On Monday, August 17, SAI launched the Kumbh Mela: Mapping the Ephemeral Megacity book and exhibition in Delhi with Shri Akhilesh Yadav, Honorable Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, and Harvard faculty.
The Research Project on the Ephemeral City, lead by professor Rahul Mehrotra, GSD, has been engaged in documenting and systematically compiling different forms of temporary urbanism in South Asia, Latin America and worldwide.
Take a virtual tour through the exhibit, which examines ephemeral configurations deployed to celebrate religious beliefs from the two regions. SAI is hosting a seminar on Wednesday, Apr. 22 about the exhibit.
Listen to Namita Dharia discuss the life of a migrant worker in urban India and how the construction industry is addressing issues of child labor and women’s safety.
The processes of urbanization, globalization, and climate change have made traditional methods of waste management difficult for the Maldives. In this podcast, SAI talks with Krishna Matturi, recent GSD graduate, about the country’s “unique culture of waste” and its possible solutions.
In SAI’s second annual publication, The City and South Asia, experts from a variety of fields, at both Harvard and elsewhere, have come together to hold up a cross-disciplinary lens to urban centers in South Asia.
The South Asia Institute was featured in a story in the Harvard Gazette, published on March 14, 2014. The story profiles SAI’s growing involvement in Pakistan, and the Contemporary South Asian City Conference in Karachi in January.
SAI held its Annual Symposium on April 24 and 25 titled ‘South Asia Regionalism: Workshops on Shared Challenges and the Way Forward.’ The workshops highlighted and showcased ongoing faculty research projects supported by SAI. Topics included mobile technology, disaster response and mental health, urbanism in South Asia, urban water challenges, religion and secularism, and the informal economy.