Indian Fellows 2025-2026 Archives

Jai Kumar Sharma

Mr. Jai Kumar Sharma is a mathematics teacher at an Eklavya Model Residential School (EMRS), Nandurbar, a government-run tribal residential school under the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India. He teaches mathematics to students in Grades 6 – 12, working primarily with first-generation learners from tribal and marginalized communities. He also serves as a Master Trainer for UNICEF India’s TALASH (Tribal Aptitude, Life Skills and Self-Esteem Hub) initiative, supporting teacher development and instructional improvement in government schools.

Prior to his current role, Mr. Sharma worked as a Mathematics Faculty member at Physics Wallah Pvt. Ltd., where he delivered concept-based and exam-oriented instruction and contributed to curriculum development and assessment design. He also served as an online Mathematics Tutor with Focus Edumatics Pvt. Ltd., providing one-to-one instruction to U.S. students, and as a Subject Matter Expert with Chegg India Pvt. Ltd., supporting learners across Algebra, Geometry, Calculus, and Statistics.

Mr. Sharma holds an M.Sc. from Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh State University and a B.Ed. from Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar University. He is CTET-qualified (2022) and has completed international certifications in online teaching, educational technology, and social-emotional learning from institutions including the University of London, the University of New South Wales, and the University of Colorado.

During his Fulbright Teaching Excellence and Achievement (TEA) program, Mr. Sharma is observing and participating in secondary mathematics classrooms, collaborating with U.S. teachers, and engaging in professional development on student-centered pedagogy, assessment, and instructional technology. He is understanding how American schools support diverse and first-generation learners through differentiated instruction, project-based learning, and data-informed teaching practices, and developing curriculum resources and teaching strategies that can be adapted to high-need, low-resource school settings in India.

Neel Kamal Mishra

Dr. Neel Kamal Mishra is a secondary school science educator teaching at a government school in Delhi. Originally from Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, Dr. Mishra has over 27 years of experience to the field of education. His students come from underprivileged families, many of whom are the children of daily wage workers. He transforms complex science concepts into interesting, engaging, and accessible lessons that resonate with his students’ lives.

His academic background is both diverse and profound, holding a Ph.D. in History, a B.Sc., and an M.A. in Education. This unique interdisciplinary foundation allows him to approach science pedagogy with a broad intellectual perspective, blending scientific inquiry with educational theory.
Dr. Mishra is a recipient of the Delhi State Award, an honor reflecting his excellence in teaching and commitment to student welfare. Beyond the classroom, he is the editor of a science magazine and a mentor and guide for student-led e-magazines across the state.

Through the FTEA program, Dr. Mishra is exploring how the U.S. and other participating countries integrate innovative science teaching methods that foster curiosity, logical reasoning, and problem-solving skills among students. He is committed to fostering an environment of curiosity and critical thinking, ensuring that every learner — regardless of their socio-economic background — has the opportunity to excel in the world of science.

GAGANDEEP KAUR

Dr. Gagandeep Kaur has been teaching science at a government school in Sensra Kalan, Amritsar for nine years. She has a PhD in computer supported cooperative learning from Panjab University, Chandigarh. She works closely with underprivileged learners, striving to make science education accessible and meaningful for all students.

She is actively involved in several national-level educational initiatives, including the NISHTHA program, National Achievement Survey (NAS), Ayushman Bharat Project, and has contributed by recording lectures for the DIKSHA and the NCERT e-PG Pathshala Project. She has participated in national-level workshops conducted by reputed organizations such as CSE, AAETI, Nimli, IIT Bombay, IISc Bengaluru, and NCERT, New Delhi, and presented research papers at national and international conferences and published her work in reputed journals and edited books.

She serves as a resource person and a Block mentor for various STEM seminars, environmental and adolescent training programs, playing a significant role in mentoring educators and school heads. She has acted as an evaluator in the INSPIRE-MANAK program and the RAA science exhibitions. She has received several awards, including the Best Teacher Award, Best TLM Award, and received appreciation certificates from the Honorary Education Secretary, Punjab, in recognition of her efforts in enhancing the quality of education.

Through the Fulbright TEA program, she intends to learn new pedagogical skills and wants to share her knowledge with the whole community of teachers globally for fostering curiosity and critical thinking among young learners across the world.

Shubhrika Pansari

Ms. Shubhrika Pansari is an Assistant Professor in English at the Department of Law, Maharaja Surajmal Institute in New Delhi. She has qualified in the UGC NET three times and teaches literature and communication skills to undergraduate and postgraduate students. She has an MPhil in English Literature from Department of English & Culture Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh where she worked on her dissertation titled Feminine Voices in Retelling of Ramayana: A Study of Select Texts. Additionally, she has completed her Post Graduate Diploma in Translation from Indira Gandhi National Open University.

In her academic oeuvre, Shubhrika has presented papers at various national and international conferences. Her research areas include Indian mythology and Indian fiction. She loves mandala art and creates art from waste materials. She in fascinated by the diversity of cultures and loves to curate cultural events.

As a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant, Shubhrika is teaching Hindi at Mississippi Valley State University. In addition to her teaching duties, she plans to foster a deeper understanding of Indian culture by exchanging knowledge about the diverse social, religious, and regional practices that shape the language. She is working on finding a way to link the East and the West through art and literature. She aspires to utilize her Fulbright experiences to explore new teaching methods amidst the traditional approach of teaching in her own country, and to come up with more hands-on and practice-oriented pedagogies grounded in art and literature.

Ananya Mishra

Ms. Ananya Mishra is a PhD candidate in English at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, working in the areas of life writing, gender, and class. She has taught English language and literature at postgraduate, undergraduate, and middle school levels, and currently teaches a diploma course in translation. Fluent in Hindi and English, with beginner-level proficiency in French, she brings a multilingual and multicultural approach to her teaching. She enjoys engaging with music, cinema, theatre, and art, and loves playing the guitar. She is deeply passionate about exploring local and global cultures and aims to explore cross-cultural dialogues between India and the US.

As a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant at the Michigan State University, Ananya is not only representing and communicating the rich and pluralistic culture of India but also immersing herself in the diverse traditions, histories, and lived experiences of American society. She believes that the medium of teaching and learning in and beyond classrooms can be an effective approach to building such cultural bridges.

Aakash Sharma

Mr. Aakash Sharma is an Assistant Professor of English Literature and Language at the University of Delhi. With a master’s degree in English and ongoing doctoral research at the Department of English, University of Delhi, his scholarship is centered on the Partition of India, exploring how politics shapes collective memory and the negotiation of identities in its aftermath. His academic interests extend to cultural memory studies, the politics of representation in South Asian narratives, and post-colonial theory.

Affiliated with the University of Delhi’s Centre for Independence and Partition Studies, Aakash conducts oral history interviews with survivors of Partition. By preserving these lived experiences, he seeks to illuminate the persisting impact of Partition for future generations, viewing it not as a distant historical event but as a pivotal moment that continues to shape contemporary society and individual lives. His research, published in reputed journals, critically examines issues of representational politics in literature and cinema.

As a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant, Aakash is teaching Hindi at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he is committed to fostering cross-cultural dialogue and deepening students’ engagement with Indian culture. He views language teaching as a vital bridge to intercultural understanding and global citizenship. Aakash intends to integrate the pedagogical insights and intercultural perspectives gained through the Fulbright program into his teaching and research in India.

Shantanu Kumar

Dr. Shantanu Kumar is a Junior Resource Person at the Linguistic Data Consortium for Indian Languages, Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore. He is primarily a linguist with a passion for leveraging technology, pedagogy, and data-driven research to advance language technologies, particularly for Indian languages. He holds a PhD and an MA in Linguistics from the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, and Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, respectively. He contributed to developing Maithili Anulekhika, a pioneering speech recognition tool that marks the first instance of speech technology support for Maithili, a low-resource language.

As a multilingual team leader, Dr. Kumar is dedicated to bridging traditional linguistic knowledge with technological innovation and rigorous academic standards. He has been instrumental in creating numerous datasets crucial to language technology development. He has coordinated numerous workshops and conferences related to computational linguistics, data collection, and language documentation. He has co-authored multiple peer-reviewed publications and book chapters on topics related to corpus and computational linguistics. He is passionate about language documentation, digital humanities, and inclusive language technologies, with a long-term vision to integrate linguistic heritage with cutting-edge AI applications.

As a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant, Dr. Kumar is teaching Hindi at the Department of Asian Studies, University of Texas at Austin. He is actively engaged in exploring American cultural diversity and promoting India’s social and linguistic heritage. His future aspirations include establishing inter-university collaborations through the adoption of trans-disciplinary approaches in language learning and teaching.

Pragya Sengupta

Dr. Pragya Sengupta is an Assistant Professor of English at VIT-AP University. She completed her MPhil in 2012 and PhD in 2021 from the Centre for Applied Linguistics and Translation Studies, University of Hyderabad, under the supervision of Dr. Sriparna Das. Her research interests dwell mainly in indigenous knowledge systems, cultural memory, and translation as resistance. With a strong interdisciplinary approach, her work bridges literature, ethnography, and cultural studies. She has published articles in journals such as Translation Today, Explorations and Apni Maati. She has also translated academic works in the journal named Encounters in Translation.

Beyond academia, Dr. Sengupta channels her passion for comedy and drama as a writer and performer. She translates between English, Hindi, and Bengali, and is an active member of International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies (IATIS) and Comparative Literature Association of India (CLAI). In 2024, she attended the Translation Research Summer School at Shanghai, China.

As a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant, Dr. Sengupta is teaching Hindi at Ohio University, Athens. She is getting the learners to engage with Hindi not only through its grammar and vocabulary but through lived culture. During this program, she is introducing the learners to Hindi as well as its regional dialects and creating space to explore the broader non-Hindi linguistic traditions of India. To spark curiosity and deeper cultural connection, she envisions using Bollywood movies, short and engaging literary texts, collaborative events, and Indian art exhibitions.

Jaya Upadhyay

Dr. Jaya Upadhyay is Assistant Professor of English literature and language communication at DIT University, Dehradun. She keeps her lessons interesting by linking them with diverse cultural stories. During her graduate studies in English Literature, she formed a deep interest in exploring narratives, which later translated into the study of gendered discourse in Indian screen narratives as her doctoral topic. She completed her PhD in 2019 from the University of Lucknow. The examination of cultural life is an enduring passion that Jaya is unfolding through research and writing articles, some of which have been published in the Web of Science and Scopus.

A notable experience adding to Dr. Upadhyay’s personal and professional growth was her time as a “Fellow in Ideas 2021” at Harrison Middleton University in Arizona. This online fellowship offered her a chance to engage in conversations on subjects ranging from apple picking to robotics. It was here that she was formally introduced to the Socratic method of discussion, which has enriched her teaching and learning experience.

As a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant, Dr. Upadhyay will be teaching Hindi at Yale University. She is planning to bridge common symbols and analogies between Indian and American cultures in innovative ways to enrich the learner’s experience. She is confident that her time at Yale will benefit her teaching skills and provide a fresh perspective on building interactions, holding discussions, and incorporating modern technology in classrooms while adding to her personal development.

Dhara Kanchan

Ms. Dhara Kanchan is a passionate scholar deeply interested in language, literature, culture, and Indian classical music. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Gargi College, University of Delhi, and a master’s degree in English from Banasthali Vidyapith, Jaipur. Fluent in Hindi and English, she has intermediate proficiency in the Bundelkhandi dialect, and elementary knowledge of Sanskrit and French. Actively engaged in academic discourse, she co-translated a classic Hindi text published in Becoming Translators: Theory and Practice of Translation. She has presented papers at national conferences and would like to pursue PhD research at the intersection of translation studies, cultural studies, philosophy, and folkloristics.

Dhara’s academic engagements are complemented by active social engagement through the National Service Scheme, including teaching underprivileged children at St. Stephen’s College’s Social Service League. She has over five years of training in Indian classical ragas on the synthesizer under Ustad Latif Ahmad Khan. She recently began learning the flute. She is a certified yoga practitioner (Patanjali Yogpeeth) and holds a diploma in the Bhagavad Gita from ISKCON in Ayodhya, enriching her understanding of Indian philosophy.

As a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant in Hindi at Wesleyan University, Dhara is aiming to create an immersive, learner-centric classroom by integrating literature, art, and cultural media. This opportunity to teach, audit courses, and immerse herself in American culture will deepen her intellectual horizons and pedagogy. For Dhara, this Fulbright journey reflects her core principle: Sa Vidya Ya Vimuktaye (knowledge is that which liberates), fostering transformation for self and society.