India Initiative

Fellowship Support

The India Initiative provides invaluable financial support for our students to take intensive Indian languages courses in India during the summer and to carry out field research or intern in India. The India Initiative has made a significant difference in the academic and personal lives of numerous GW students. Since the Initiative was launched in 2007, the Sigur Center has allocated $41,970 to nine undergraduate, masters, and PhD students to help finance intensive language study, carry out field research, or complete internships in the summer.

The Sigur Center and the India Initiative have disbursed nine grants to five field research fellows; three language grants to study Urdu, Hindi, Marathi; and one internship grant to intern at New Delhi's Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses. The field research fellows' projects have included: "Rethinking Economic Reforms: Power & Development in the Indian Countryside;" “Increasing Educational opportunities for Girls: A Case Study of Non-Formal Education Models in Rural Karnataka, India;” and “The Politics of Economic Reform: Explaining Privatization in the Indian States.”

Four students were awarded a total of $18,670 to carry out field research in India during the summer of 2012 and this summer. The summer 2012 and 2013 fellows include:

Diogo Bernardo de Castilho Penha Lemos, PhD candidate, Political Science
Nora Shetty, MA candidate, International Education
Varun Piplani, PhD candidate, Political Science
Jessica Chandras, PhD candidate, Anthropology

The India Initiative makes an enormous difference in our student's lives. In the words of one 2011 fellow:

"I'm so glad that the Sigur Center recently expanded their grants to include research on South Asia," said Ajay Verghese. My work focuses on the Maoist conflict in Eastern India and I know the Sigur Center's support will make my dissertation that much better."