Fulbright-Nehru Visiting Chair Program at University of Massachusetts Amherst (Research and Teaching) Archives

Srinivas Chokkakula

Dr. Srinivas Chokkakula is the Ministry of Jal Shakti (MoJS) Research Chair – Water Conflicts and Governance, at Centre for Policy Research (CPR), New Delhi. He leads the TREADS (Transboundary Rivers, Ecologies and Development Studies) group founded by him at CPR. His research interests extend to the broader area of water policy and governance, federalism, politics of infrastructure development in India and South Asia.

Dr. Chokkakula is a recognized voice in national debates and discourse on water policy and governance. His work on interstate river water disputes and transboundary water governance has received extensive attention from policy makers, and informed public debate and discourse in the country – including those over the Interstate River Water Disputes Amendment Bill, 2019. He is a member of the Drafting Committee for National Water Policy formulated by the Government of India.

His efforts as the MoJS Research Chair have led to an MoU between CPR and NMCG for collaborative research and knowledge production towards the broader goal of rejuvenating rivers in India. Under this MoU, TREADS at CPR will be working closely with NMCG to improve the outcomes of the NMCG’s Namami Gange programme and contribute to policy thinking about rejuvenating India’s rivers.

He has an interdisciplinary training in human geography, planning and engineering with a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Washington, Seattle, and a postdoctoral at SOAS, London. Apart from several other fellowships and scholarships, Dr. Chokkakula has been the British Council’s Chevening Scholar in its Young Indian Environmental Managers programme, 2000.

As the Fulbright-Nehru Visiting Chair in Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, he will be teaching and conducting research on federal responses to the emerging challenges of interstate river water governance in India and the USA.

Shanthie Mariet D Souza

Dr. Shanthie Mariet D’Souza is Founder & President of Mantraya, an independent research forum. She is also a visiting faculty at the Naval War College, Goa; a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute, Washington D.C.; a Research Fellow at WeltTrends-Institut für internationale Politik, Potsdam; an International Advisor at the Nordic Counter Terrorism Network, Helsinki; and an Adviser for Independent Conflict Research and Analysis, London. In a career spanning over two decades, she has conducted extensive field research in India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, Africa, and Australia.

Dr. D’Souza, with a Ph.D. in International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, is an established inter-disciplinary researcher on conflict resolution, foreign policy, decision making, and human security. She has been widely published in national and international journals, newspapers, policy forums, and edited books, receiving attention from academic and practitioners, informing public debate and discourse.

She has been awarded various fellowships and been associated with a number of thinktanks, universities in India, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Singapore, Australia, Germany, Canada, and the U.S. Most recently, Dr. D’Souza has been a Founding Professor at the Kautilya School of Public Policy,Hyderabad. She has been a recipient of the Fulbright Junior Research Fellowship (2005-06) and the President’s Award for Excellence in Research (2009) from the Manohar Parrikar-Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi.

As the Fulbright-Nehru Visiting Chair in Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, she will be teaching and conducting research on Global Climate Change and Geopolitics of Energy and prospects for cooperation between India and U.S. in addressing issues of climate change, mitigation, and crisis management.

Purendra Prasad

Dr. Purendra Prasad is a professor of sociology at the University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, Telangana. He has previously held positions at the Centre for Social Studies (CSS), Surat, and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. Dr. Prasad was a British Council grantee for medical anthropology research at Brunel University, West London, UK (1999-2000), and he also collaborated with the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), California Recovery and Reconnaissance team on the Bhuj Gujarat Earthquake in 2005. His research interests encompass critical agrarian studies, environmental studies, the political economy of health and development, and urban studies. His recent work investigates wealth accumulation and business elites in India as part of a broader research project on wealth inequalities in South Africa, Brazil, and India. Dr. Prasad has co-edited the book Equity and Access: Health Care Studies in India (Oxford University Press, 2018), and serves on the editorial advisory committee of the Sociological Bulletin. Additionally, he contributes to the academic and ethical advisory boards of various universities and institutions in India.

As Fulbright-Nehru Visiting Chair at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, Dr. Prasad is teaching and conducting research on how the intersection of caste/race, gender, and growing economic disparities shaped wealthy elites in India and the U.S.