The 2nd Annual Meeting of Fulbright-Nehru Scholars at Sigur(October 23, 2012)
A dozen top scholar-administrators from Indian universities spread throughout the country met with Associate Director Deepa Ollapally on October 23, 2012 to discuss how to enhance student and faculty exchanges. The session was exceptional because the Fulbright-Nehru scholars all hold high decision-making authority in their home universities, taking the dialogue beyond a scholarly discussion. Both US and India have made a big push in recent years to facilitate meetings between high-level university administrators who are in a position to kick-start actual collaboration. In this round of dialogue, the Sigur Center was able to ascertain important specific information on where GW students could be hosted with special classes and living facilities for foreign students. Many Indian universities have made great strides in just the last two years in setting up international programs offices which is critical to implementing any type of prospective exchanges. The lack of such facilities have created big obstacles in the past.
The Fulbright-Nehru International Education Administrators (IEA) Seminar is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and is administered by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, a division of the Institute of International Education, in cooperation with the United States-India Educational Foundation.
Dr. Vandana Chakrabarti, Pro Vice Chancellor , S.N.D.T. Women's University in Mumbai
Dr. Vijaya Dinesh Deshmukh, Registrar, Ministry of Commerce and Industry at the National Institute of Design
Dr. Prasanta Ghosh, Principal, Department of Social Work, Institute of Rural Reconstruct, Visva-Bharati
Dr. Kolandaivel Ponmalai Gounder, Director, School for Physical Sciences, Bharathiar University
Dr. Mary Venus Joseph, International Coordinator, Rajagiri International Exchange Program
Dr. Abhaya Kumar Naik, Registrar, Administration, National Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhubaneswar
Dr. Lokendra Singh Naorem, Registrar, Professor of History, Manipur University, Imphal
Dr. Monsingh David Devadas Ratnaswamy, Chair and Professor, Faculty of Architecture and Planning, Anna University, Chennai
Dr. Prabir Kumar Saha, Associate Professor, Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati
Dr. Sumam David Sarah, Professor and Dean, Electronics and Communication Engineering, National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, Mangalore
Dr. Rajendraprasad Dattatraya Shinde, Vice-Principal and Associate Professor, Botany Department, St. Xavier's College, Mumbai
Dr. Gursharan Singh, Dean, Postgraduate Studies, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
Power, Identity, and Security in Asia: Views on Regional Cooperation and the U.S. Role (April 16, 2012)
OAS Conversations with Scholars: "Red Vengeance: Political Inequality and Maoist Violence in India" with Emmanuel Teitelbaum, Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs; Director, Master of Arts Program in Asian Studies (March 20, 2012)
Remembering Refugees: Stories from the 1947 Partition of India from Mumbai, and Beyond with Kavita Daiya, Associate Professor of English and Director, MA Program in English, GWU (February 9, 2012)
Opportunities and Disappointments of the "Look North" Policy: Indian Strategies for Central Asia with Marlene Laruelle Research Professor of International Affairs, GWU (February 2, 2012)
India as a Global Power: Contending Views from India (January 23, 2012)
The Sigur Center hosted 13 Fulbright-Nehru Scholars, members of the Fulbright International Education Administrators Program, for a briefing about the Sigur Center's current research, events, and academic programs on India. The delegation included high-level representatives from a range of leading universities in India. The group met with Matt Grieger, Assistant Director of the Sigur Center's Rising Powers Initiative, to discuss the levels and scope of the Center's engagement with India.
Matt briefed the delegation on the history and accomplishments of the India Initiative and highlighted the five students to which the Sigur Center has provided fellowship support for language study, internships, and field research in India under the auspices of the India Initiative. The delegation also learned about the central importance that India plays in the Center's Rising Powers Initiative, including the two project conferences held in Delhi in the past two years. Matt also introduced the visitors to the Sigur Center's wide array of India and South Asia events held each year, our partnerships with leading Indian think tanks and universities, and GW's excellent courses and faculty on India and the region.
This meeting was especially productive as many of the participants expressed interest in partnering with the Sigur Center and GW on research, conferences, and student exchanges. The Sigur Center will be exploring areas of potential collaboration with these, and other Indian institutions, in the future.
Before meeting with the Sigur Center, the delegation members met with the Associate Provost for International Programs, the Director of the MA International Affairs program at the Elliott School, and the Associate Dean of the Law School. They also toured the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Law School.
The delegation included:
India is one of the key countries in two major research projects housed in the Sigur Center: Worldviews of Aspiring Powers: Exploring Foreign Policy Debates Abroad, and Power and Identity in Asia: Implication for Regional Cooperation. The Worldviews of Aspiring Powers project held a series of seminars in New Delhi, attracting a large and influential audience.
On February 21 and 22, 2011, the Sigur Center organized two events held in New Delhi, India. The events were sponsored by a generous grant from the MacArthur Foundation. They were organized in a partnership with, and hosted by, two of the most prominent think-tanks in India: the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS) and the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA). The Think Tanks and Civil Society Program at the University of Pennsylvania has recently ranked IPCS as a top-40 think-tank in Asia.
The conference addressed pressing identity issues in Asia and their impact on the future of the region and on the United States foreign policymaking. The presenters focused on the key identity issues in China, India, Japan, and South Korea, respectively, such as the consequences of a divided Korea and the implications of Japan's identity as a peace state. Prominent experts from the United States, India, and from elsewhere in Asia presented their research.
» Learn more about the seminars in New Delhi