Host City USA: Bengaluru

Caroline Troy

Caroline Troy is a recent graduate of Brown University where she earned her BSc in environmental science, with a focus on conservation science and policy. For her senior honors thesis, she researched environmental predictors of biogeographical variations in woodpecker drumming. She has interned with the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s ForestGEO program, Brooklyn College’s Urban Ecology and Environment NSF REU, Morgan State University’s Patuxent Environmental & Aquatic Research Laboratory, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, and the Brown University Herbarium.

For her Fulbright-Nehru project, Caroline is researching the effect of urbanization on bat diversity in South India. In this context, she is carrying out passive acoustic monitoring across undeveloped to highly urbanized bat habitat sites in and around Bengaluru. India is home to around 130 bat species. However, these remarkable mammals are threatened by habitat loss due to urbanization, logging, and agriculture. It is estimated that a quarter of the bat species in India are vulnerable or endangered. In order to create effective conservation strategies, Caroline is examining which bat species can coexist with humans in developed regions and which may be threatened without habitat preservation.

Lilith Saylor

Lilith Saylor is interested in challenging the assumption that technology and rural spaces exist in contradiction and believes that rural spaces exist as integral, active contributors to the globalized world. An at-large scholar with a background in economics and development studies, as well as family ties in Kentucky’s Appalachian region, Lilith is both excited by and critical of technology’s role in rural development. She graduated from Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland, in 2020, with majors in economics, political science, and international relations. She went on to work in startups as one of the founding team members of BioSolution Designs, and also wrote critically on biometric technology and its political and socioeconomic entanglements in her paper, “Suspicion Encoded: Women of Color and Biometric Technology in the United States”, which was published by California Polytechnic State University’s sprinkle journal. She has also spoken on the importance of building technology by considering the right to privacy, in her workshop, “Built to Protect”, at Technica Hackathon 2021 and TechTogether Atlanta 2022.

Lilith’s Fulbright-Nehru project is examining the factors influencing active rural digital engagement by comparing the interests, needs, and values of smallholder family farms in Karnataka to the digital technologies they consume. Bengaluru’s digital agritech startups depend on their ability (and obligation) to engage with smallholders as decision-making consumers, thereby giving researchers an unprecedented chance to reevaluate existing frameworks for encouraging rural digital participation. While exploring the mutual influences between smallholder family farms and digital technology, Lilith’s project is also highlighting the ways that rural regions are shaping their own digital future with their unique concerns, interests, and economic decisions.

Rafa Sattar

Rafa Sattar graduated from Macaulay Honors College at CUNY Hunter College in 2020 as a salutatorian with a BA in political science. Rafa is currently pursuing her master’s in nonprofit management at Columbia University. There, she is one of the two winners of the Excellence in Academic Leadership Award for the 2022–2023 academic year. She is also a 2022 recipient of the Diana Award, one of the most prestigious accolades a young person can receive for their humanitarian work. Rafa is founder and president of Fera Foundation, an international nonprofit that delivers tailored educational services based on the needs of the most vulnerable children. In 2020, she launched the CARE (Countering Adversity via Remote Education) Teaching Fellowship at a girls’ orphanage where she aimed to help the children prepare for their exams and procure meaningful mentors; by adapting a dual teacher system, Rafa envisioned a future where online learning could overcome barriers to educational equity. Since then, Rafa has been managing a team of 70 remote teachers from seven countries and 100 weekly synchronous and asynchronous classes at more than 200 schools and orphanages. The online classes for grades 1–12 integrate curricula, interactive resources, and teaching techniques adapted from the U.S. education system. Rafa also serves on the board of trustees of the UK-based charity, Communities Against Gender-Based Violence International. After her Fulbright fellowship, she hopes to pursue a JD in the U.S. to defend the educational rights of women and children around the world.

In her free time, she enjoys early morning runs, watching classic Bengali films, and visiting art museums.

Rafa’s Fulbright-Nehru research is exploring how innovative social interventions in West Bengal apply localization strategies to promote educational equity. Under the supervision of Dr. Devi Vijay of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Rafa is attempting to determine how community-centered approaches to social innovation in India can apply to the Fera Foundation. She is also researching community-centered approaches to organizing and also the factors that catalyze acceptance for social change in India.

Clara Navarro

Originally from Austin, Texas, Clara Navarro is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy. At the academy, Clara majored in Chinese and researched in the anthropology department where she published on the subject of gender relations in the military.

Upon graduation, Clara served in the United States Navy aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln where she was the deputy public affairs officer and principal assistant of the Media Department. Along with the crew, she completed a record-breaking around-the-world deployment from Norfolk, Virginia, to San Diego, California. Returning to land, she worked for two years as the media officer for the Europe, Africa, Central Navy Region headquarters in Naples, Italy. In this role, she coordinated communication between eight naval bases and seven host-nation embassies.

Honorably discharged from the Navy in 2022, Clara then earned a post-baccalaureate, pre-medical certificate at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., fulfilling the course requirements to apply to medical school. She is currently applying to medical schools across America.

Working with India’s National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Clara’s Fulbright-Nehru project is researching integrative mental healthcare services in the South Indian state of Karnataka. In a three-phase approach, her project is being executed first through archival research and clinical observation, then via interviews with practitioners and patients, and lastly, by reflection and synthesis. She is also assessing the hybrid practice of Ayurveda and allopathic mental healthcare that is growing in prevalence in India by focusing on both its successes and limitations, as well as on its impact on the community.

Sahita Manda

Sahita Manda is a recent graduate of the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health with a BS in public health sciences and a minor in biochemistry. She has had a longtime interest in working with people with disabilities, both through her research exploring stigma and neurodiversity as well as through her volunteer work. Sahita is also greatly interested in health policy and has interned at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. She hopes to pursue a career as a physician by integrating the principles of medicine and public health.

For her Fulbright-Nehru fellowship, Sahita is conducting nine months of research at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Bengaluru, India. She is exploring parental perspectives and experiences related to seeking clinical and non-clinical services for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD); she is also examining the navigation of the physical, sexual, cognitive, social, and emotional changes that come with adolescence. Sahita is also studying the lived experiences of adolescents with ASD. Using aggregated data from semi-structured interviews, she is identifying the current gaps in services and opportunities for this population, with the eventual goal of informing the development of culturally appropriate, holistic care.

Anagha Kikkeri

Anagha Kikkeri has a passion for education, community engagement, and public service. At the University of Texas (UT) at Austin, Anagha was the first woman of Indian descent to be elected as the student body president; she graduated from UT as a Distinguished Scholar in the liberal arts honors program in May 2021.

During her undergraduate years, Anagha garnered numerous honors, fellowships, scholarships, and awards. She was recognized as the Outstanding Senior of the Class of 2021 and was also selected to be part of the Dean’s Dozen by the Office of the Dean of Students. In 2020, she received the prestigious Hyperion Award for her exceptional contributions to the university community. Anagha was inducted into Pi Sigma Alpha and also became a member of the Order of Omega.

Anagha actively engages in extracurricular and community activities. She was a member of the LBJ Women’s Campaign School. She has held positions of leadership, such as the chairwoman of the Auditing Committee for the Texas State Society and the vice president of Diversity and Inclusion for the Texas University Panhellenic Council. Notably, Anagha delivered a commencement address to an audience of over 30,000 people at UT in 2021. She also performed a personal narrative of her life experiences as a woman in the show “Amplify”.

In terms of professional experience, Anagha has made significant contributions to the political arena. She worked as a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion associate and also served as a Mobilization Program coordinator at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in Washington, D.C. Besides, she has served as a healthcare staff assistant to Senator Dianne Feinstein, thereby connecting with upwards of two million Californians.

Anagha’s other interests include boxing, painting, the Spanish language, mehndi, South Asian history, basketball, piano, and Frida Kahlo’s art.

Anagha’s Fulbright-Nehru research project is studying what young, urban, university-attending women believe about how they can break the glass ceiling in politics. For this, she is examining the structural causes behind the “glass ceiling”, the levels of political awareness, and the pathways forward for young Indian women. In this context, she is conducting interviews with women from diverse backgrounds. The project is significant because its results can help empower young women to shatter the glass ceiling.

Alexandra Blitzer

Alexandra Blitzer is a native of Westport, Connecticut, and a recent graduate from Brown University. She holds a BA in history and early modern world. She is passionate about gender policy, social change, legal studies, human rights, the performing arts, political journalism, and public service.

Prior to her Fulbright grant, Alexandra worked for the White House Gender Policy Council as an intern. She has also worked for Deloitte Consulting, Ernst & Young Climate Change and Sustainability Services, TIME’S UP Now, and the Biden–Harris campaign. Besides, she was the editor-in-chief of the Brown Political Review. She has significant experience living abroad, having spent time in Israel and Italy.

Alexandra has written extensively for the Brown Political Review on varied topics like reproductive rights, social justice, sustainability, and voting. She also wrote an undergraduate thesis, which was awarded honors, titled “Changing the Law, Changing a Community: Lamphere v. Brown University and The Opportunities and Limitations of Legal Remedies for Driving Social Change in the Workplace”. Her thesis was also awarded the Gaspee Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution Award. She is also a Birthright Excel Global Fellow (2021).

Outside of her work, Alexandra enjoys the performing arts, screenwriting, reading, spending time with friends and family, skiing, hiking, and crafting. Following her Fulbright-Nehru grant, she hopes to go to law school and continue her advocacy for women and girls as a policymaker in U.S. and international contexts.

Alexandra’s Fulbright-Nehru research project is bringing together the fields of labor, gender, law, and policy. Her research is focusing on the implementation and enforcement of India’s 2013 law titled “The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, or POSH Act. She is analyzing the benefits India’s economy would realize with the effective enforcement of this law. This project is significant because workplace sexual harassment is prevalent in India and the effective enforcement of the POSH Act would have major implications for the safety and well-being of women and girls, as well as for India’s economy as a whole.

Anish Bagga

As a graduate from Emory University with aspirations of entering the medical field and a passion for mathematics and computer science, Anish Bagga seeks to connect the medical world with math and machine learning. By bridging these fields, he hopes to bring a unique approach to patient care and medical research. At Emory, he was involved with the Emory International Relations Association as the head delegate of the Model UN team and also helped found Oxford’s Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Activist organization. Anish’s current research involves modeling influenza reassortment, building a computational model of the human thyroid hormone, and using machine learning to reconstruct electrocardiography profiles. His research in influenza resulted in a publication which stated that avian hosts do not stringently select against less-fit influenza A virus (IAV) strains, thus facilitating the reassortment of diverse IAVs which increases the likelihood of zoonosis. His second publication regarding influenza A reassortment ascertained that the respiratory structure within a host like swine could support increased diversity through reassortment; this he did through the construction of reassortment simulations in non-compartmentalized respiratory systems and compared its results to the data from the extensively compartmentalized swine lungs. Based on the results, it was determined that compartmentalization does not increase viral diversity; instead, it provides pockets where viruses that are less fit for swine but more fit for humans can thrive. The research helped elucidate the importance of swine in the 2009 H1N1 “swine flu” pandemic.

Vaccines elicit a stronger immune response through the injection of a weakened virus which facilitates the formation of germinal centers containing a viral fragment: i.e., an antigen. In affinity maturation, B cells with B cell receptors (BCRs) that strongly bind to the antigen are selected for. These B cells secrete antibodies identical to their BCRs which bind to the viral components during infection, thus marking the virus for destruction. The more selective this process, the greater the antibody binding affinity, and thus a greater future immune response. To optimize the influenza A vaccine, a stochastic simulation of affinity maturation is also being developed during the study.

Martha Weiss

Prof. Martha Weiss is a professor of biology at Georgetown University where she directs the environmental biology major and co-directs the environmental studies program. She received a BA in geological sciences from Harvard University, a PhD in botany from the University of California, Berkeley, and postdoctoral training in insect behavior from the University of Arizona, Tucson. Her research – deriving from a close observation of nature – centers around experimental exploration of questions in insect ecology and plant–animal interactions. Her topics of investigation have included floral color changes as cues for pollinators; learning and memory in butterflies; the retention of memory across metamorphosis; and the indirect ecological consequences of periodical cicada emergences. In her teaching, she prioritizes opportunities for active learning and engagement; she believes that while thoughtful pedagogy is an important foundation for instruction in any subject, it is particularly critical in STEM fields where traditional, memorization-based methods of teaching have been known to discourage participation. Outside of research and teaching, she enjoys hiking and spending time outdoors, botanizing, foraging for edible plants, and working with fibers and textiles.

For her Fulbright-Nehru project, Prof. Weiss is investigating the behavior, movement, and sensory ecology of ant-mimicking arthropods in areas around Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram. In one of the prime examples of adaptation by natural selection, a diverse array of insects and spiders exhibit a remarkable resemblance to ants, mimicking them in both morphology and behavior, and thereby gaining protection from predators that actively avoid ants. She is also offering field-based workshops to students at Azim Premji University on plant–insect interactions; besides, she is participating in pedagogical workshops on “ungrading”, a relatively new assessment strategy that moves the focus away from testing and instead puts learning at the center of higher education.

Julia Wintner

Ms. Julia Wintner is the director of the Art Gallery at Eastern Connecticut State University (ECSU) in Willimantic, Connecticut, where she curates exhibitions, manages the visiting artist program, and teaches courses in curatorial practice. Previously, she was the director of the University of Central Florida Art Gallery, Orlando, where she developed a solid record of multidisciplinary curating and promoted the fine arts as a central and highly visible part of academic and cocurricular campus life. She graduated from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, New York. Her academic studies are supported by a two decades-long immigrant journey through four continents, beginning in Russia, continuing through South East Asia and the South Pacific, and concluding in North America. Her immigrant journey inspired her interest in diasporic art making. In her curatorial work, Ms. Wintner highlights the artist’s role as a cultural ambassador of the divided contemporary world; she also focuses on the development of a constituent-based curatorial model. Her research has been presented and featured in academic conferences and publications.

Ms. Wintner’s Fulbright-Nehru project is researching contemporary curatorial practices in India and how the curator’s role there has evolved over the past 30 years. She is instructing Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology students in their curatorial MA program regarding contemporary curatorial practices within U.S. cultural institutions. Her award will result in exhibitions showcasing contemporary Indian artists, curatorial exchanges, and joint classroom sessions between her home and host institutions. The project will also contribute to creating a cohort of curators who will be intermediaries between countries, cultural policies, and diverse audiences.