Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Teaching & Research) Archives - Page 2 of 4

Swasti Bhattacharyya

Dr. Swasti Bhattacharyya (PhD, RN) has taught Philosophy and Religion for over 20 years. She was Visiting Professor Emerita of Women’s Studies and Ethics and a 2021-2022 WSRP Research Associate at the Harvard Divinity School. Her current long-term ethnographic project explores how current generations are living out Vinoba Bhave’s (Gandhi’s disciple, friend, confidant, and spiritual successor) commitments to Sarvodaya (the holistic uplifting of all life). Her latest publication, “Shiva’s Babies: Hindu Perspectives on the Treatment of High-Risk Newborn Infants” in Religion and Ethics in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (Oxford University Press, 2019) and her book Magical Progeny, Modern Technology (SUNY, 2006) combine her experiences as a registered nurse with her expertise in ethics and the study of religion. Dr. Bhattacharyya is the current Director of the Uberoi Teacher Training Workshop – U.S. She also serves on the advisory board for the Center for Understanding World Religions (Loma Linda University), the American Academy of Religion’s Committee on the Status of Racial and Ethnic Minorities in the Profession, and on the board of the Peace and Justice Studies Association.

Dr. Bhattacharyya’s Fulbright-Nehru project intends to explore the lives and work of the Sisters of the Brahma Vidya Mandir Ashram and three generations of people working for Sarvodaya. Coined by M. K. Gandhi and developed by his disciple, confidant, and spiritual successor Vinoba Bhave, Sarvodaya calls for the holistic uplifting of all life. Dr Bhattacharyya brings the stories and insights of those working for a better world, demonstrates their relevance in multiple contexts, and argues that worldviews grounded in Sarvodaya can bring radical ways of addressing contemporary global challenges, and working for a more just, compassionate, and loving world.

Jill Belsky

Dr. Jill Belsky is Professor Emerita from the University of Montana (UM) where she was a faculty member for 30 years, serving as Chair in the Departments of Sociology and Society and Conservation — the latter an interdisciplinary department in the College of Forestry and Conservation in which she was a founding member. She served as Director of the Bolle Center for People and Forests at UM, and as Editor-in-Chief of her discipline’s flagship journal, Society and Natural Resources. Dr. Belsky received her PhD from Cornell University in 1991 in Rural Sociology with specializations in natural resources, agriculture and southeast studies. She is a nationally and locally award-winning instructor, teaching highly popular classes in society, environment and development, international conservation and development, and political ecology. Her research has been widely published, and focusses on the intersections of rural livelihoods, economy, community-based natural resources and wildlife management, and the political economy of development, conducted often in collaboration with ecological scientists, managers and practitioners across South and Southeast Asia and the US west. She enjoys hiking, Nordic skiing and biking, as well as traveling and staying in mountain villages around the world.

Dr. Belsky’s Fulbright-Nehru project seeks to enhance environmental social science capacity in India through linking interactive and innovative teaching with participant action research (PAR). Both dimensions are informed by social-ecological theory and practice, and cultural/political ecology. The PAR project will collectively address human-wildlife conflicts and livelihood challenges in the Harsil Valley of Uttarakhand. PAR methodology utilizes inclusive, mixed methods to gather data relevant to a range of constituents to develop mutually-beneficial policy and programs, and context-specific, relevant content for class lectures, curriculum development and a workshop at the Wildlife Institute of India.

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.

William Westerman

Dr. William Westerman is a folklorist, applied anthropologist, and former museum director with interests in refugees, human rights, social justice, and indigenous and immigrant communities. He has an AB from Harvard University and an AM and PhD in folklore and folklife from the University of Pennsylvania. He is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work at New Jersey City University, where he is also the coordinator of a program in ethnic and immigration studies. Previously, he was a lecturer in Princeton University’s writing program; he has also taught in a master’s program in cultural sustainability at Goucher College and the Macaulay Honors College of the City University of New York. Besides, he is a faculty member in the New Jersey Scholars Program for exceptional high school students. He has served as the director of the National Cambodian American Heritage Museum and Killing Fields Memorial in Chicago and at the Drake House Museum of Plainfield. Other experiences include research and curating at the Philadelphia Folklore Project and the National Museum of American Jewish History.

Dr. Westerman’s teaching and research interests encompass immigration, with a special focus on refugee rights and the role of arts and culture in immigrant and refugee communities; ethnographic museums of immigration; indigenous rights and language sustainability; folklore and the sociology of culture; applied anthropology and social justice; and visual sociology. He is also the editor of Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy. His publications include articles on applied folklore, pedagogy, museum studies, and Cambodian-American arts and culture. He is the co-author of The Giant Never Wins: Lakhon Bassac (Cambodian Folk Opera) in Philadelphia (Philadelphia Folklore Project, 1994). He has also curated numerous exhibitions, most notably “Fly to Freedom: The Paper Art of the Golden Venture Refugees” at the Museum of Chinese in America, in New York, as well as on its national tour.

In his Fulbright-Nehru fellowship, Dr. Westerman is affiliated with the Department of Cultural and Creative Studies at North-Eastern Hill University in Shillong, Meghalaya. As a part of his project, he is delivering lectures on folklore and the sociology of culture and on the practical application of folkloristics in social work. Besides, he is mentoring folklore students in their master’s and doctoral programs. He is also undertaking collaborative ethnographic research with native scholars, particularly in the areas of indigenous museums, oral literatures, folklore curriculum, and language preservation.

Dharmendra Saraswat

Dr. Dharmendra Saraswat is an associate professor in the Agricultural and Biological Engineering (ABE) Department at Purdue University. He received a bachelor’s degree in agricultural engineering from Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences (SHUATS); a master’s degree in agricultural engineering from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, and a PhD in food, agricultural, and biological engineering from The Ohio State University.

Before coming to Purdue, Dr. Saraswat was a faculty member at the University of Arkansas, a scientist at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, and an assistant professor at Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture & Technology, Kanpur.

Dr. Saraswat conducts research in information technology for agriculture. He has been pursuing two areas of emphasis within agriculture: watershed modeling; and digital agriculture. He applies engineering and science principles to measure, model, and develop digital solutions. Dr. Saraswat’s research demonstrates the application of GIS, remote sensing, and open-source software for creating new technologies, decision-support tools, and data sets to manage the environment and agricultural production systems.

Dr. Saraswat’s overall research and extension efforts have been recognized on a sustained basis. He has received several awards, including the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award (2023), Excellence in Multistate Research Team Award from USDA-NIFA for the S1069 project (2022), Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award from Purdue ABE (2022), Outstanding Educator Award by SHUATS (2021), the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers’ (ASABE) ITSC Best Paper Award (2019), ASABE Standards Award (2018), ASABE Educational Aids Blue Ribbon Award (2017, 2015, and 2013), the American Society of Horticultural Sciences’ Outstanding App Award (2016), Southern Region-American Society of Horticultural Sciences’ Blue Ribbon Extension Communication Award (2016 and 2012), the Fellow of Indian Society of Agricultural Engineers (2014), John W. White Outstanding Extension State Faculty Award by the University of Arkansas (2014), and Excellence in Remote Sensing and Precision Agriculture Award from the National Association of County Agricultural Agents (2013).

Dr. Saraswat’s Fulbright-Nehru research project is focusing on applying deep learning methods to identify and study the spread pattern of bacterial blight in rice and develop a conceptual modeling framework for creating an early warning system. Besides, Dr. Saraswat is collaborating with colleagues at IARI to share experiences with curriculum design and classroom delivery for spatial data science courses to augment the existing curriculum for developing students’ analytical, problem-solving, computational, and decision-making skills and abilities.

Shalini Puri

Prof. Shalini Puri has a PhD from Cornell University and is a professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research interests span postcolonial, Caribbean, gender, and memory studies; indentureship, slavery, and incarceration; environmental humanities; and social movements. She is especially interested in interdisciplinary and fieldwork-based humanities methods that explore the intersection of the arts, everyday life, and social justice.

Prof. Puri co-founded the Pitt Prison Education Project. She is the author of The Grenada Revolution in the Caribbean Present: Operation Urgent Memory and the award-winning The Caribbean Postcolonial: Social Equality, Post-Nationalism, and Cultural Hybridity. She has co-edited Theorizing Fieldwork in the Humanities: Methods, Reflections, and Approaches to the Global South and several other books. She also edits Palgrave Macmillan’s New Caribbean Studies series. Currently, she is working on a book titled “Poetics for Freshwater Justice”.

As part of her Fulbright-Nehru project, Prof. Puri is collaborating with scholars at Ashoka University to explore how a comparative study of the Caribbean and India can reframe postcolonial studies and build enduring mechanisms for south–south exchange. The specific foci of the collaboration is research, teaching, advising, and capacity building to facilitate a cross-regional study of migration, environmentalisms, and water justice using the lens of literature and interdisciplinary humanities.

Sulapha Peethamparan

Dr. Sulapha Peethamparan is a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Clarkson University, New York. She received her PhD from Purdue University, MEng from the National University of Singapore, MS from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, and BTech from Mahatma Gandhi University, all in civil engineering. Prior to joining Clarkson University, she was a postdoctoral research fellow at Princeton University. Dr. Peethamparan has over 15 years of research and teaching experience in cement, aggregate, and concrete materials. Her recent work involves various aspects of the development of alternative or low carbon concrete such as high-volume fly ash concrete, bio-cement concrete, alkali-activated or geopolymers concrete. The primary objectives of these studies are to determine the fresh, hardened, and durability performances of such low carbon concrete and their underlying physiochemical mechanisms. Her expertise also includes CO2/NOx sequestration technologies in concrete. Dr. Peethamparan’s research work has been supported by various agencies that include the National Science Foundation, the Federal Highway Administration, New York State Energy Research and Department Authority, and New York State Pollution Prevention Institute. She has authored/co-authored over 100 technical papers and reports. Dr. Peethamparan is also an associate editor of the ASCE Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, chair of the Concrete Research Counsel at the American Concrete Institute, and fellow of the American Concrete Institute. She is a recipient of the 2010 National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development award.

The environmental impact of CO2 emission from portland cement production and the role of the concrete industry in global warming sparked the need to develop more sustainable, alternative low carbon concrete for construction. India, the second-largest cement producer in the world, reported an emission of over 250 million metric tons of CO2 in the year 2020. The main objective of this Fulbright research is to explore the viability of producing low carbon portland cement-free geopolymer concrete using locally available industrial byproducts in India and solid alkali activators through the one-part alkali activation technology. In her project, Dr. Peethamparan is also developing new course material covering several alternative cement technologies.

Ram Mohan

Prof. Ram Mohan earned a bachelor’s (honors) in chemistry from Hansraj College in Delhi; a master’s in organic chemistry from the University of Delhi; and a doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of Maryland, Baltimore. He did postdoctoral work at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and started his career at Illinois Wesleyan University (IWU) in 1996 where he is currently the Wendell and Loretta Hess Professor of Chemistry. Professor Mohan has taught a variety of courses at IWU ranging from nursing chemistry to organic chemistry, advanced organic chemistry, and a physical science course titled “Better Living through Green Chemistry”. Due to his efforts, there has been a significant reduction in the waste generated in the chemistry labs at IWU and also in the use of toxic chemicals; he has also been responsible for the greening of the labs. His research focuses on green organic synthesis using bismuth compounds. His contributions in this field have led to a surge in popularity of bismuth compounds worldwide.

Prof. Mohan has published 66 manuscripts, the majority co-authored by IWU students, and many highly cited. He has also facilitated the receipt of over USD 1 million in external funding. Besides, he has given over 130 talks in 16 countries. He is also the recipient of several awards, including: the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry Young Observer Award; the University of Maryland, Baltimore County 2002 Distinguished Alumni Award; the Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award; the Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Green Chemistry Award; the Chemist of the Year 2011 title; the Fulbright Teacher Scholar Award 2012; and the American Chemical Society’s Committee on Environmental Improvement Award for Incorporating Sustainability into Chemistry Education.

Prof. Mohan’s Fulbright-Nehru project is pursuing both teaching and research in India. At St. Joseph’s University in Bangalore, he is teaching a course on green chemistry, while in the research component, he is collaborating with Professor Chelvam Venkatesh at the Indian Institute of Technology Indore. The goal of the research is to develop environmentally friendly synthesis of molecules for HIV diagnosis. In addition, a lecture series titled “Better Living through the Practice of Green Chemistry” is being offered in many colleges and universities across India, especially in the rural areas.

Nandini Deo

Dr. Nandini Deo is an associate professor of political science at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA. She is the author of Mobilizing Religion and Gender in India, the co-author (along with Duncan McDuie Ra) of The Politics of Collective Advocacy in India: Tools and Traps, and has edited a volume called Postsecular Feminisms: Gender and Religion in Transnational Perspective. Currently, she is finishing work on a monograph on civil society and corporate collaboration in India. In 2022, Dr. Deo was awarded Lehigh’s highest teaching award. She is also an advocate of student collaboration in curriculum development and her latest interest is in unconventional educational experiments – unschooling and self-directed education.

In Mumbai, as part of her Fulbright-Nehru project, Dr. Deo is sharing findings from her research on the aftermath of the 2013 revisions to the Indian Companies Act which created a new arena of corporate social responsibility. These revisions require large corporations to donate at least 2 per cent of their annual profits to social causes and strongly encourage them to partner with NGOs. The result has been a huge influx of corporate funding and influence in the social inclusion and sustainable development spheres. Through her project, based on insights from business leaders, NGO activists, and the new intermediaries who connect them, Dr. Deo is showing that this influence is not reciprocal – that is, corporate social responsibility seems to change NGOs more than it changes the businesses involved in it. Besides, as an award-winning teacher, she is also sharing exciting pedagogical approaches with colleagues who want to explore “ungrading” and “student-centered” and “active learning” curriculum designs. She is expecting that her work will build connections with the faculty in India wherein an annual U.S.–India course can be created and co-taught which will benefit the students of both her home and host universities.