Archives: Meet Our USA Fulbrighters

David St. John

David St. John is a PhD candidate at the University of California, Riverside, in the Department for the Study of Religion. His research interests include identity-making practices, end-of-life rituals, religious and constitutional law, decolonial theory in South Asia, South Asian history, gendered and ontological knowledge systems, and religious ethics in contemporary practice.

David’s Fulbright-Nehru project is examining the history of Jain identity building and self-representation during India’s late British colonial period. It is focusing on Champat Rai Jain (1867–1942), a leading lay Jain intellectual of the time, who promoted the development of a universal Jain identity. For the project, David is analyzing Champat Rai’s published works, contracts from publishing houses, and other archival materials. The aim of such an analysis is to show how Jain concerns evolved into strategies that shaped the way Jain identity was legally constructed.

Shravya Sompalli

Shravya Sompalli is a graduate of Brown University with an ScB in computer science and ethnic studies. While a researcher in the Human Trafficking Research Cluster at the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice, she worked closely with the grassroots collective Red Canary Song to visualize and communicate changes over the past two decades in the policing of Asian massage work – commonly portrayed as synonymous with human trafficking – in New York. Partly building on this work, Shravya’s senior thesis investigated the integration of technological tools and discourses surrounding the potential of technology in the work of state and corporate anti-trafficking actors while considering the limitations of technological initiatives from the perspective of grassroots organizations.

She also worked in the Sociotechnical Systems and Wellbeing Research Lab (SWRL) at Brown, using mixed computational and qualitative methods to facilitate a greater understanding of how posters on online forums sought help on reproductive health-related concerns in 2024. After graduating, Shravya conducted data and policy work in support of Cook County’s Human Rights Ordinance as an applied data fellow in the county’s Department of Human Rights and Ethics.

Given the growing interest of many international anti-trafficking actors in the potential of interventional technology, Shravya’s Fulbright-Nehru project is examining how anti-trafficking NGOs in Bengaluru are using technology in their victim identification and empowerment initiatives. This project seeks to build an understanding of the perceptions of NGO employees on the efficacy and usability of technological tools. It also aims to find out how users identify and balance potential privacy and security concerns with the adoption of such tools.

Pranav Shibu

Pranav Shibu graduated from Johns Hopkins University in May 2025 with a BS in molecular and cellular biology and public health studies. His coursework spanned molecular biology, biochemistry, cognitive neuroscience, developmental genetics, epidemiology, and qualitative research methods, thus building an interdisciplinary foundation for work at the intersection of laboratory science and community health. Currently, Pranav serves as a mid-level research technician in the Shakkottai Lab at UT Southwestern Medical Center, where he investigates KCNH3 ion channel dysfunction in spinocerebellar ataxia using patch-clamp electrophysiology, stereological analysis, and rotarod behavioral assays in mouse models. His research trajectory has spanned three additional academic laboratories: the Lloyd Lab at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; the Berth/Lloyd Lab at Baylor College of Medicine, where he studied dynactin-related neuromuscular degeneration in drosophila; and the Farah Lab at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

His clinical experience includes four years as a medical assistant at America First Urgent Care in Coppell, Texas, and ongoing work at the Union Gospel Mission Calvert Clinic in Dallas, where he serves an underserved homeless population.

Outside of medicine and research, Pranav competed on the Johns Hopkins NCAA men’s varsity fencing team and coaches young athletes at Go Fence Academy.

Pranav’s Fulbright-Nehru research is examining informal diabetes caregiving in rural Kerala, where India’s second-highest diabetes prevalence places disproportionate burden on family caregivers in resource-poor households. Although 80 percent of this chronic disease care occurs at home, the labor remains largely undocumented in formal healthcare planning. Based at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences in Kochi and working under Dr. Renjith Bhadran, Pranav is conducting trauma-informed, semi-structured interviews with family caregivers, community health workers, and primary care providers across Ernakulam, Palakkad, and Wayanad districts. Drawing on Johns Hopkins public health training and native Malayalam-language fluency, the project will make visible the essential caregiving labor sustaining chronic disease management in resource-constrained settings.

Madhura Shembekar

Madhura Shembekar, originally from Scottsdale, Arizona, is a recent graduate from Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service with a degree in science, technology, and international affairs (concentration: energy/environment), and a minor in Spanish. She has strong research interests in climate adaptation, sustainable urban development, and environmental migration and displacement. She has worked for the Kuskokwim Watershed Coalition, conducting a risk assessment of mercury mobilization in Alaska, and for the Georgetown Climate Center, researching state- and local-level climate adaptation policy.

At Georgetown University, she was awarded honors for completion of a thesis on climate-induced migration and displacement in South Asia. A Lannan Fellow, Sustainable Business Fellow (McDonough School of Business), and a Krogh Honors Scholar, Madhura is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Sigma Nu honor societies. For her work on environmental issues, she was also given the Lena Landegger Community Service Award. Madhura is an avid tennis enthusiast and loves to dance.

Madhura’s Fulbright-Nehru research project is studying the role of civil society groups and nongovernmental organizations in shaping coastal adaptation and urban resilience in Mumbai. In particular, her project is examining the adoption of “natural” infrastructure, sometimes termed “blue-green” infrastructure, such as urban wetlands and water plazas, as an alternative to traditional structures. Through mixed-methods research involving interviews of civil society organizations and analysis of gray literature, she aims to understand public perceptions about such infrastructure, barriers to its adoption, and its potential for supporting coastal resilience and adaptation. The project consolidates Madhura’s interest in inclusive urban development and community-based adaptation policy.

Neeva Sethi

Neeva Sethi earned her BS in computer science and biology from the University of Florida, where she focused on leveraging technology to improve healthcare delivery and access to quality care. During her undergraduate studies, she was a founding engineer on a clinically studied virtual reality application designed for distraction-based therapy, thereby contributing to the development of immersive tools aimed at improving patient experience and outcomes. She also led a health-tech nonprofit that partnered with local hospitals to design and implement engineering-driven solutions to operational and patient-care challenges.

Since graduating, Neeva has been working as a software engineer on Microsoft’s High Performance Computing and AI team, where she builds large-scale distributed infrastructure that powers advanced AI applications such as ChatGPT and Copilot.

Drawing on both her technical background and her exposure to healthcare inequities, Neeva is particularly interested in how emerging technologies can be responsibly integrated into healthcare systems to improve access, efficiency, and equity at scale. She is especially focused on the role of infrastructure, policy, and global collaboration in shaping the future of healthcare delivery.

Neeva’s Fulbright-Nehru research project is examining how telemedicine can be augmented to improve equitable healthcare access in underserved regions. Based at IIT Jodhpur, the project is combining policy analysis through fieldwork across rural health centers in Rajasthan and a comparative study to identify barriers to telemedicine adoption, including in terms of infrastructure, digital literacy, and trust. The research is expected to produce actionable policy recommendations and a scalable framework for inclusive telehealth delivery in India and comparable global contexts.

Niveditha Senthilvel

Niveditha Senthilvel is a doctoral candidate in South Asian history at Boston University. She is an accomplished scholar whose academic interests lie at the intersection of environment, indigeneity, and security/criminalization. She is passionate about interrogating the parallel processes of state enclosure upon Indigenous peoples and the environments they steward, starting from the nineteenth century.

Prior to being a 2026–2027 Fulbright-Nehru Scholar, Niveditha was awarded the North American Conference on British Studies’ pre-dissertation fellowship in 2025 for her work on exploring the usage of the word “tribe” in the South Asian context. As an undergraduate, her senior capstone thesis on U.S. intervention in the 1943 Bengal Famine won the Jesse Fant Evans Prize for Best Senior Thesis from the George Washington University. Between her undergraduate and graduate careers, she worked across the government, nonprofit, and private sectors applying her research skills to the most compelling strategic challenges facing the world.

Between 1871 and 1949, hundreds of communities throughout South Asia were categorized as “criminal tribes” by the British Indian government, and they were surveilled and forcibly transferred to “reform settlements.” Niveditha’s Fulbright-Nehru project is documenting this history of forced settlement and “reform” policies targeting Indigenous populations across South Asia, with a particular focus on such settlements and residential schools in the Madras Presidency in southern India. Through this study, she hopes to contribute to the global conversation on the rights of Indigenous peoples, environmental degradation, and the responsibilities of contemporary governments in confronting histories of injustice.

Shruti Sagar

Shruti Sagar received her BA in community health from Tufts University. During her time at Tufts, she evaluated a water infrastructure intervention in Haiti, taught health education to high school students through Peer Health Exchange, and facilitated qualitative fieldwork for local health departments and nonprofits about emerging public health issues.

After graduation, she worked full time at the Medical Practice Evaluation Center in Boston, MA, where she contributed to several NIH-funded cohort studies and randomized controlled trials, including one study exploring the association between air pollution and lung function among people living with HIV in Uganda, and another study on the delivery of PrEP and contraceptives to women in hair salons in South Africa. She is a co-author on multiple peer-reviewed articles in journals such as Annals of the American Thoracic Society, BMC Public Health, and Annals of Internal Medicine.

After her time at the Medical Practice Evaluation Center, Shruti attended the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to complete her MPH. In addition to her research, Shruti served as a teaching assistant for MPH courses on epidemiology, implementation science, and program evaluation.

Shruti’s Fulbright-Nehru research is examining intracity disparities in air pollution exposure in Delhi. She is conducting a spatial analysis to identify and visualize geographic disparities in air pollution exposure and sociodemographic vulnerability, and is supplementing her findings with qualitative fieldwork to explore community perceptions of air pollution risk. In order to inform resource allocation and policy development, Shruti’s project is identifying the geographic areas in Delhi that are the most vulnerable to the impacts of air pollution exposure.

Harnoor Sachar

Harnoor Sachar graduated from Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service with a degree in science, technology, and international affairs, and a minor in biology. Her academic and research interests lie at the intersection of health systems and clinical medicine, and she has extensive experience conducting research in international settings. As a BSFS Summer Award, Barkanic Award, and CRF Summer Fellowship recipient, Harnoor spent two summers in Mysore, India, engaging in women’s health research, which ranged from health hazards faced by female beedi workers to health system gaps in cervical cancer care. She has gone on to present her findings at conferences such as the 2024 World Cancer Congress and CUGH 2026. Harnoor is also a recipient of the Georgetown Medical Humanities Research Fellowship whereby she has been able to bring her love for film and culture into her research interests by exploring the portrayal of motherhood in Bollywood movies.

In the clinical space, Harnoor works as a volunteer EMT in Prince George’s County, Maryland, and as a volunteer scribe at a free Spanish-speaking clinic in Arlington, Virginia.

Away from research and work, she is on Georgetown’s bhangra dance team, and enjoys singing, running, and trying out new restaurants.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Scholar, Harnoor is expanding on her interests in women’s health and the sociocultural factors of medicine. She is conducting a mixed-methods study to examine the social, structural, and gendered barriers contributing to rising sexually transmitted disease (STD) rates in Punjab, India. Her research is exploring how stigma, gender norms, and cultural taboos surrounding sexual health and healthcare access shape patients’ and providers’ experiences with STD diagnosis and treatment, particularly among women and adolescents. Through surveys and in-depth interviews with patients and healthcare providers, her work seeks to advance cross-cultural understanding of sexual health inequities and inform patient-centered strategies for stigma reduction, improved treatment uptake, and more equitable access to STD care in high-burden communities.

Pritha RaySircar

Pritha RaySircar is a writer, poet, audio documentarian, community worker, and an artist. She uses sound, words, cartoon, collage, fiber, and food performance to tell stories of (de)colonization, economics, identity, and immigration. Her current projects use family caregiving, menopause, and spinsterhood as lenses to interrogate allowed and conventional South Asian-American stereotypes. An Aspen Words Fellow, an AIR New Voices Fellow, and a holder of the Harpur Palate Award for Creative Nonfiction, Pritha is a current MFA candidate in creative nonfiction at the NYU Creative Writing Program, a poet at the Poetry Project, and studies short fiction with writer George Saunders alongside a worldwide cohort via Substack. She holds a postgraduate certificate in radio, podcasting, and audio documentary from the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies; an MS in public policy from the Milano School for Public Engagement/Urban Policy at the New School for Social Research as a full merit scholar; and a BA in English literature from Barnard College, Columbia University.

For her Fulbright-Nehru project, Pritha is researching and documenting oral histories of sraddha habishyanno – mourning food recipes and rituals – in Kolkata, West Bengal, to create a cultural process archive for diasporic Bengalis. No such centralized, easily understood, engaging layperson documentation exists. As a writer, documentarian, and social practice artist, Pritha is preserving the habishyanno practice in audio, text and text translation, image, and video as a legacy conveyance and to spark future user-friendly diasporic artefacts. An audio documentary, multimedia installation, and spoken-word performance are also in the works. Apart from these productions, Pritha’s research is set to shape and inform an American anthology book project on hospice and mourning comfort food and ritual.

Aanya Ravichander

Aanya Ravichander is a recent graduate of Emory University, where she earned a BA in human health with a minor in women’s, gender, and sexuality studies. A passionate patient advocate, Aanya’s research work centers on applying narrative medicine and patient stories in care settings. She has researched the use of language as a tool for child survivors of sexual violence and worked on mental health care access for both incarcerated and unhoused individuals. At Emory, she worked with laboring refugee moms and supported incarcerated survivors of domestic violence during their parole. A particular emphasis of her work is on how sociodemographic indicators, like maternal education and the Child Opportunity Index, impact outcomes for marginalized groups.

Aanya aspires to be a compassionate physician who accords priority to patient experiences in her care. She hopes to continue to unearth areas of research in the intersections of clinical medicine and the humanities. Beyond her work, Aanya loves to play the drums, hang out with friends, work out, and explore local culture and cuisine.

Aanya’s Fulbright-Nehru research project sits at the intersection of women’s health and cultural expectations surrounding motherhood. She is studying postpartum depression and abuse in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, unpacking how community health workers and mothers respond to postnatal mental health challenges. Aanya hopes to determine the barriers to detecting, diagnosing, and treating abuse and postpartum depression to better serve the vulnerable populations. Using a mixed-methods approach, the project is analyzing both participant interviews and verified mental health scales to assess how to drive equitable, patient-centered care.