Home Institution USA: At-Large

Kaylin Clements

Dr. Kaylin Clements has a BS in environmental science and a BA in business administration from the University of Florida, and an MS in conservation leadership and a PhD in human dimensions of natural resources from Colorado State University (CSU). Her past work has included: applied quantitative and qualitative research on protected area management and community engagement in southern Belize; studying pro-environmental behaviors in Florida and Belize related to controlling the invasive lionfish; and social network analysis on a variety of social and environmental issues. Between graduate degrees, she served as a social scientist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. She has also served as a facilitator and research assistant for the Center for Public Deliberation at CSU, as an instructor in human dimensions of natural resources courses at CSU, and as a social network research assistant for the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences. Most recently, as a research social scientist fellow for the United States Geological Survey, she served as the partner engagement coordinator and as a co-chair of the National Early Detection and Rapid Response Framework to prevent the establishment of invasive species in the United States.

Her main research interests center around human dimensions of natural resources, which applies social science theory and methods to understand complex social–ecological systems. Specifically, she is interested in how social networks, cultural norms and models, and other social factors support or inhibit adoption of pro-environmental behaviors and collaboration. She is also passionate about teaching and building capacity in the social sciences to enhance the impacts of conservation work.

Dr. Clements’s Fulbright-Nehru project is applying social network research methods to investigate the networks of healthcare professionals, community leaders, and health information in communities adjacent to wildlife habitat in the Western Ghats. The analysis is identifying barriers and opportunities for improved access to health and safety services and information. In addition, a social science methods course is training natural scientists in Bengaluru and at the Centre for Wildlife Studies to integrate social science into their research and practice.

Shira Singer

Ms. Shira Singer is a textile artist, art educator, and art therapist living in Bar Harbor, Maine. She has been applying color and pattern to cloth for several decades, while also focusing on the historical, social, and cultural contexts of different textile traditions and mediums. For the past six years, she has been using locally grown or foraged vegetation and plant materials to make fabric dyes.

Ms. Singer has been a teaching artist in a wide variety of settings, including schools, community arts programs for children and adults, senior colleges, and art festivals. She taught elementary school art for 15 years in multi-age classrooms on islands off the coast of Maine.

Ms. Singer has also had the privilege of leading art education workshops and making art with people of all ages: in Bengaluru, India, with the Parikrma Humanity Foundation; in Ambon, Indonesia, with the Heka Leka Education Foundation; and in Muscat, Oman, with the Sidab Women’s Sewing Center. Her textile pieces have been exhibited in galleries and shows throughout the U.S. and her recent work appeared in the Fall 2023 journal of the Surface Design Association, International Exhibition in Print.

Moreover, as an art therapist, she has over 35 years of experience in facilitating therapeutic art expression in psychiatric hospitals, counseling centers, and schools, as well as through private practice. Ms. Singer received her BS in elementary education from Northwestern University and her MA in art therapy from The George Washington University.

Ms. Singer’s Fulbright-Nehru project is focusing on understanding how natural dyeing traditions in India are evolving in response to rapid environmental change and societal impacts in the post-COVID scenario. As part of her project, she is creating a body of expressive artwork on cloth informed by conversations, research, and training with individuals who are engaged in preserving traditional practices of natural dyeing and design.

Urmila Mohan

Dr. Urmila Mohan is a public anthropologist of material culture and studies how sociocultural values are circulated through cloth, bodily practices, and belief. She earned a PhD in anthropology from University College London, an MFA in studio arts from Pennsylvania State University, a BA (hons) in anthropology from Victoria University of Wellington, and a BFA in communication design from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.

Dr. Mohan’s research includes an ethnography of devotees who make garments for their deities and also wear specific clothing; this was published as Clothing as Devotion in Contemporary Hinduism. She also undertook a curatorial study of Balinese ritual textiles at the American Museum of Natural History, resulting in an exhibition and catalogue, Fabricating Power with Balinese Textiles. Besides, she is the author of the monograph, Masking in Pandemic U.S..

Dr. Mohan has written extensively on material practices and theorizes them in her edited volume, The Efficacy of Intimacy and Belief in Worldmaking Practices. Earlier, she had co-edited The Material Subject: Rethinking Bodies and Objects in Motion and a special issue of the Journal of Material Culture titled “The Bodily and Material Cultures of Religious Subjectivation”.

As part of her commitment to interdisciplinarity, Dr. Mohan founded the digital, open-access publication, The Jugaad Project. She is also a member of several global working groups, including the Matière à Penser network for embodiment studies.

Dr. Mohan’s Fulbright-Nehru project is an ethnographic study of weavers of silk ikat (resist-dyed) textiles in Gujarat, India. She is contextualizing ikat handloom innovation as a process of socio-technical ‘enchantment’ that engages weavers, traders, and consumers. She is also connecting woven cloths’ agency with changing socioeconomic and spiritual practices via weavers’ technical, bodily, and material adaptations. Her research adds to studies of how artisanal communities and heritage are shaped in India; it is doing so by analyzing shifts in practices/meanings due to migration, the influence of kinship on technology adoption and craft expansion, changing roles of women in weaving families, and the effects of the geographical indications patenting system.

M.J. Levy Dickson

Ms. M.J. Levy Dickson is an artist and educator. She explores global interconnectedness through her artwork and discovers common denominators in the natural world. She finds in nature patterns of color, light, mood, subject, texture, and sound that transcend conventional boundaries, such as those between sight and sound, land and water, or time and space. These discoveries are reflected both in her artwork and her teaching.

Ms. Dickson’s body of work is deep and varied, and questions the boundaries between abstract, representational, and expressionist art forms. It was while illustrating the book Wildflowers of Nantucket, as well as many brochures for conservation organizations, that Ms. Dickson became aware of the global similarity between flowers and plants in nature and textile patterns. She has exhibited her installations with New York Parks and Recreation Art in the Parks Program, as well as with the Historic House Trust of New York. She has also worked with poets and musicians to foster combined sensory communication.

Ms. Dickson has held teaching positions as artist-in-residence in Tangier and with The Farm in Jaipur. She has designed and taught in the art studio at Michael Graves College, Wenzhou-Kean University, in China. She has also taught at MIT and the Boston Architectural Center, and was the first artist-in-residence at the Perkins School for the Blind. She is currently teaching in the Studio One Program of Fountain House in New York. She has always welcomed opportunities to work with people who have special needs.

Ms. Dickson received a diploma from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; her BFA from Tufts University; and her MFA from Boston University.

In her Fulbright-Nehru project, Ms. Dickson is illustrating how people can be brought together through nature and art. Beginning her project from a woodblock printing studio in Jaipur, she is preparing a catalog of its design motifs by identifying each plant species and where it grows. She is also working with artists in India to create sculptures inspired by wildflowers using repurposed materials.