Arthur Kleinman,Esther and Sidney Rabb Professor, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University and Professor of Medical Anthropology in Global Health and Social Medicine and Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School Jennifer Leaning,Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights, Harvard School of Public Health; Director, FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University; Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Harvard South Asia Institute 10th Anniversary Celebration
Nicholas Dirks,Chancellor, University of California, Berkeley
Introduction by Tarun Khanna, Director, South Asia Institute; Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor, Harvard Business School
The Future of South Asia: A Landscape of Pluralism
Rahul Mehrotra, Professor and Chair, Department of Urban Planning and Design, Harvard Graduate School of Design Chair: Hiteshkumar Hathi, Producer of NPR’s ‘Here and Now’
Co-sponsored by the Harvard Graduate School of Design
Home to nearly a sixth of humanity, the birthplace of many of the world’s great religions and philosophies, and now a hotbed for innovation and technological change, South Asia is truly the world’s laboratory, a space where we can experiment with the world’s most urgent challenges. Join leading academics from Harvard University in a discussion of the timely appeal of South Asia to the humanities—at the intersection of religion and civil society, ancient arts and cutting edge technologies. Our guest speakers will challenge you – Is Pakistan really Islamic? The Taj Mahal: What’s the Attraction? – and share with you the latest research and inquiry on South Asia from Harvard.
The United States in Asia: Five Media Perspectives
With the participation of Nieman Fellows from Asia
Moderated by Arthur Kleinman, Esther and Sidney Rabb Professor, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University and Professor of Medical Anthropology in Global Health and Social Medicine and Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School.
Wu Nan, The Wall Street Journal (China) Rema Nagarajan, The Times of India (India) Akiko Sugaya, Journalist and “Media Education” Author (Japan) Pir Zubair Shah, The New York Times (Pakistan) John Nery, Philippine Daily Inquirer (the Phillipines)
Amartya Sen,Thomas W. Lamont University Professor and Professor of Economics and Philosophy, Harvard University Anthony Lake,UNICEF Executive Director Facilitated by Jacqueline Bhabha,Jeremiah Smith, Jr. Lecturer in Law, Harvard Law School and Lecturer on Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
Sponsored by the FXB Center at Harvard, co-sponsored in part by SAI
Amir returns to Afghanistan to help his old friend Hassan, whose son is in trouble. The story is set against a backdrop of tumultuous events, from the fall of the monarchy in Afghanistan through the Soviet invasion, the mass exodus of Afghan refugees to Pakistan and the United States, and the Taliban regime.
The “Future of Afghanistan” conference, co-sponsored by the Harvard Kennedy School’s India & South Asia Program, the Future of Diplomacy Project, and the Harvard South Asia Institute, is a daylong conference that seeks to answer important questions about the current state of affairs in Afghanistan and the prospects for regional peace and stability in a post-2014 world. It will be hosted at Harvard University on Friday April 5, 2013.
The conference will feature an array of prominent voices from the region, as well as South Asia experts from the United States and beyond. Panels will cover two broad thematic areas: the challenges and opportunities related to negotiations and security in Afghanistan, and the rule of law and human development.
Innovation in Education: Lessons for Entrepreneurship in Pakistan
Fernando Reimers, Ford Foundation Professor of International Education; Director of Global Education and of International Education Policy
Imran Sarwar, Co-Founder, Rabtt; MPP Class of 2013, Harvard Kennedy School of Government
Seminar Report:
The third Video Conference of the new SAI Series of Webinars focused on ‘Innovation in Education: Lessons for Entrepreneurship in Pakistan’. Professor Fernando Reimers, Ford Foundation Professor of International Education and Director of Global Education and of International Education Policy at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Imran Sarwar, Co-Founder, Rabtt (Connection); MPP Class of 2013, Harvard Kennedy School of Government led the discussion with academic sites across Pakistan. In addition, for the first time a Facebook event for the Webinar attracted 120 people to virtually attend the event – our partner, Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission provided a live web link for online streaming so that the discussion was available to anyone with an internet connection.
Professor Reimers started his presentation on ‘Educating to Change the World’ with acknowledging how much education has changed over the last 25 years – the very fact of the Video Conference itself through which sites were virtually connected is a demonstration of how much technology has enhanced access around the world. He said we are in a new era in history when instead of top-down planning individuals and small groups of people are taking on big challenges – it’s a time of great potential change. He spoke of the fact that we need to move from teaching low-level cognitive skills that had been the focus of much formal education in the past to higher level leadership skills for the 21st century by developing adaptable skills to apply knowledge and learning in new ways. He spoke of the great work of Injaz al-Arab under the visionary leadership of Soraya Salti that he has been helping evaluate over the last 2 years and the phenomenal outcomes of the program in developing a sense of agency in youth and the ability to see challenges as opportunities. He also spoke of the ability inherent in all of us to teach and that we can’t expect professional teachers to bear all the burdens of teaching – he exhorted the audience to action. In reply to a twitter question about encouraging business and academia linkages, he spoke of an example from Monterey, Mexico about an innovative approach taken by a University president who asked local government and business leaders how his institution could help them grow – he then led the change to respond to those social demands – exactly the kind of model higher education needs to move towards to be a center for development and innovation in the 21st century.
Imran Sarwar spoke of his experiences along with a friend and colleague from LUMS, Aneeq Ahmed Cheema when they formed Rabtt in the summer of 2011. Listening to his personal story of how he managed family and social expectations in going down his chosen and unconventional path to make a start at changing the reality of children who attend public sector schools was heartening. He exhorted would-be entrepreneurs to not wait to start till conditions were perfect or support was forthcoming – he said, start now and you’ll attract people who think like you to join your work – and that money and finances will also flow to the work you start! He spoke of how privileged children from elite schools live in their bubbles while children in public sector schools are very street smart. Rabtt is working on connecting these two worlds. Professor Reimers reiterated that a progressive society must be more equitable and heartily endorsed Imran’s efforts –at the end he asked us all to free ourselves from toxic mentalities and begin to take responsibility to change social conditions – now!
Mariam Chughtai (doctoral candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education) ably moderated the Videoconference and handled switching between different sites enabled by HEC’s Virtual Education Project and Erum Sattar (doctoral candidate at Harvard Law School) moderated an active twitter feed on: #SAIEdInnovation
Innovation in Education
Photos from the video conference discussion on lessons for entrepreneurship in Pakistan.
Co-sponsored with the Harvard Pakistan Student Group
Chair: David Bloom, Clarence James Gamble Professor of Economics
Panelists: Marc Mitchell,Lecturer on Global Health, Harvard School of Public Health The Use of Mobile Technology to improve Health Care in South Africa
Glorian Sorensen,Professor of Society, Human Development, and Health, Harvard School of Public Health Tobacco Cessation of Indian School Teachers and Manufacturing Workers
Karl Hofmann, President and CEO, PSI, Washington DC, Former Ambassador to Togo Social Marketing to Improve Health Outcomes
Diasporas, Investments, and Development in South Asia and Beyond
Peggy Levitt, Professor of Sociology, Wellesley College; Research Fellow, TheWeatherhead Center for International Affairs and The Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University Joel Trachtman, Professor, The Fletcher School, Tufts University Paul Vaaler, Associate Professor, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota Chair: Tarun Khanna, Director of SAI & Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor, Harvard Business School
South Asia: The World’s Laboratory
Innovation in Education: Lessons for Entrepreneurship in Pakistan