Come hear about SAI Summer Funding opportunities from 2013 SAI grant recipients. Learn about the various types of grants, the application process, and how to write an appropriate budget for a summer in South Asia.
Enjoy some delicious South Asian food and get a head start on your summer plans.
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
Jonathan Spencer,Professor of the Anthropology of South Asia & Head of School of Social and Political Science, Social Anthropology, School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh
Chair: Charles Hallisey, Yehan Numata Senior Lecturer on Buddhist Literatures, Harvard Divinity School
Since the end of the country’s 30-year civil war in 2009, the Sri Lankan armed forces have continued to grow despite the absence of obvious military threats to the government. Under the guidance of the President’s brother, the Ministry of Defence now plays a leading role in town planning through the Urban Development Authority (which is formally part of the Ministry). Colombo has seen an aggressive programme of improvement, which started with a “war” on alleged underworld figures, has taken in the eviction of hawkers from pedestrian spaces, the creation of new leisure areas, and now would seem to involve the clearance of “sub-standard” housing, especially in places like Slave Island, an historically dense and religiously and culturally mixed area near the city centre. This talk will explore the different kinds of politics that may be at work in this moment, and ask what the project of “beautifying” Colombo might tell us about the political dynamics of postwar Sri Lanka.
Jonathan Spencer, Professor of the Anthropology of South Asia & Head of School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh
Chair: Charles Hallisey, Yehan Numata Senior Lecturer on Buddhist Literatures, Harvard Divinity School
John Wood,founder and board co-chair of Room to Read
Chair: Fernando Reimers, Ford Foundation Professor of International Education and Director of Global Education and of International Education Policy at Harvard University
Over 60 million primary school-aged children around the world do not have access to education and most likely will never learn to read or write. Room to Read believes that all children, regardless of gender or background, have a right to education. By empowering children through this lifelong gift, we see a world in which people are able to realize their full potential.
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
The high mountains of the Sri Lankan hill country produce picturesque streams and cascades in and around stepped tea plantations. Photo by Tyler Arnot, HGSE Master Candidate and SAI Winter Session Grant Awardee
Reflections on Serendipity
The Initiative for Sri Lankan Education (ISLE) presents the opening of its photo exhibit “Reflections on Serendipity. The exhibit will be on display the month of April at the Gutman Library at the Graduate School of Education.
It is said that the word serendipity originates from Serendib – an ancient Arab reference to Sri Lanka, the tear-shaped island below India. This compilation of photos is meant to reflect upon a student-led study trek to the Hill Country of Sri Lanka this January; both on the country itself, and the challenges facing the people in their struggle for education. The trip was coordinated by students in the International Education Policy program and conducted to inform the work of the Educate Lanka Foundation by studying the economic barriers to secondary education for the children of tea plantation workers. The exhibit opening will also include a presentation of those findings and discussion of education in Sri Lanka.
At the end of the event, the photos will auctioned off with proceeds going to benefit Educate Lanka.
All members of the Harvard community and greater Boston area are welcome to join.
The exhibit is sponsored in part by a student organization grant from the South Asia Institute
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
Beyond Sri Lanka’s War Against Terror: The Struggle for Sri Lanka’s Democracy
Saliya Pieris, Attorney-at-Law, Chairman CFPS School of Law, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 2012 Eisenhower Fellow
Chair: Charles Hallisey, Yehan Numata Senior Lecturer on Buddhist Literatures, Harvard Divinity School
This talk will explain how developments in Sri Lanka, including the authoritarian executive Presidential Constitution in 1978, the war with the Tamil Tigers and the failure of the Sri Lankan regime to find a political solution to the nation’s problems have all contributed toward the serious rule of law challenges faced by the country. Among these challenges are the issues of enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests and detentions, cronyism, nepotism, suppression of the opposition and the free media, all of which have resulted in the breakdown of national institutions such as the legislature, the judiciary and the public service. What role should the government and the people of Sri Lanka, as well as the international community, play in order to establish strong rule of law in Sri Lanka.
South Asia: The World’s Laboratory