Host Institution India: Michigan State University

Balasubramanian Geetha

Ms. Balasubramanian Geetha is a Ph.D. candidate and Teaching Assistant in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. She has completed her graduate and postgraduate studies in English Literature from Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi, and Jamia Millia Islamia, respectively. She has received the GV Subramanyam Award and Nelabhatla Memorial Prize for her academic performance in B.A. (Hons.) English. She is also a gold medallist for her highest academic standing in M.A. English.

Geetha’s doctoral dissertation specifically focuses on the emergence of the hero-star Vijay Sethupathi (VJS) to examine the shifts in the cinematic representations of the hero figure in contemporary Tamil cinema. As a Fulbright-Nehru fellow, she intends to formulate an alternative framework of stardom to study the figural possibilities of VJS at the intersection of changes in narrative techniques, aesthetic constitution, and digital technologies. Through the Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship, she plans to engage with this research dimension by gaining infrastructural access to South Asian libraries and archives, audio-visual material, and interacting with a wider intellectual community for expanding her disciplinary knowledge in the field of Cinema Studies.

Geetha’s research interests include Literary Studies, Film and Cultural Studies, Star Studies, and South Asian Popular Culture. She has presented papers at various academic forums such as American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), The Annual Conference on South Asia, and UGC-sponsored national conferences. Her forthcoming book chapter on the anti-caste politics of the Tamil film Pariyerum Perumal (2018) will be published in the anthology titled The Routledge Companion to Caste and Cinema in India (2022).

As a performance poet, Geetha has performed her writing pieces at multiple creative platforms like Poems India, Toronto International Festival of Authors, and Airplane Poetry Movement. She is also the winner of the Delhi Poetry Festival 2015. Further, she has been a part of the theatre group ‘Expressions’ in Jamia Millia Islamia and participated in street plays and proscenium stage performances at the National School of Drama and The Shakespeare Society of India. Finally, her poems have been published in the feminist anthology entitled The Kali Project: Invoking the Goddess Within (2021) and Pixie Dust and All Things Magical (2022).

Aiman Wahab

Ms. Aiman Wahab is an English language teacher at Jamia Middle School. She completed her postgraduation in English literature from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi in 2022. She worked as Digital Academician at Bloombrain Learning Solutions. As a mentor at Bloombrain, she provided spoken English classes to adults and enabled them to cultivate their soft skills, ace their job interviews, and achieve proficiency in the English language.

Ms. Wahab is a poetry enthusiast and has a passion for teaching language using learner-centric methods. Her poetry and articles have been published in journals, online magazines, and anthologies. Her zealous participation in slam poetry, nukkad naatak, and qawwali performances during her graduation has enabled her to use these as pedagogical tools in her classroom and to create a vibrant learning experience for her students.

As a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant, Ms. Wahab intends to create cultural awareness about India’s rich heritage and employ interactive methods to introduce Hindi language and literature to her students. She looks forward to exploring new techniques of teaching foreign languages through her experience in the U.S.

Aishwarya Gupta

Ms. Aishwarya Gupta is a PhD candidate at the Department of Linguistics at the English and Foreign Languages University, Lucknow. Her doctoral research focuses on Mahatma Gandhi’s language use to address social issues, diverse language movements, and linguistic choices. Her research explores the cause-effect relationships of human interactions across socio-political contexts, focusing on interdisciplinary studies of discourse analysis, rhetoric, cognition, educational pedagogy, and international relations. She has a gold medal in her master’s in linguistics from the University of Lucknow. She is a member of the Linguistic Society of India and America. Her works have been published in reputed journals and featured in several national and international conferences.

As a language teacher, Ms. Gupta has worked closely with the staff and students at a primary school and for underprivileged Kasturba girls. She has developed many language proficiency pedagogies to enhance their communication skills. She is also passionate about contributing to society through sustainable development. She has drafted the United Nations UNCTAD Youth Declaration 2021 alongside being a facilitator and speaker of its Youth Network, amongst other interactions with the ambassadors of many countries.

As a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant, Ms. Gupta will teach Hindi at Michigan State University. Considering cross-cultural linguistic knowledge as a global factor, Ms. Gupta seeks to use her Fulbright experience to give impetus to existing language methods that offer possible solutions and build innovative ways of effective communication towards problem-solving conversations to better establish language understanding, fostering cultural exchange and developing as a future educator.

Vasant Matsagar

Prof. Vasant Matsagar is Professor and Dogra Chair at the Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, New Delhi. He obtained his Ph.D. from IIT Bombay in structural engineering.

Prof. Matsagar is serving on editorial boards of reputed journals in various capacities: Editor-in-Chief of Indian Society of Earthquake Technology (ISET Journal) and the Indian Concrete Journal; Associate Editor for “Computational Methods in Structural Engineering” section” of Frontiers in Built Environment; and an editorial board member of Bulletin of New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering, Proceedings of Institution of Civil Engineers: Structures and Buildings, Advances in Civil Engineering, International Journal of Protective Structures, and the journal Architecture, Structures, and Construction. Prof. Matsagar is Founding Director and Fellow of Council of Vibration Specialists, and has received fellowships from Humboldt Foundation, Erasmus, ASEM-DUO India, FEIT Visiting Academic among others. He is also a DAAD (India) Research Ambassador and an elected fellow of the Indian National Academy for Engineering (INAE), the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), the Institution of Engineers (India), and the Indian Society of Earthquake Technology.

Prof. Matsagar is interested in multi-hazard protection of structures using advanced engineered materials. During his Fulbright-Kalam Climate fellowship for Academic and Professional Excellence at Michigan State University (MSU), Prof. Matsagar is developing a technology for manufacturing biocomposites from agro-residues for gainfully using them in built infrastructure at large-scale as construction materials. By developing a suitable agriculture waste management scheme and implementing it in practice and contributing to sustainability through decarbonized circular economy, this collaborative research work strives for the development of hazard resilient infrastructure in modern cities and towns in both the U.S. and India.

Tanusree Basak

Tanusree Basak is an ESL trainer and course instructor at Amal College of Advanced Studies, University of Calicut in Kerala. She has worked in academic publishing as an assistant editor. She completed her bachelor’s degree in English literature from Bharati College, University of Delhi, and her master’s degree in English literature from Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi with SVC rank 1st in the merit list. Simultaneously, she completed the three-year advanced diploma in French from the University of Delhi and continues her association with the language as a freelance French teacher. She is also a trained vocalist with specialization in Rabindrasangeet and Indian classical music. She participated in activities of the music society and the literary society, and in French plays at her university.

Tanusree has also presented papers at various national and international conferences and has published a paper in Intersections Journal. She has a few forthcoming book chapters and journal articles. She plans to pursue doctoral studies, and is broadly interested in discourses on modernism, psychoanalysis in literature, gender studies, cultural studies, and philosophy.

As a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant, Tanusree is teaching Hindi at Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI. She envisions the classroom as a medium to articulate individual experiences and sustain dialogues across differences. This opportunity to teach and to audit courses will enable her to expand her intellectual horizons on subjects pertinent to her broader academic interests, alongside acquiring innovative pedagogical practices. In her classes, students will get to engage in multi-faceted and vibrant language lessons. As a cultural ambassador, she strives to familiarize students with her country and culture through practical and tangible activities and experiences.