USA Fellows Year: U.S. Fellows 2023-2024

Zachary Marhanka

Zachary Marhanka graduated from the University of Virginia in May 2022 with double majors in economics and global studies on environments and sustainability, and a minor in statistics. Under the Department of Economics Distinguished Majors Program, Zachary wrote an empirical thesis analyzing the adoption of community solar systems and their financial consequences for U.S. households. He further synthesized nationwide low-income solar policies and their application to his home state of Virginia for his global studies major capstone project. As an undergraduate and as a lawyer in his university’s judiciary committee, Zachary defended students accused of conduct violations. He also assisted fellow community residents as a volunteer income tax assistant. Besides, he was an editor for the Virginia Policy Review, a university policy journal. Outside of management consulting stints, Zachary has held internships with the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, the office of Congressman Gerry Connolly, and the United States Census Bureau. After graduating, he worked as a research assistant in development economics topics, analyzing tax collection data and gender-focused surveys in South Asia. He currently works as an analyst for ICF International where he assists the U.S. Department of Energy and several state governments in identifying energy supply-chain vulnerabilities. These experiences emphasize Zachary’s goal to pursue a career in energy and environmental policymaking, specifically around topics of energy justice and the development of community-centered renewable energy systems.

In his free time, Zachary enjoys hiking, cooking, playing volleyball, and gardening.

For his Fulbright-Nehru research project, Zachary is using a mixed survey and interview design to assess solar pump deployment within the Pandharpur tehsil of Maharashtra. In partnership with SVERI and Sobus Insight Forum, his research is engaging farmers in the 103 villages surrounding Pandharpur to collect data on solar adopter demographics and financial statements. Zachary’s work will provide a case study on solar irrigation and its consequences for agricultural businesses. The project’s output will also contribute to SVERI’s understanding of renewable energy deployment among local businesses, as well as provide a path toward the refinement of rural energy policy.

Sahita Manda

Sahita Manda is a recent graduate of the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health with a BS in public health sciences and a minor in biochemistry. She has had a longtime interest in working with people with disabilities, both through her research exploring stigma and neurodiversity as well as through her volunteer work. Sahita is also greatly interested in health policy and has interned at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. She hopes to pursue a career as a physician by integrating the principles of medicine and public health.

For her Fulbright-Nehru fellowship, Sahita is conducting nine months of research at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Bengaluru, India. She is exploring parental perspectives and experiences related to seeking clinical and non-clinical services for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD); she is also examining the navigation of the physical, sexual, cognitive, social, and emotional changes that come with adolescence. Sahita is also studying the lived experiences of adolescents with ASD. Using aggregated data from semi-structured interviews, she is identifying the current gaps in services and opportunities for this population, with the eventual goal of informing the development of culturally appropriate, holistic care.

Tsering Lhamo

Tsering Lhamo is a first-generation Tibetan-American PhD student. Her research is taking place under the guidance of Dr. Emily Yeh at the Geography Department of the University of Colorado Boulder. Coming from an interdisciplinary background in international development and global health, Tsering’s research interests center on the intersections of sustainable development, political ecology, traditional medicines, and cross-border trade within the Himalayan region. As an American India Foundation (AIF) William J. Clinton Fellow from 2017–2018, Tsering worked with the Maternal and Newborn Survival Initiative (MANSI) to conduct baseline research and interventions on reproductive health among adolescents in underserved female populations in rural mountain communities in Uttarakhand, India. Trained in biomedical sciences, Tsering has worked as a laboratory associate at the Yale New Haven Hospital. She has also served as an AmeriCorps volunteer where she tutored young students from underprivileged communities in Washington, D.C. Tsering holds a master’s degree in international development from the Graduate Institute in Geneva, Switzerland, where she specialized in environmental sustainability and global health. She holds a bachelor’s degree in international studies with a minor in biology from the American University in Washington, D.C. Tsering is also a recipient of the U.S. Department of Education’s 2023 Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship for studying Nepali language.

Found in the Himalayas, the caterpillar fungus is an assemblage of organisms composed of a fungal body protruding from the head of its moth larva host. Valued within Chinese medicine and in biopharmaceuticals for its therapeutic functions, the fungus has been worth more than its weight in gold on the market. As a result, the fungus collection and trade are a source of as much as 50-90% of cash income for the Bhutia, Lepcha, Nepalese, and Tibetan people who participate in the fungus harvest and trade in the Indian Himalayas. However, not much is known about the caterpillar fungus trade in the Eastern Indian Himalayas. Tsering’s research seeks to understand the lived experiences of Himalayan communities in Siliguri region of North Bengal in the larger West Bengal state, using the caterpillar fungus trade as an analytical tool. Tsering will be working under the guidance of Dr. Swatasiddha Sarkar from the Centre for Himalayan Studies at North Bengal University in Siliguri, West Bengal. Dr. Sarkar’s expertise in the regional geography combined with his scholarship on labor and ethnicity will be paramount to my research on the caterpillar fungus trade in the region.

Shirley Kim-Ryu

Shirley Kim-Ryu is a filmmaker and poet based in Los Angeles and Seoul. By oscillating between genres and mediums, Shirley’s work generates an energy of the primordial, deeply rooted in improvisation, chaos, and arriving in land-based rituals and practices.

A recent poetry fellow of the VONA (Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation) workshop, the Juniper Institute for Young Writers, and the Disquiet Literary Program, Shirley holds an MFA in film direction (from UCLA) and an MFA in poetry (from California Institute of the Arts), and has been the recipient of the 2022 LEF Moving Image Fund, the Fritt Ord Fund, the Nordisk Kulturfond OPSTART, the Vikken Fund, the Norwegian Film Institute Award, the James Bridges Award in Film Directing, the Hollywood Foreign Press Award, and the Mary Pickford Award. Shirley’s films have been screened in international film festivals.

Shirley is a co-founder of the LA-based Solano Film Collective which creates various forms of films, including in collaborations with LA-based arts organizations like Archeffect Design, MOCA, and Clockshop.

Shirley’s Fulbright-Nehru research project involves working in kinship with the lived culture of the ritual dance theyyam in Kannur, Kerala. In the context of an intersection between Korean and Indian indigenous spirits, she is exploring artistic inquiries and getting closer to a deeper understanding of artistic roots and their identity in multiplicity. In this regard, she is seeking answers to questions such as: how does theyyam process the idea of gender in the language of nature; how does it function in the community to serve its members; and how has it digested the communal blues caused by colonialism, class, and patriarchy?

Anagha Kikkeri

Anagha Kikkeri has a passion for education, community engagement, and public service. At the University of Texas (UT) at Austin, Anagha was the first woman of Indian descent to be elected as the student body president; she graduated from UT as a Distinguished Scholar in the liberal arts honors program in May 2021.

During her undergraduate years, Anagha garnered numerous honors, fellowships, scholarships, and awards. She was recognized as the Outstanding Senior of the Class of 2021 and was also selected to be part of the Dean’s Dozen by the Office of the Dean of Students. In 2020, she received the prestigious Hyperion Award for her exceptional contributions to the university community. Anagha was inducted into Pi Sigma Alpha and also became a member of the Order of Omega.

Anagha actively engages in extracurricular and community activities. She was a member of the LBJ Women’s Campaign School. She has held positions of leadership, such as the chairwoman of the Auditing Committee for the Texas State Society and the vice president of Diversity and Inclusion for the Texas University Panhellenic Council. Notably, Anagha delivered a commencement address to an audience of over 30,000 people at UT in 2021. She also performed a personal narrative of her life experiences as a woman in the show “Amplify”.

In terms of professional experience, Anagha has made significant contributions to the political arena. She worked as a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion associate and also served as a Mobilization Program coordinator at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in Washington, D.C. Besides, she has served as a healthcare staff assistant to Senator Dianne Feinstein, thereby connecting with upwards of two million Californians.

Anagha’s other interests include boxing, painting, the Spanish language, mehndi, South Asian history, basketball, piano, and Frida Kahlo’s art.

Anagha’s Fulbright-Nehru research project is studying what young, urban, university-attending women believe about how they can break the glass ceiling in politics. For this, she is examining the structural causes behind the “glass ceiling”, the levels of political awareness, and the pathways forward for young Indian women. In this context, she is conducting interviews with women from diverse backgrounds. The project is significant because its results can help empower young women to shatter the glass ceiling.

Aruna Kharod

Aruna Kharod is an ethnomusicology PhD candidate at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin. She holds an MMus in ethnomusicology (2021) as well as a dual BA in Hindi language and literature and South Asian studies, all from UT Austin. Aruna’s doctoral dissertation examines transnational exchanges and histories of the sitar-making industry. Her research has been published in the International Journal of Traditional Arts and has been generously supported by the Smithsonian Summer Institute in Museum Anthropology, the Presser Foundation, Texas Folklife, and UT Austin’s most prestigious doctoral research award, the Donald D. Harrington Dissertation Fellowship (2022–23).

As a performing artist, Aruna is trained in Hindustani music and bharatanatyam dance. She studied sitar under the guidance of Professor Emeritus Stephen Slawek, a senior disciple of the late Pandit Ravi Shankar. She is currently under the training of renowned sitarist Vidushi Sahana Banerjee. Aruna teaches and performs bharatanatyam in central Texas as part of her guru, Dr. Sreedhara Akkihebbalu’s Kaveri Natya Yoga School of Bharatanatyam. She has also studied bharatanatyam and odissi intensively in India. Besides, Aruna has performed and taught Javanese gamelan for over five years.

Aruna is an ethnographic storyteller who is passionate about intergenerational and community-based work. Her notable projects include leading a project on Partition Songs in the Indian-American diaspora (2021); being involved in a digital humanities resource program on American sitar-making (2022); and being part of a mentorship programming series for women PhD students (2023). Aruna is also a photographer and budding documentary maker who focuses on hereditary and traditional luthiers and artists in the U.S. and India, as well as on intergenerational South Asian-American life. As an arts educator, Aruna leads and develops programming for audiences in public libraries, schools, senior centers, and museums around central Texas. She has worked as an artist-in-residence (Blanton Museum of Art, 2017), public outreach and programming liaison (Humanities Texas, 2021), and as a qualitative research consultant (Jugal’s Literature Festival, 2023).

Aruna’s Fulbright-Nehru project is studying sitar performance through individualized, immersive, traditional taalim, or training, under the tutelage of Vidushi Sahana Banerjee. She is also practicing the nuances of improvisatory techniques and musical theory as rooted in Banerjee’s distinctive interpretation of the Rampur Senia gharana.

Markal Kelly

Markal Kelly, a Miami, Florida, native, was raised in Broward County. He is a recent graduate from Morehouse College where he studied international affairs and Portuguese. Previously, he worked for the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the Office of Economic and Regional Affairs in the Bureau of African Affairs. He recently concluded his internship with Global Ties where he contributed to the global projects proposed by the exchange alumni.

Markal is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the Gilman Scholarship, the Frederick Douglass Global Fellowship, the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange Scholarship, the United States Foreign Service Two-year Internship, and the Charles B. Rangel Scholarship. Additionally, he has been named a Panda Cares Scholar, an Oprah Winfrey Scholar, and an Exchange Alumni Ambassador. Markal aspires to become a diplomat and promote international education. Following his Fulbright experience, he plans to attend Johns Hopkins University in Italy to receive his master’s in international service as a Thomas R. Pickering fellow.

Since Markal believes that “how we live” is intrinsically related to “how we die”, his Fulbright-Nehru study relates the notions of life and death. His research is examining how social systems like religion were created to answer life’s existential problems and how sacred religious rituals are to different civilizations. Markal’s research in India is set to provide a deep understanding of Hinduism, its ethical–philosophical discourses, and the economic implications of Indian death rites. He is also investigating how societal systems, such as India’s caste hierarchy, influence how and what behaviors people engage in, based on their financial and social standing. Besides, he is evaluating how globalization, changes inside India, and even global conflicts have affected traditions and practices. Through this research, he will also be concluding his narrative about one of the holiest towns in the world for Hindus, Varanasi, which is ironically regarded as a place where people come to both “live” and “die”. By the end of his research, Markal hopes to have properly identified and comprehended the narratives of death rites that are inherent to the Hindu scriptures.

Vincent Kelley

Vincent Kelley is a PhD candidate in music studies at the University of Pennsylvania with interests in South Asian music, global jazz, social theory, music and religion, and the history of ethnomusicology. He received a BA in religious studies from Grinnell College in 2016 and an MMus in musicology and ethnomusicology from King’s College London in 2019. Vincent wrote his master’s thesis on the historical, aesthetic, and social relationships among the tabla, naqqara, and kathak performers in North India, which he is currently revising for publication. He has performed on drum set and tabla in jazz, Hindustani, and popular music settings in the United States and India. Vincent is also interested in Hindi, Urdu, and Persian languages and literature, and has received the American Institute of Indian Studies fellowship to study Urdu and the Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowship to study Persian. Vincent’s PhD research focuses on the political economy and aesthetics of jazz, Hindustani music, and Indo-jazz fusion in the late-twentieth century.

Vincent’s Fulbright-Nehru project is investigating jazz in post-Independence India through the lens of the Jazz Yatra music festivals held in Mumbai and Delhi from 1978 to 2003. The Jazz Yatra promoted the interaction between Indian classical music and jazz, and became the longest-running jazz festival in the world outside of the United States and Europe. For the project, Vincent is employing oral historical, ethnographic, and archival research methodologies to understand how pivotal economic, political, and cultural transitions in late-twentieth century India and the United States were influenced by and through the Jazz Yatra festival.

Rachel Jones

Rachel Jones graduated recently from Stony Brook University with a bachelor’s degree in biology, alongside a minor in international and South Asian studies. For the past three years, due to her interest in clinical research, she has been working in an orthopedics lab as a research assistant. Four of Rachel’s works have been published in indexed journals. She also received the URECA (Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities) Summer Fellowship in 2022 which enabled her to carry out full-time faculty-mentored research for 10 weeks. Besides, she has served as a research mentor to underclassmen pursuing guided research of their own. Rachel has also presented her findings twice at the annual spring symposium of Stony Brook University. Her interest in South Asian studies led her to establish her presence in the Mattoo Center for India Studies at Stony Brook. In addition to volunteering at the center and helping with hosting events, she served as a teaching assistant for Indian civilization and linguistic classes. She also received the Vineeth Johnsingh Memorial Scholarship in 2022 for demonstrating outstanding academic potential and promise to foster a better understanding of the Indian civilization.

Rachel’s Fulbright-Nehru research project is studying the socioeconomic impact of parental cancer on resilience in Indian children. While the socioeconomic impact of cancer diagnosis on an adult is well documented, there is little literature on the effect of parental cancer on a child’s development. With India’s rise in cancer burden and rapid increase in population, Rachel is conducting her project in the state of Kerala under the guidance of oncologist, Dr. Aju Mathew. The goal of the project is to extend the findings of this unique study and formulate social interventions to alleviate the effects of parental cancer on children.

Jennifer John Britto

Jennifer Britto is from Alpharetta, Georgia. She graduated from the University of Georgia with a double major in biochemistry and molecular biology, and women’s studies in the spring of 2023. Her passion for reproductive justice and women’s health led her to be a part of the Athens Reproductive Justice Collective Fellowship where she got the opportunity to work with local commissioners and do policy proposals. She is currently in the process of getting her paper, “The Significance of Researcher Positionality throughout the Research Process”, published in The Classics Journal. Courtesy her fellowship in the Public Service and Outreach Student Scholars Program, she has learnt to explore and engage with the Athens community. Due to this immersive involvement with the community, she won the Senior Leadership of Excellence Award in her women’s studies major. She hopes that the present Fulbright research project will support her in her aspiration to become a gynecologist and give her a global perspective on health inequity.

The Indian state of Tamil Nadu has vastly improved in increasing menstrual resource access to its population, which is reflected in its high ranking in the health index. However, the health of its population varies across regions, indicating that the intersectionality of factors like location, socioeconomic status, and gender creates discrepancies in access to resources like menstrual health education. For her Fulbright-Nehru project, Jennifer is conducting interviews with adolescent girls of marginalized communities in Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli and Virudhunagar districts to develop an understanding of how disproportionate access to resources and the sway of social taboos shape their perceptions of menstruation. The interviews are also being analyzed thematically.