Fulbright-Nehru Student Research Program Archives - Page 12 of 14

Sandhya Kumar

Sandhya Kumar received an MPH in health policy with a concentration in global health from the Yale School of Public Health in May 2024. She was part of the accelerated five-year BA/MPH program and received her bachelor’s degree in global affairs and global health from Yale College. She grew up in Rochester, Minnesota.

At Yale, Sandhya volunteered with the Neighborhood Health Project in New Haven to provide free blood pressure and blood sugar screening at a food pantry and also led a summer international relations and leadership institute for high schoolers; she was also co-president of the South Asian Society.

Sandhya has interned with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau on Population, Refugees, and Migration in Washington, D.C., working on initiatives related to sexual and reproductive health. She has also interned with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance in Geneva, where she worked on routine immunization projects.

Sandhya’s Fulbright-Nehru project is studying the sexual and reproductive health of women migrants in Mumbai. The existing studies on COVID-19’s impact on India have overlooked the gendered effects of pandemic-fueled migration, notably in the area of sexual and reproductive health (SRH). Sandhya’s project is assessing women migrants’ access to SRH services, including to sexually transmitted infection screenings, family planning, and maternal care. In this context, she is engaging with local organizations that assist Mumbai’s migrant workers, interviewing women migrants, and understanding state and local government responses.

Anushka Kulkarni

Anushka Kulkarni is a PhD candidate in musicology at UC Davis. She holds a bachelor’s degree in music in vocal performance and music history from the University of Delaware. Her primary research interests are in 18th-century opera, Rabindra Sangeet, and postcolonial studies. Her dissertation, “The Empire Sings Back: Operatic Histories of British-Indian Colonial Encounter”, engages in a transnational study of both European opera and Bengali musical drama, and their intersections with the empire. Anushka’s research has been supported by the UC Davis Dean’s Graduate Summer Fellowship. In 2023, she was the recipient of a Critical Language Scholarship.

In her Fulbright-Nehru project, Anushka is conducting archival work at the National Library, the West Bengal State Archives, and Asiatic Society, all situated in Kolkata, as well as at the Rabindra Bhavan Library and Archives in Santiniketan. This archival research will contribute to her dissertation on opera and British-Indian colonial encounter in 19th- and 20th-century Calcutta. Her work is also examining the complex and often contradictory representations of coloniality in musical drama. Besides, she is accessing primary source material on the presence and reception of Italian opera in 19th-century Calcutta as well as on the musical drama, or gitinatya, of the Bengali polymath, Rabindranath Tagore.

Anna Kozan

Anna Kozan is graduating in May 2024 with a BS in nursing and a BA in Spanish language studies from Ramapo College of New Jersey (RCNJ). In her Spanish studies program, she conducted research on the intersection of language and health, and the potentially detrimental outcomes that can occur when patients speak a different language from their care providers. In 2023, she completed a Critical Language Scholarship (CLS), Spark, to study Russian. She is now volunteering as a CLS alumni ambassador and advertising the program through social media and by hosting events. She has been working as a patient care technician at a hospital in New Jersey since October 2022 and developing her clinical skills to help her in her career as a nurse. Anna also works as a Spanish tutor at Ramapo College. Besides, she is the social media chair of the RCNJ Spanish Club. She is also a member of the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing and of the Sigma Delta Pi National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society. Anna is fluent in Spanish and holds an intermediate mid-proficiency in Russian, as well as a novice high proficiency in Arabic and the American Sign Language. She is also a choreographer and performer for the RCNJ Dance Company.

In her Fulbright-Nehru project, Anna is researching if language barriers in India’s Karnataka state is affecting patient care, health literacy, and health outcomes. Working with Dr. Archana Siddaiah at St. John’s Medical College in Bengaluru, she is interviewing healthcare workers at the college to determine their experiences with language barriers and patient care. She is also interviewing patients to find out whether they are experiencing problems in care due to language barriers. The goal of the project is to implement community-based solutions for the issues that are identified.

Harini Kannan

Harini Kannan is a student at Harvard University, graduating in Spring 2024 with a BS in mechanical engineering. Her interests lie at the intersection of engineering and medicine, with a specific emphasis on pediatrics and neurodevelopment. This is driven by her research in the following areas: development of robotic wearable systems for rehabilitation; assessing early mobility in global hospitals; volunteer work with underprivileged children in Cambridge and Boston communities; and organizing recreational programs for children with disabilities. She hopes to pursue a career in medicine and develop medical devices to help pediatric populations.

Harini’s Fulbright-Nehru project is building upon her experience working with children with cortical visual impairment (CVI) where it is difficult to identify its symptoms when it’s present alongside autism. For her research, she is working with the Low Vision Center at Aravind Eye Institute, Madurai, to develop the first autism-standardized CVI diagnostic tool and implement it. Using the currently administered assessments, she is identifying the visual skill impairments with the highest correspondence to a CVI diagnosis. She is also developing an app in the form of a mobile game to act as at-home visual rehabilitation to improve visual abilities that are impacted by CVI.

Mohnish Judge

Mohnish Judge is a Tibetan Indian American graduate of Oregon State University with a major in economics and minors in religious studies and linguistics. He is interested in the intersections of language, cultural identity, and political advocacy. As an undergraduate, he conducted research on Tibetan honorifics as part of his honors thesis, founded and led the Himalayan Student Association on his campus, and worked to provide low-income housing in his community.

For his Fulbright-Nehru project, Mohnish is investigating the mechanisms through which media functions, connects, and interacts with the Tibetan diaspora communities. Using a linguistic and communicative lens, he is examining the production and consumption of the media created by the Tibetan government-in-exile by conducting interviews and surveys, and through discursive and rhetorical analyses. The aim is to contribute to the current scholarship surrounding media, diaspora studies, imperialism, and cultural preservation.

Isabel Huesa

Isabel Huesa graduated summa cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis with a BA in anthropology, global health, and the environment, and minors in biology and South Asian languages and cultures. She wrote her senior honors thesis on the history of fossil fuel divestment campaigns at higher education institutions. A proud alumna of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, Isabel’s interests lie at the intersection of social justice, the environment, and health disparities. She dedicated her undergraduate career to understanding disease impact and harm reduction in marginalized communities; expanding student mental healthcare access; fighting for social justice; and examining Washington University’s role within the greater St. Louis. An advocate at heart, Isabel has mentored students as a mental health peer counselor, advised university leadership as the undergraduate representative to WashU’s Board of Trustees, and – in the wake of Missouri’s statewide abortion ban – led outreach efforts for Planned Parenthood. A critical language scholar, Isabel spent over six years learning Hindi. As a climate justice advocate, Isa participated in the United Nations’ 28th Conference of the Parties and also worked as a student consultant in the Interdisciplinary Environmental Law Clinic at WashU Law.

In her Fulbright-Nehru project, Isabel is in Delhi studying mental telehealth interventions in the HIV care continuum. She is evaluating and analyzing the efficacy of the existing 24/7 NACP (National AIDS Control Program) phone counseling service by examining the frequency of use by MSM (Men Who Have Sex with Men), the perceived effects of the phone counseling, and the patterns of HIV transmission and treatment in Delhi among MSM before and after such counseling.

Andrew Gordan

Andrew Gordan studies international relations with a focus on South Asia. He received an AB in government from Harvard University in 2024. In 2023, he received a Boren Scholarship to study Hindi and Urdu in Lucknow, India. As an undergraduate, Andrew worked across think tanks and research centers, including the Council on Foreign Relations, the Wilson Center, Harvard’s Negotiation Task Force, and Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law.

Andrew’s Fulbright-Nehru research project is exploring the role of elite attitudes and narratives in the making of Indian foreign policy, especially in relation to India’s rising power status. For this purpose, based in Delhi, he is conducting interviews, media analysis, and archival research.

Shaili Gandhi

Shaili Gandhi is passionate about improving the health and well-being of underserved populations, with a particular commitment to people who use drugs, people living with mental illness, and immigrant communities. Shaili received her undergraduate degree from New York University in 2020 and completed her master’s in public health with a concentration in community health from the City University of New York in 2022. While completing her MPH, she worked for the Viral Hepatitis Program at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Health where she supported Hepatitis B and C care navigation programs. During this time, she helped facilitate a space for peer and patient navigators to stay abreast of relevant policy changes, created meaningful referral relationships, and troubleshot cases. Moreover, upon noticing a dearth of resources tailored to the South Asian community in New York, she and her colleagues worked together to develop the South Asian Hepatitis Initiative (SAHI). After her master’s, Shali joined the New York University Health x Housing Lab as a research coordinator. There, she developed her qualitative research skills by conducting an evaluation of a telephone-based nurse triage service in NYC homeless shelters. She is presently using community-engaging research methods to better understand the pathways to housing for older homeless adults. Throughout her academic and professional career, Shaili has been interested in how activism and community organizing can be used to build communities of care from the ground up.

In her Fulbright-Nehru project, Shaili is exploring the intersecting objectives of feminism, labor activism, and health activism through a case study of India’s Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA). SEWA implements a health service delivery model that simultaneously serves the community and promotes economic independence for their health workers by training grassroots organizers to provide health services within their own villages. Shaili is using qualitative methods to understand how SEWA has traversed the boundary between trade union and public health without sacrificing the core components of either. Her research aims to shed light on how to build sustainable, community-led solutions to promote health security for all.

Christopher Gadomski

Christopher Gadomski graduated with a major in neuroscience and behavioral biology and a minor in religion from Emory University where he studied the epigenetic underpinnings of Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. During his time there, he volunteered as an advanced emergency medical technician and also served as the technical director for Emory’s internet Radio Station, WMRE. Since graduation, he has been researching in the area of neuroimmunology of brain metastases using computational and in vitro techniques. He plans to pursue a career in medicine and increase healthcare accessibility for the marginalized communities.

For more than 60 years, the Tibetan people have lived in exile to escape forced secularization and preserve their way of life. And they have succeeded despite immense hardship, as illustrated by the fact that their unique culture and religious practices now thrive in Dharamshala and around the world. What underlies this resilience against persecution and displacement? Chris’s Fulbright-Nehru project is helping to document, preserve, and promote the oral histories of the Tibetan exile community. This documentation of life in exile – past, present, and future – may provide an insight into how to cultivate resilience in other refugee communities and instill the values of compassion and well-being in the face of hardship.

Joseph Engmark

Joseph Engmark is pursuing his PhD in mathematical statistics from the Department of Mathematics at the University of Maryland. His research interests focus on design-based probability sample surveys. Since 2018, Joseph has been working in the Center for Statistical Research and Methodology at the U.S. Census Bureau. Prior to joining the bureau, he taught mathematics at secondary schools in Liberia and Malawi as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer. Joseph has a broad interest in nature, cultural exchange, and the global community.

Under the Fulbright-Nehru fellowship, John is collaborating with researchers at the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata. The research project is focusing on capture-recapture methods, a survey sampling technique used to estimate totals in a finite population. These methods are widely used in practice, including in epidemiology, wildlife conservation, and official statistics, such as a census.