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Meghna Rohit Amin

Ms. Meghna Rohit Amin is a doctoral candidate at the Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad. Her doctoral research examines the intergenerational occupational shift among the head-loading Mogaveera women who constitute the matrilineal fishing community of coastal Karnataka in India. Primarily based on fieldwork and ethnographic narratives, the study locates the constant deliberation of the Mogaveera women with fishing which is their caste occupation.

Ms. Amin’s dissertation for her master’s degree in Sociology from the Manipal Centre for Philosophy and Humanities was also on the Mogaveera women. The research study is titled “Putting Food on the Table: A Period Study on the Head Loading Mogaveera Women.” After her graduation, she joined an advocacy group where she worked as a digital campaigner and ran campaigns for the rights of marginalized communities, combating air pollution, and raising awareness about climate change. She also taught English to high school children in Udaipur, managed a restaurant in Manipal, and served as a barista at a cafe in Bengaluru.

She has been selected for the award of ICSSR full-term centrally administered Doctoral Fellowship for 2021-22. As a Fulbright-Nehru recipient, Ms. Amin is keen to collaboratively interpret ethnographic narratives and accounts at the intersectionality of caste, class, and gender in relation to occupational mobility within the discipline of native anthropology.

Anupam Banerjee

Prof. Anupam Banerjee is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur since November 2021. Prior to this, Anupam was a postdoctoral researcher at Niigata University, Japan. Anupam pursued his PhD under the supervision of Prof. Ramananda Chakrabarti at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, and was conferred the degree in 2018. He received an MSc in Geology from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur in 2011 and a BSc in Geology from Presidency College Kolkata, University of Calcutta, in 2009.

Prof. Banerjee’s research interest lies in the applications of radiogenic, and non-traditional stable isotopes of magmatic rocks to understanding both Earth’s surface and deep interior processes. He has published several research articles in peer-reviewed international journals. Prof. Banerjee is a recipient of the Institute Medal from the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore for the best PhD thesis. He is also a recipient of several grants for attending international conferences which include the SERB Travel support, Student Travel Grant from the American Geophysical Union, GARP Travel Grants from IISc .

Prof. Banerjee’s research during the Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship is aimed at elucidating Earth’s deep carbon cycle using novel Mg and Zn stable isotopic compositions of carbon-rich magmatic rocks, called carbonatites. Important corollary questions that will be addressed in this project are: (i) How did Earth’s interior maintain the inventory of carbon with time? (ii) When did Earth’s carbon inventory establish and how did it change over geological time?

Anu Unny

Dr. Anu Unny is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science, University of Kerala. She is also the Hon. Director of UGC-Nehru Studies Centre, University of Kerala. Before joining the University of Kerala, she worked as an Assistant Professor at the University of Delhi. She has served as a Member of the Board of Studies in Kerala and Kannur Universities.

Dr. Unny completed her M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. from the School of International Studies (SIS), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi. Along with her teaching responsibilities, she acts as a research guide for the Ph.D. Programme in Political Science and International Relations at the University of Kerala. She is a recipient of the International Studies Association (ISA) grant to visit the US in 2017. She has many research papers to her credit in national and international journals. She has visited many countries, including the US, to present her research outcomes in conferences. She is an active participant in media discussions on international issues and a resource person for UGC Orientation and Refresher Programmes.

During her Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship, Dr. Unny will teach a course on the ‘Politics of Climate Change’ for students at the University of Washington. She will also engage in research at the University of Washington to understand the nuances of US domestic politics on climate change and to explore the challenges and possibilities in strengthening India-US climate cooperation. Apart from climate politics, Dr. Unny’s research interests lie in gender, human rights and Indian politics.

Sumangala Damodaran

Sumangala Damodaran is a professor of development studies, economics, and popular music studies, with an academic career spanning more than three decades. She has taught for a long time in Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi, and Ambedkar University Delhi. She is now at the Institute of Human Development, New Delhi. She is also a visiting professor at Ashoka University, Haryana.

Prof. Damodaran’s areas of work include industrial organization, labour and the informal sector, global value chains, and gender. She has also researched extensively on the relationship between society and music and produced several music albums. As an academician and performing musician, she has been the recipient of many prestigious grants from India and abroad. She has collaborated with scholars and performers from different countries on academic research and poetry-music performances. She is an adjunct professor at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

In her six months as Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA, Prof. Damodaran will be engaged in teaching two undergraduate courses in the Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies Department, working with colleagues in developing course modules, giving lecture-demonstrations around her work in music, and engaging with community organizations such as Ragamala, a music organization in Seattle, for conducting poetry, music and storytelling sessions.

Prashant Mahajan

Prashant Mahajan is a Ph.D. candidate at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Uttar Pradesh. He recently joined the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) as a Scientist-C. He has previously been a recipient of the prestigious Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship (PMRF). He completed his BSc in zoology in 2016 from Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi, and MSc in wildlife sciences from Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). His doctoral work focusses on understanding the ecology of mesocarnivores in the Gir Protected Area, Gujarat.

Over the years Prashant’s focus has been on studying the ecology of large mammals in India, with a particular emphasis on wolf, tiger, leopard, elephant, and rhesus macaque. He was a part of the All-India Tiger Estimation Project (AITE) at the Wildlife Institute of India (WII). He has presented his work in various national and international conferences and has also communicated his research findings through peer-reviewed and popular articles.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellow at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA, Prashant is trying to integrate insights from the U.S. ecosystem to add to the understanding of the mesocarnivores in India. He is specifically investigating the strength of interactions between large carnivores and mesocarnivores and how this governs the behavioural responses of the latter to the perceived predation risk. By undertaking this research, he aims to expand the understanding of carnivore ecology in India, particularly in relation to their behavioural aspects.