Host City USA: New Delhi

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.

Smita Guha

Dr. Smita Guha is a tenured and full professor at St. John’s University, NY, in the School of Education. She is also the chairperson of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction.
She received her PhD from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Her research involves preparing teachers in the areas of math and science education, and in child development.

Dr. Guha has written three books: Today’s Youth, Tomorrow’s Leaders; Healthy Children; and Teacher as Researcher. Her fourth book, Critical Literacy for Socio-emotional Learning is in the print stage. She has also written several book chapters. Forty-one of her articles have been published in scholarly journals, and she has presented at more than 60 international, national, state and regional conferences.

Dr. Guha is also the founder of an after-school program that demonstrates the collaboration of family, school, and community. She has received several grants and has worked with underprivileged mothers and children living in homeless shelters in the U.S. and India. She is also the recipient of honors such as the Talent Award from New York State Assembly, the New York City Corps Artist Award, and the Outstanding Citizen award from the Council of the City of New York. Further, twice she has received the merit award and the faculty recognition award from St. John’s University.

A vocalist of Indian music, Dr. Guha is the founder and president of the nonprofit organization, Anandasangit.

Culture can impact how children build values, belief systems, thinking, and understanding of themselves as individuals and as members of society. The unique cultural influences that children respond to from birth include customs and beliefs around food and artistic expression. While a healthy diet is associated with overall development and improved cognitive function, so also is early exposure to music which ignites all areas of a child’s faculty. Both help the body and the mind to work together. The purpose of Dr. Guha’s Fulbright-Nehru study is to focus on child development across cultural contexts regarding food and music in India.

Abhishek Bhati

Dr. Abhishek Bhati is an associate professor of political science and director of the Asian Studies Program at Bowling Green State University, Ohio. He holds a PhD in public administration from the University of Nebraska, Omaha, and an MA from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. His research focuses on nonprofit and civil society organizations. Specifically, Dr. Bhati examines how nonprofit and civil society organizations mobilize resources to advance their mission and support public good. He was awarded the Wilson C. “Bill” Fundraising Research Award in 2021 and was a social impact strategy doctoral fellow at the School of Social Policy & Practice, University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Bhati’s work has appeared in top nonprofit and public administration journals such as Public Administration Review and Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. In 2022, his work received the best paper award from Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations. Beyond his academic responsibilities, he serves on the Planning Commission of the city of Bowling Green.

Dr. Bhati’s Fulbright-Nehru research project is focusing on understanding how nonprofit and civil society organizations (CSOs) are using generative AI tools to advance their mission; it is also studying the potential pitfalls or challenges to the use of this emerging technology. The study is using a mixed-method research design by conducting an online survey and interviews with CSOs and other stakeholders in India. This research aims to benefit CSOs and policymakers by helping them understand the impact of “disruptive technologies” on the global civil society sector.

Sonia Taneja

Dr. Sonia Taneja is a general pediatrician at Boston Medical Center and a clinical instructor at Boston University’s Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. She was most recently a chief resident at the Boston Combined Residency Program in Boston Medical Center and Boston Children’s Hospital, where she was engaged in curricular development for both domestic and global health equity education.

She holds a BA in psychology from Yale University and an MS in public health from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. She is a former Parker Huang Research Fellow in India, where she conducted a mixed-methods study identifying the risk factors for mood disorders among caste-based sex workers in New Delhi and brothel-based sex workers in Kolkata and Patna. She obtained her MD from the Yale School of Medicine where she worked with the Elevate Policy Lab and the MOMS Partnership to replicate a community-based participatory research intervention for co-located social and mental health services for low-income parents.

In her Fulbright-Nehru project, she is continuing her work with adolescents and families in partnership with the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh to develop a community-based participatory intervention mechanism to optimize medication-assisted therapy for opioid use disorder among adolescents in India. The goal of this research is to develop PYAR, or Parents as Youth Allies in Recovery, a family-centered behavioral intervention program designed to equip caregivers with skills to support medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) and HIV prevention among young people who inject drugs (YPWID). Dr. Taneja is utilizing community-based participatory research methods to interview youth who are under-engaged or have recently ceased MOUD and their caregivers to elicit the following: knowledge and attitudes about MOUD and HIV prevention services; challenges faced by YPWID and caregivers in recovery; and the intervention components that youth and caregivers identify as most effective and acceptable.

Rebecca Waxman

Ms. Rebecca Waxman is a PhD candidate at UCLA in the Department of History, specializing in South Asia and with a concentration in gender studies. Her work aims to study occurrences of sexual and gender-based violence that marked turning-point moments in colonial and postcolonial Indian social, political, and feminist histories. Ms. Waxman received her BA in history with a certificate in South Asian Studies from Wesleyan University in 2016, where she wrote her honors thesis historicizing the Delhi Gang Rape of 2012. Her work has been published in Women’s History Review and A Cultural Encyclopedia of Lost Cities and Civilizations (forthcoming).

Ms. Waxman’s dissertation project historicizes the relationship between the interpersonal, violent act of rape and the broader Indian society and politics, exploring how colonial categories and dynamics shaped understandings and legislation of female sexuality and of sexualized violence in British and independent India. It also studies the continuities and discontinuities between colonial and postcolonial India regarding rape. Ms. Waxman’s research endeavors to illuminate key nodes in the complex heterogeneous history of sexual violence in modern South Asia in order to recuperate the subjecthood of Indian women who enter the archive in moments of violation; it also aims to question the dominant knowledge structures informing the subjugation of women.

Taryn Williams

Ms. Taryn Williams is currently a head teacher and secondary generalist with the Lake and Peninsula School District in remote Alaska. She is a former Fulbright Fellow to Germany and a Kathryn Davis Fellow for Peace at Middlebury College. This past summer, she was a WWI Fellow through the National Endowment for the Humanities at the National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City. Ms. Williams also serves as her district’s student government advisor and as treasurer of her local National Education Association.

Ms. Williams got her BS in urban studies (with a focus on urban education) from the University of Pennsylvania in 2014 and her MSEd in elementary education from the same university in 2015; she also earned a certification in K-12 TESOL. Additionally, she completed a certificate through the Strategic Leadership in Education Program at the University of Pennsylvania in 2021.

Her goal for her Fulbright DAST in India is to share and compare knowledge about the best practices in curriculum and assessment design, and learn about Indian culture. She is also teaching people about the unique and beautiful location she calls home: the Alaskan bush.

Tara Seekins

Ms. Tara Seekins teaches English at Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley, California. She has served as a school leader, an English instructor in the college program at San Quentin State Prison, and as a lecturer in the Graduate School of Education at UC Berkeley. Ms. Seekins has a National Board certificate in English language development and was part of the 2015 Fulbright-Hays delegation that traveled to China. Each of these experiences has reinforced her belief in the transformative power of education as well as intensified her passion for developing culturally relevant curricula, collaborating with colleagues across the globe, and encouraging students to become engaged citizens of the world.

Ms. Seekins holds a bachelor’s degree from Smith College, a master’s degree in English from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and both a master’s degree in education and a law degree from UC Berkeley.

Ms. Seekins’s Fulbright inquiry project is exploring gender representation in contemporary Indian literature and film and has a curriculum guide and instructional unit for secondary English teachers. The guide and instructional unit are focusing on women’s voices in contemporary Indian literature through university coursework and interviews with students and professors; collaborations with Indian educators to support cross-cultural dialogue; and site visits to locations of cultural and literary importance. This will form one of the cornerstones of a newly developed course on world literature that concentrates on diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice.

J.P. Singh

Dr. J.P. Singh is Professor of International Commerce and Policy at the Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University, and Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow with the Robert Bosch Academy, Berlin. Previously, he was Chair and Professor of Culture and Political Economy, and Director of the Institute for International Cultural Relations at the University of Edinburgh.

Prof. Singh has published 10 books and over 100 articles. His latest books are: Cultural Values in Political Economy (2020), and Sweet Talk: Paternalism and Collective Action in North-South Trade Negotiations (Stanford, 2017). His book Globalized Arts: The Entertainment Economy and Cultural Identity (Columbia, 2011) won the American Political Science Association’s award for best book in information technology and politics in 2012. His current book project is Development 2.0: How Technologies Can Foster Inclusivity in the Developing World (Oxford, forthcoming). He has worked with international organizations such as UNESCO, the World Bank, and the WTO, and played a leadership role in several professional organizations. He is Founding Editor of the journal Arts and International Affairs. Previously he was Editor of Review of Policy Research, the journal specializing in the politics and policy of science and technology. Awards in 2022 include a $1.39 million grant from the Minerva program (as Principal Investigator), Distinguished Scholar in International Communication award from the International Studies Association, and Outstanding Scholar Award from the Schar.

He has taught at Scripps College (Claremont), University of Mississippi, American University, Georgetown University, School of Advanced International Studies – Johns Hopkins University, and George Mason University. Outside of the United States, he has taught at the University of Edinburgh, Graduate Institute – Geneva (IHEID), University of Siena, and University of Jyväskylä. He holds a PhD in Political Economy and Public Policy from the University of Southern California, an MA from Mumbai.

How are India’s export industries adopting artificial intelligence technologies to compete in the global economy? Can AI enhance Indian exports just as Information technologies did a generation ago? Prof. Singh’s Fulbright-Nehru project in India seeks to conduct research on the Indian policy and business landscape for AI technology adoption in export industries, while also presenting teaching modules on related topics of technology, diplomacy, and international commerce.

Margaret Phillips

Prof. Margaret Phillips is a paralegal educator, lawyer, writer and access to justice activist focused on developing experiential learning for paralegal students while promoting access to justice for under-served communities. She is currently the Director of the Paralegal Studies program at Daemen University in Buffalo, New York, and prior to that she taught Legal Research and Writing at the University of Buffalo School of law and was a civil litigator with experience in negligence, civil rights, and discrimination.

As an educator, Prof. Phillips is experienced in developing curriculum, presenting and teaching on topics ranging from social justice, legal ethics, legal research and writing, introduction to law, and legal research methods. She has presented to audiences including high school groups, paralegals, paralegal educators, practicing attorneys, and college students. She was recently selected to do a Tedx Buffalo talk “What if the Constitution Could Talk?”

As a writer, Prof. Phillis is the author of a college textbook on legal analysis and writing entitled: “A Practical Guide to Legal Research and Analysis for Paralegal and Legal Studies Students.” She also writes a regular column for the Bar Association for Erie County entitled “Spotlight on Paralegals.”

Her current scholarly focus is on access to justice effort locally, nationally, and internationally. As the program director for Paralegal Studies, she has been active in creating the Paralegal Clinic course as well as community-based short-term clinics such as expungement clinics to eradicate low-level marijuana related criminal convictions.

During her Fulbright-Nehru grant, Prof. Phillips intends to collaborate, develop and co-teach legal skills curriculum for paralegals and interns at the Human Rights Law Network, the legal clinics at the National Law University Delhi, and other paralegal organizations. The primary goal is to increase these organizations’ capacity, communication and collaboration to promote access to justice. The secondary goal is to form solid collaborations between the not-for-profits and law schools to enhance access to representation. Specifically, the training and teaching will support Human Rights Law Network in hosting more volunteers, enhance and grow legal clinics at NLU Delhi, and support community paralegal networks.

Supriya Pandit

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.