Students Pursue Summers of Language and Learning

In the summer of 2013, undergraduate and graduate students will be busy in locales distant from Yale’s campus, immersed in summer research and language training through grants and fellowships awarded by the South Asian Studies Council.
                                          
This year, 11 undergraduate students with a demonstrated commitment to South Asian studies were chosen as recipients of the Rustgi Fellowship and/or the South Asian Studies Travel Research Grant for Undergraduate Students. These awards may be used to pursue research or for internships. The Rustgi Fellowship, made possible through a gift from Anil Rustgi (Yale ’80), Vinod Rustgi (Yale ’75) and his wife, Eileen Boyle Rustgi (Yale ’77), aims to support increased understanding of the region among Yale students. The South Asian Studies Travel Research Grant for Undergraduate Students, provides summer travel grants for undergraduates studying South Asian history, society, languages, and culture in the United States and internationally. The recipients of these awards are:

Ariella Kristal, Political Economy of Gross National Happiness in Bhutan
Austin Lord, The Turbulent Interface: Changing Labor Migration Patterns in Watersheds Affected by Hydropower Development in Nepal

Dur E Aziz Amna, Researching on War Tribunals in Bangladesh
Seoyoon Han, “Women at Work”: Photo Exhibition on Women’s Economic Role in Urban India

Ashwini Srinivasmohan, Urban Middle Class Consumption and Waste in Chennai, India

Shalmoli Halder, Mann Deshi Chamber of Commerce for Rural Women- Project Volunteer

Ayeza Qureshi, Mapping the Urban Plot of Karachi

Margaret Coons, Mothers of India: Gender and Empire in Early Twentieth Century India

Sampada KC, Working towards health equity and access in rural Nepal – Nyaya Health

Priyankar Chand, Working towards health equity and access in rural Nepal – Nyaya Health

XuanHong Tran, Land, Clan Politics and the Institution of Buddhism in Chogyal’s Sikkim

8 undergraduate and graduate students also received the Light Fellowship and/or South Asian Studies Council Summer Language Award, both of which may be used to support language study abroad or in the US. Such training often builds on intensive language study at Yale during the academic year, and offers students unique immersion opportunities. This year’s recipients are:

Rea Amit, AIIS Hindi Language Summer Study

Hannah Phelps, AIIS Hindi Language Summer Study
Emma Stein, AIIS Summer Tamil Language Program
Holly Shaffer, AIIS Summer and Fall Language Program in Marathi
Aleksandra Gordeeva, AIIS Summer Language Program, Course in Prakrit language
Emily Hays, AIIS Hindi Language Summer Study
Maliha Noorani, AIIS Urdu Language Summer Study
Austin Lord, Intensive Nepali Program at Cornell University, Department of South Asian Studies

In addition to awards at the undergraduate level, the South Asian Studies Council awarded eleven grants to graduate students who are pursuing either research or language study toward their doctoral dissertation. Recipients of the Summer Research and Language Study Awards for Graduate Students awards include:

Aniket Aga, Genetically Modified Politics in India: Transgenic Agriculture, Contested Knowledge, and Democratic Practice

Ariel Bardi, Building and Development in Northeast India

Lynna Dhanani, Reading in Sanskrit and Prakrit and One month Intensive Hindi
Nikhar Gaikwad, Ethnic Divisions and Trade Politics

Sahana Ghosh, Crossings and routes in a South Asian borderland

Jacob Rinck, Political Economy and Political Culture in Nepal’s Tarai

Niloufer Siddiqui, Explaining Party- Induced Violence: Electoral Politics and Ethnic Conflict in Karachi, Pakistan

Anurag Sinha, The Interactive Dimensions of Conceptual Change in South Asia

Waleed Ziad, The Numismatic Chronology of the Late Hephthalite, Nezak and Turk Shahi Periods from the Kabul valley and Gandhara (5th – 8th centuries C.E)

Suparna Chaudhry, Human Rights Violations and Naming and Shaming by International Human Rights NGOs

Anobha Gurung, Understanding Exposure to Traffic Related Air Pollution in Urban Areas in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal