni.
Sabina Faiz Rashid is a medical anthropologist and currently Professor and Chair of Health and Poverty at BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She is also the principal in-region investigator of Mittal Institute’s CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN SOUTH ASIA project, an interdisciplinary project that seeks to advance climate adaptation research and implementation at the household, community, state and federal levels in South Asia, particularly in the context of climate-driven migration.
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
This week, the Mittal Institute along with the Department of South Asian Studies gathered over 20 representatives from the many (and growing!) South Asian student groups at Harvard to discuss how to strengthen ties and develop new collaborations.
“A solution that can’t be applied,” says Professor Richard Cash, Senior Lecturer on Global Health at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health and LMSAI Steering Committee member, “is really no solution at all.” He shares more on his cholera dehydration life-saving solution that he and his colleagues first developed in Bangladesh — a solution that is credited with saving tens of millions of lives worldwide. Their oral rehydration therapy (ORT) is a mix of salt, sugar, and water and has helped patients return to their hydrated state as quickly as they had sickened.
The annual student-led India Conference at Harvard returns to campus for its 21st year on February 17 and 18, with experts from various sectors including business, economy and culture offering insight into India’s current landscape and future. We spoke to two of the four co-organizers, Ananya Chhaochharia (Harvard Kennedy School) and Ishaan Poddar (Harvard Business School) to understand the goals of the conference, and unpack this year’s theme, “India Rising.”
The Mittal Institute’s Fellows are scholars and practitioners from South Asia who come to Harvard to utilize the University’s resources to contribute to self-driven, independent research. This spring we welcome four new Fellows, in addition to three returning Fellows who began their research with us this past fall.
This winter break, students, faculty and scholars set off for all corners of South Asia for research, study, and even some downtime. We caught up with some of our community to hear about their explorations and discoveries in-country.
