Field of Study USA: Area Studies

Rachel Sondgeroth

Rachel Sondgeroth is an interdisciplinary scholar and professional in interreligious engagement. She recently received her master’s degree in religion from the Union Theological Seminary, an affiliate of Columbia University. Her research interests include the sociology of religion, methodology studies, and more specifically, faith-based approaches to organizing community service. She also studies how religious communities mobilize to strengthen their communities through both internal and interfaith initiatives.

For the past nine years, Rachel has been working on bringing diverse communities together to talk, listen, and connect. During both her BA and MA programs, she led interreligious initiatives, programs, and student organizations. Later, she worked for three years for the Arizona State University’s Project Humanities initiative, supporting the research of Dr. Neal Lester and facilitating events on topics such as religion and gender justice in an effort to dispel myths on religious doctrines and dogma; she was also part of intercultural seminars of the project. At the Union Theological Seminary, Rachel studied justice issues pertaining to interreligious diversity in the United States. Outside of interreligious engagement, she is working towards learning more about indigenous traditions, folk practices, and place-based spiritualities in the American Southwest.

Rachel’s Fulbright-Nehru project is conducting research exploring the methodologies, outcomes, and cultural norms around organizing faith-based community service projects in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Through case studies, interviews, and surveys, the research is cataloging the methods of faith-based service initiatives in Mumbai and quantifying their successes and challenges. By studying these practices, she is hoping to gain insights that will help improve their efficacy. The intended outcome of the project is the mobilization of millions of people to serve their communities, thereby fostering peace and unity among them.

Shekha Kotak

Shekha Kotak is a sixth year PhD candidate in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan. She works on the intersection of caste, translation studies, and the history of emotions. She completed her bachelor’s in English literature from Rutgers University, New Jersey. Shekha has over nine years of tutoring and teaching experience. She has taught a range of subjects such as K-12 English and history, college-level research writing, SAT and TOEFL English, and beginner’s English to immigrant children. As part of her PhD requirements, Shekha has taught bachelor’s courses on topics such as Buddhism and Asian studies. She is also an avid translator, translating from and into Gujarati, Hindi, and English. Her translation of the Dalit author Ajay Navaria’s short story is forthcoming in the Granta magazine. When not immersed in academic research, Shekha spends time reading novels, literary magazines and blogs, and occasionally writing on various subjects.

Shekha’s Fulbright-Nehru research is focusing on emotive world-making in Hindi and Gujarati Dalit literatures and in their English translations. The research is delving into both print and digital literary canons, and studying Dalit texts across languages and media to reveal the critical language of emotions and the range of feelings they generate. Shekha’s work is attempting to heed the call of Dalit authors who urge for a different paradigm of literary aesthetics to critically engage with Dalit literature – they are not in favor of emotions such as grief, fear, love, joy, and rage being taken for granted, but advocates for interpreting Dalit interiority in literary writings through the lens of Dalit pain and consciousness.

Yoshiko Okuyama

Dr. Yoshiko Okuyama is a full professor of Japanese studies at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo. Her areas of expertise include Japanese mythology, disability studies, second language acquisition, and technology-enhanced pedagogy. She is currently developing a new course on Japanese comics translation that incorporates AI literacy.

Dr. Okuyama is the author of Tōjisha Manga: Japan’s Graphic Memoirs of Brain and Mental Health (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), Reframing Disability in Manga (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2020), and Japanese Mythology in Film: A Semiotic Approach to Reading Japanese Film and Anime (Lexington Books, 2015).

She has received numerous grants, fellowships, and awards, including the Association for Asian Studies’ long-term research grant and a Japan Foundation research fellowship. She currently serves as a visiting scholar at Cornell University’s East Asian Studies Program and as an affiliated researcher at the Institute of Ars Vivendi, Ritsumeikan University.

Beyond academic publishing, Dr. Okuyama regularly delivers guest lectures at universities and also serves as a cultural consultant for media outlets such as the National Public Radio, National Geographic, and CNN.

Originally from Tokyo, she now resides in Hawaii. In addition to English and Japanese, she can communicate in American Sign Language. A midlife convert to long-distance running, she has completed numerous races, including full and half marathons. When not chasing publication deadlines or marathon finish lines, she enjoys experimenting with vegetarian recipes which are (mostly) well received by her husband and son.

Dr. Okuyama’s Fulbright-Nehru project involves teaching a course on Japanese mythology at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, focusing on film analysis and exploring possible intersections of Japanese mythology with Indian traditions. Using semiotics as a framework, she is helping students explore how myths shape cultural narratives in both Japan and India. The project aims to deepen cross-cultural understanding and enrich the academic discourse on comparative mythology. The results of the research will be disseminated through lectures, conferences, and publications in order to foster future collaborations between Dr. Okuyama’s home and host institutions, thereby advancing the global study of mythology.

Abhijeet Paul

Dr. Abhijeet Paul is lecturer in South and Southeast Asian studies at UC Berkeley and lecturer in ethnic studies in the Peralta Community College District. He is also affiliated faculty in the Contemporary Center on India, a research body at UC Berkeley. Dr. Paul teaches and researches South Asian, ethnic, and global studies, specializing in environmental justice and humanities, South Asian and Asian-American literatures and cultures, as well as environmental media. He is currently a Fulbright-Nehru Fellow affiliated with West Bengal State University researching the jute community, environmental justice, and globalization for a monograph to be completed in 2023–24. He has published several articles on: jute culture, ecology, and community; digital community and fakes; and biopolitics and seed sovereignty. He has made presentations in numerous conferences in India, the US, and Europe, and has been interviewed by the National Public Radio of Washington, D.C., and New Philosopher of Australia. He plans to premiere his film, Bhatti (The Kiln) in India in 2022. He has a PhD in South and Southeast Asian studies with a designated emphasis on critical theory from UC Berkeley and a PhD in English (American literature) from the University of Calcutta. His first Fulbright experience was as an Indian doctoral researcher in the US, and the second as a Fulbright-Nehru US scholar in India. He loves to travel and meet people.

Jute, Bengal’s “golden fiber”, is rooted in sustainability and well suited to local agroecologies; its cultivation has the potential for carbon sequestration and soil restoration, while jute products are environmentally friendly and compostable. Dr. Paul’s Fulbright-Hays project is exploring the local, cultural, and community aspects of jute’s reinvention as a green commodity in order to understand sustainability practices, climate change, and the challenges of adapting to new technologies. The project is examining the many roles of the jute plant in the oral and written cultural forms of India and South Asia. These self-representations by farmers and workers complement and complicate the scientific-technological narratives of agroecology, diversification, and global jute marketing.

Pamela Lothspeich

Dr. Pamela Lothspeich is associate professor of South Asian studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she has been teaching since 2008. She is a literary scholar and cultural historian whose work intersects with epic studies, performance studies, gender studies, and postcolonial studies. She has published extensively on modern iterations of Indian epics, particularly as they appear in Hindi literature, theatre, and film. Her previous research project was on the Radheshyam Ramayan and the theatre of Ramlila. Her books include Epic Nation: Reimagining the Mahabharata in the Age of Empire (OUP, 2009) and the co-edited volume, Mimetic Desires: Impersonation and Guising across South Asia (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2022). She has also guest-edited the special issue, “The Field of Ramlila”, in the Asian Theatre Journal (Spring 2020).

Formerly, she taught at Michigan State University (2004–08) and Chicago University (2003– 04). She holds a PhD in South Asian studies and comparative literature from Columbia University (2003) and an MA in Asian languages and literature from the University of Washington (1996).

Dr. Lothspeich’s research project is on Raslila, an Indian performance genre spanning theatre, dance, music, and ritual, which enacts stories about the Hindu god Krishna and the goddess Radha. Many stories in the tradition emphasize Krishna’s youthful antics and loving interactions with his devotees. Raslila is related to other forms of devotional theatre, especially the Ramlila centered on the Hindu god Ram. This project aims to provide fresh insights into Raslila in all its material social, political, and aesthetic contexts, and also into its intertwined history with Ramlila.