Cornell University Archives

Ms. Supriya Pandit is a recent graduate of Cornell University, where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Human Biology, Health and Society with minors in Global Health, Human Development, and Gerontology. As an undergraduate, she pursued a wide variety of interests, including human nutrition and reproduction, gender and sexuality, health policy, and ethics. She was also involved in research in molecular nutrition laboratory and pediatric medical practice. She has been a rock-climbing instructor and teaching assistant during her college career. Her work over three years as a resident advisor in an all-women’s dormitory, specializing in sexual violence prevention and response, as well as semester developing an intervention for women experiencing intimate partner violence during the pandemic have reinforced her commitment to gender equity. The culmination of her experiences, both academic and personal, has informed the questions she hopes to ask during her time in India. She hopes to continue her work as a physician and global health researcher. Upon the completion of her Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship, she plans to pursue graduate study in both medicine and public health. Her interests include running, rock climbing, yoga, and Hindustani classical music.

COVID-19 has had a well-defined impact on sexual and reproductive health services in India, but little is known about the intentions and behavior that underlie the needs for those services. During her Fulbright-Nehru project, Ms. Pandit is designing a qualitative study about how the pandemic has affected people’s desire for parenthood in the short- and long-term. She plans to conduct semi-structured interviews and focus groups with people of reproductive age, mainly women. Through this project, she hopes to learn more about how this global catastrophe has influenced norms, expectations, and concerns about having children, and to inform India’s family planning landscape as a whole.

Farzana Hossain is a graduate from Cornell University, having earned a bachelor’s degree with distinction in architecture. Her academic trajectory has encompassed extensive teaching and research experience, notably by serving as a teaching assistant and summer studio critic at Cornell University where she adeptly cultivated her leadership and communication proficiencies. She has garnered valuable professional exposure at renowned firms, including MASS Design Group, 3XN Architects, L’Observatoire international, and FZAD Architecture. Farzana’s research expertise centers on silt deposition and the intricate ramifications of colonial infrastructure in the Bay of Bengal; this demonstrates her unwavering commitment to comprehending multifaceted environmental and social issues. Her aspirations involve extending this research from the Himalayan watershed in Gangtok to the Bengal Basin within the Sundarbans National Park in India, as she endeavors to attain deeper insights into this intricate landscape.

The state of Sikkim in India became the world’s first “organic state” in 2003, having banned chemical fertilizers and pesticides to combat the water pollution and land degradation caused by the Green Revolution. While previous research has focused on government policies, Farzana’s Fulbright-Nehru study is examining the role of small-scale farmers and their indigenous knowledge in conserving soil and water resources. By integrating ecological design and landscape transformations with agricultural practices, the study is exploring how Sikkim’s transition to organic farming has impacted the cultivated landscape. The Rani Khola watershed in Gangtok serves as a case study, where farmers use indigenous knowledge to practice terracing and agroforestry for sustainable land management. Farzana is also documenting landscape changes and generating measured digital drawings and videos.