Fulbright-Nehru Grant Categorys USA: Fulbright-Nehru Student Research Program

Riaan Dhankhar

Riaan Dhankhar studies international relations, focusing on South Asia and European affairs. He graduated with a BA in international relations from Pomona College in 2025. As an undergraduate, he interned at the Wilson Center, the U.S. Department of State, and the U.S. Congress. During his time at the State Department, Riaan served as a liaison officer at the 75th Anniversary NATO Summit which helped him develop a keen interest in studying how states, especially in the Indo-Pacific, can develop closer ties through strategic security-driven multilateral cooperation.

He was born in Mumbai and grew up in New Jersey.

Riaan’s Fulbright-Nehru project, “India’s Centrality to a Resurgent QUAD”, is investigating Indo-U.S. military engagement within the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) forum. Conducted in affiliation with Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, his research is analyzing historical dynamics, contemporary policies, and future strategic scenarios shaping QUAD relations.

Aidan Cox

Aidan Cox, a graduate of the University of South Florida, earned a summa cum laude degree in anthropology and world languages and cultures, with a concentration in applied linguistics and French and Francophone studies. His passion lies in the worldwide preservation and revitalization of minority language. Aidan has conducted linguistic research on Telugu, French, Spanish, and other languages. He has presented his findings at English and French conferences. His focus has been on the Telugu-speaking region of South India, a unique area for linguistic study. His previous projects include “Properly Cheppu: Early Balanced Bilingualism in a Telugu-English Household”, “Pedagogy of Telugu Verb Structure”, and “A Linguistic Sketch of Telugu”.

Aidan’s Fulbright-Nehru research project is conducting fieldwork in India to deepen understanding of linguistic attitudes and social behaviors. He is integrating methods from sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, and cultural anthropology to develop innovative approaches that benefit minority and tribal populations. Working with the University of Hyderabad, he is specifically exploring interactions in the Kui language among the Kandha tribe in order to examine language’s role in identity, cultural heritage, and indigeneity. He is also analyzing Kui language-use patterns, including ideologies surrounding the language. One of the aims of the project is to combat the decline of endangered languages.

Jahnavi Chamarthi

Jahnavi Chamarthi is a recent graduate of Emory University, where she earned a BA in political science with a minor in predictive health. A member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and Emory’s 100 Senior Honorary, she was awarded the highest honors for her thesis investigating how the intersectional representation of women from Scheduled Caste and Tribe backgrounds in Indian state legislatures influences budgetary and legislative outcomes on healthcare and education policies for lower caste women. Drawing on theories of descriptive and substantive representation, her work introduced an original quantitative index to assess how identity-based leadership shapes legislative priorities.

Jahnavi’s interdisciplinary approach to research is reflected in her forthcoming co-authored article, “Cultivating Attentiveness to Law in India through Legal Anthropology”, in the Socio-Legal Review. At Emory, she served as a research assistant at the School of Law, a staff writer for the Emory Political Review, and as an intern at the Center for Civic and Community Engagement. Her leadership roles in Emory’s South Asian cultural and dance organizations further underscore her commitment to building inclusive, collaborative spaces rooted in cultural identity.

Jahnavi’s Fulbright-Nehru research is building directly on her undergraduate thesis. Through interviews with legislators, policy advocates, and public health stakeholders, she is examining how caste and gender influence the implementation – not just adoption – of maternal health programs in Tamil Nadu. She is exploring how women from marginalized caste backgrounds in legislative bodies, who share identities with their constituents, translate descriptive representation into substantive policy advocacy and implementation. The study is also examining the effects of India’s quota systems, which reserve seats for lower caste individuals and women. Using a mixed-methods approach, the research is analyzing stakeholder interviews and quantitative data on healthcare access in order to assess maternal healthcare implementation in districts of varying intersectional representation. Her project aims to advance a deeper understanding of intersectional political representation and its potential to drive more equitable public health outcomes in Tamil Nadu.

Anjali Brown

Anjali Brown is an honors graduate of the University of Michigan, where she earned a BA in philosophy while completing a rigorous pre-medical curriculum. A multiple-year James B. Angell Scholar, Anjali pairs humanistic inquiry with empirical research to address global mental health inequities. At Michigan Medicine, she worked under Dr. Maria Muzik on the NIH-funded prenatal stress and postpartum studies, performing EEG acquisition, clinical intakes, and longitudinal data analysis on mother–infant dyads. Previously, she had co-led a 3,000-participant wearable-sensor study of resident physicians in the Sen Lab to produce actionable insights into disability and burnout in medical training.

Beyond the laboratory, Anjali directs evidence-based service initiatives. As a peer counselor, she delivers one-on-one psychological support to fellow students, and as the volunteer team lead for Michigan Medicine’s Hospital Elder Life Program, she trains volunteers and designs engagement protocols that reduce delirium and isolation in older inpatients. She has also co-developed a biodegradable menstrual pad for women in rural Peru. Anjali has won top honors at the Center for Global Health Equity pitch competition and has authored an illustrated menstrual-health guide for girls at the Chinmaya Vijaya Orphanage, Andhra Pradesh, India.

Anjali aspires to become a psychiatrist-researcher who integrates culturally responsive clinical practice with policy-relevant scholarship to advance maternal mental health worldwide.

Anjali’s Fulbright-Nehru project is investigating how maternal depression shapes mother–child interactions in urban India during five years of the postpartum period. Working with Dr. Prabha Chandra at NIMHANS, she is coding and statistically analyzing 300 video recordings from the Bangalore Child Health and Development Study to illuminate how maternal depression shapes mother–child interactions. She is also holding caregiver interviews to supply the sociocultural context. In parallel, she is conducting a systematic study on adolescent perinatal mental health and the impact of neighborhood violence during pregnancy in order to identify policy gaps. Her findings will inform culturally attuned interventions that strengthen community-based maternal mental health services in low-resource settings.

Roshni Bhat

Roshni Bhat received her BS in biopsychology from Tufts University in May 2023. After graduation, she transitioned from her role as an ophthalmic technician to clinical research assistant at Massachusetts Eye and Ear where she joined the Harvard Ophthalmology Metabolomics in Retina (HOMeR) lab, investigating biomarkers for age-related macular degeneration. In this role, she has successfully presented twice at the annual Association of Research in Vision and Ophthalmology conference and most recently at a New England Ophthalmology Society meeting. Prior to her work at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Roshni had worked closely with ophthalmologists across the globe to help organize the first Global Refractive Surgery Summit which addressed systemic and specific barriers to accessing refractive surgery, a procedure that can help reduce preventable blindness stemming from uncorrected refractive error. Roshni has also assisted with education research and program design at Tufts University School of Medicine’s Center for Science Education.

Beyond her professional endeavors, Roshni is a lifelong learner who loves to teach as well. She is a classically trained Bharatanatyam dancer, plays tennis and soccer, and is also a trained violinist and vocalist. She is an avid reader and baker who loves to explore.

Roshni’s Fulbright-Nehru research is evaluating the functional vision outcomes for pediatric retinoblastoma patients in order to provide valuable insight into the current standard of care and the efficacy of new treatments. Based in Mumbai, she is working closely with the physicians at Tata Memorial Hospital to assess whether new technologies that salvage parts of the eye are providing significant functional vision outcomes in retinoblastoma patients.

Hansini Bhasker

Hansini Bhasker is a Tamil (ethno)musicologist, multi-genre vocalist, performer, composer, and improviser from Connecticut who deploys embodied music-making and movement for socio-ecological healing and change. She recently received her master’s in music (performance and ethnomusicology) from Wesleyan University. Earlier, she graduated summa cum laude with a degree in music (composition and musicology) from Princeton University, with certificates in vocal performance, cognitive science, entrepreneurship, and finance. She is a YoungArts winner in Voice and winner of the concerto competition of Wesleyan whose musical practice and research bridge across Karnatak, Western classical opera and early choral repertory, French chanson, jazz, pop, musical theater, gospel, R&B, Kazakh folk, Javanese gamelan, and experimental soundscape and extended vocal techniques. Her master’s thesis explored cross-cultural contrasts, evolutions, and interactions in the use and control of vibration, timbre variation, and pitch oscillation in vocalization. Following her Fulbright year, she will be pursuing a PhD in ethnomusicology, dwelling further on questions related to performers’ identity-making through interactions related to the physical environment, accessibility, and legal and sociocultural contexts. She is an avid lover of food, languages, reading, biking, and “musicking”.

Hansini’s Fulbright-Nehru research project is examining how Karnatak performers in Chennai navigate relations between mind, body, ability, and self; the study is based within three distinct contexts: the Tamil Nadu state; the nation of India; and U.S. diasporic organizations. She believes that the current inflectional moment – which celebrates local artists with disability by combining Indian concepts of disability with Western ideas introduced through migratory diasporic engagement – offers an exceptional and timely case study to explore how people negotiate legal and sociocultural conditions in framing and claiming their identities.

Wasa Ball

Wasa Ball graduated from Columbia University with a BA in linguistics and philosophy, and a minor in anthropology. Her research experiences include experimental linguistics fieldwork as an NSF-IRES fellow in Guadeloupe with Dr. Isabelle Barrière, conducting empirical studies on the understudied French-based Creoles, as well as corpora analysis as an NSF-REU research assistant at the AI4CommSci lab with Dr. Joshua Hartshorne, documenting the endangered languages of Taiwan. Other work experience includes two semesters as a teaching assistant. Her interests lie in the interdisciplinary investigation of language, wherein she traces the global grammatical traditions of linguistics and philosophy to diversify and deepen cross-cultural and cross-historical understanding about the field.

Wasa’s Fulbright-Nehru research project is honing in on the legacy of Sanskrit as a language central to the development of linguistics as a field of study, particularly through vyakarana, or grammatical study in ancient India. She is working primarily with the texts of key grammarians like Panini, Yaska, and Bhartrhari to track the history of linguistic analysis across phonology, morphology, syntax, historical linguistics, and the philosophy of language in the early explorations of human language surfacing in Vedic scholarship and in the traditions of methodological linguistic exploration. Based in Pune, Maharashtra, at Deccan College’s Department of Sanskrit, the project, through literary analysis and synthesis of original Sanskrit sources, is tracing the contributions of Sanskrit linguistics to shed light on its cross-historical and cross-cultural impacts. The project is also seeking innovative ways to apply ancient knowledge to today’s global issues in theoretical linguistics.

Ramya Arumilli

Ramya Arumilli is a recent graduate of Barnard College, where she studied medical anthropology and Sanskrit. Passionate about South Asian medical knowledge systems, expansive modes of healing, and gynecological healthcare, Ramya’s academic interests lie at the intersection of medical anthropology, religion, and feminist science and technology studies.

As a Laidlaw Scholar at Barnard, she studied menstrual health practices in India within the contexts of Ayurveda, Hindu goddess worship, public health interventions, and media representation. Her senior thesis, titled “Religiopolitical Care: Pro- and Anti-Abortion Advocacy in New York City”, was an ethnographic study of abortion-centered religious and political advocacy groups, and of the protest site of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Manhattan. Through these experiences, she was exposed to Hindu and Christian theological conceptions of reproduction in South Asia and the West.

Throughout her undergraduate years, Ramya was a research assistant at the Barnard Center for Research on Women, where she supported and produced feminist research on social movements using archives and oral histories. She was also the co-lead organizer of the Reproductive Justice Collective and a scientific review editor for GYNECA, Columbia University’s undergraduate gynecological health journal. In her free time, she enjoys reading feminist literature, cooking, visiting museums, and practicing yoga.

Ramya’s Fulbright-Nehru research program is studying three significant modes of healing in the Indian Subcontinent – biomedical, spiritual, and indigenous – within the context of fertility treatments in the Telugu-speaking states of India. Her research is based in the cities of Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, and Rajahmundry, where she is analyzing – within the contexts of gender, religious beliefs, political affiliation, locality, caste, and socioeconomic status – the treatment methods chosen by families seeking fertility care. She is also studying cases in which Ayurveda and other forms of traditional medicine (such as Unani, Siddha, naturopathy, and homeopathy) are prioritized, and how this balances with forms of biomedicine such as IVF. Her research is expected to inform the fertility care provided in biomedical contexts, thereby supporting a patient through as many modes as necessary.

Miriam Anderson

Miriam Anderson is a multimedia artist and graduate of The University of Alabama, where she majored in creative media with a minor in The Blount Scholars Program. Her work bridges the worlds of Bharatanatyam dance and film, reflecting her commitment to both performance and storytelling across disciplines.

After training for five years under Sheila Rubin at Natyananda Dance Company in Birmingham, Alabama, Miriam made her Bharatanatyam arangetram (debut) in June 2024. She has performed in diverse settings, including opening for spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar at the BJCC and participating in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s cultural program. She has also represented Natyananda at the Freeform program with The Dance Foundation. Miriam completed the Warrier Foundation Residency from Coimbatore, India, where she immersed herself in the practice and philosophy of Bharatanatyam. In the spring of 2024, she served as lighting designer and stage manager for the U.S. tour of the renowned Bharatanatyam artist Rama Vaidyanathan, where she was part of productions such as New Dimensions and Ratna Garbha.

Miriam’s interdisciplinary practice allows her to merge cultural research, choreographic exploration, and visual media. Whether behind the camera or on stage, she is drawn to projects that invite reflection, preserve tradition, and build new paths for creative engagement. Her work exemplifies a commitment to honoring classical forms while reimagining how they can speak to contemporary audiences.

For her Fulbright-Nehru project, Miriam is studying Bharatanatyam in Delhi. Her project is exploring the expressive and technical depth of Bharatanatyam, with a focus on breath, alignment, and the creation of original choreography. Drawing from her training and experiences as a non-Indian dancer, she is also involved in producing a series of video essays documenting her artistic process and transformation. These essays attempt to offer a behind-the-scenes look at artistic development, cultural immersion, and the disciplined practice of Bharatanatyam as a living, evolving art form rooted in tradition and personal devotion.

Sofya Yuditskaya

Ms. Sofya Yuditskaya is a site-specific media artist, curator, and educator working with sound, video, interactivity, projections, code, paper, and salvaged material. Her work focuses on techno-occult rituals, street performance, and participatory art. Ms. Yuditskaya’s performances enact and reframe hegemonies, she works with materials that exemplify our deep entanglement with petro-culture and technology’s effect on consciousness. She has worked on projects at Eyebeam, 3LD, the Netherlands Institute voor Media Kunst, Steim, ARS Electronica, Games for Learning Institute, The Guggenheim (NYC), The National Mall and has taught at GAFFTA, MoMA, NYU, Srishti, and the Rubin Museum. She is a PhD Candidate in Music Composition at NYU GSAS.

Ms. Yuditskaya Fulbright-Nehru project is focusing on an in-depth, detailed and immersive study of global Noise Music through the lens of the remarkable contemporary Indian contribution to it. Noise Music is vitally important to understand its global forms, structures and driving forces. In today’s measured world, it embodies a fulcrum of technology, chaos, and the sublime. Living and studying in Bangalore offers her a deep insight into the ways that South Indian artists listen to and construct Noise Music. Ms. Yuditskaya aims to develop a rich vocabulary for talking about, and teaching Noise, in the framework of traditional music and in conversation with U.S. musical output.