Archives: Meet Our USA Fulbrighters

Liesl Schwabe

Ms. Liesl Schwabe is a writer and educator. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Words Without Borders, and LitHub. She was awarded the 2020 Donald Murray Prize and her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Ms. Schwabe has been a Fulbright-Nehru Scholar and was a scholar associate at the Institute of Language Studies and Research Kolkata, where she facilitated writing workshops for the faculty and graduate students. In 2024, she was named an English Language Specialist by the U.S. Department of State. Formerly the director of the Writing Program at Yeshiva College, she currently oversees the Writing Center and the Writing Across the Curriculum program at Berkshire Community College. She holds an MFA in nonfiction from the Bennington Writing Seminars.

The teaching portion of Ms. Schwabe’s Fulbright-Nehru project involves setting up writing workshops for undergraduate and graduate students; it is also working on the professional development of the faculty interested in integrating more writing instruction into their classes. For the research portion of this project, she is writing a collection of essays that explore specific instances of U.S. and Indian interactions – artistic, environmental, and social. The cornerstone essay is focusing on the play, Maanusher Adhikare (The Rights of Man), written and performed in Bengali in 1968, which is on the 1930s trials of the Scottsboro Boys in Alabama. Blending personal narrative, historical context, and contemporary reporting, the collection is about the limitations and possibilities of solidarity, while illuminating upon interdependence and shared humanity.

Ultimately, Ms. Schwabe hopes to establish a writing and research center in Kolkata which will serve as a resource for a consortium of public universities, with its workshops and one-on-one support for student and faculty, along with research and publication. She believes that writing centers help foster curiosity and exchange of ideas, on the page, around the campus, and in the world.

Carlin Romano

Prof. Carlin Romano teaches media theory and philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of America the Philosophical (Alfred A. Knopf/Vintage), described by the Los Angeles Review of Books as “Massive, impressive and indispensable…perhaps the best history of American philosophy of the past half-century”, and by National Public Radio as “dauntingly brilliant”. He is also the editor and contributor to Philadelphia Noir, a collection of original short stories in the highly praised Akashic Noir series.

As a journalist, literary critic, and public intellectual, Prof. Romano has held many prominent positions, including being the president of the National Book Critics Circle, literary editor and literary critic for 25 years for The Philadelphia Inquirer, and critic-at-large for several reputed publications. His criticism has appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Nation, the Wall Street Journal, the American Scholar, and the Village Voice. Prof. Romano has been a Guggenheim Fellow, a Nieman Fellow at Harvard, Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Peking University’s Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies, the First Foreign Philosophy Visiting Fellow at Fudan University, a Fulbright Scholar to Germany and Russia, and a Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Criticism, who was cited by the Pulitzer Board for “bringing new vitality to the classic essay across a formidable array of topics”.

As a philosopher, Prof. Romano has taught at prestigious institutions like Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, and St. Petersburg State University. He is the author of the main article, “East Asian Philosophy of Religion”, in the International Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Religion and of an article on Umberto Eco in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Aesthetics.

As a pragmatism scholar, Prof. Romano is writing a book entitled Over There: The Internationalization of American Philosophy. Through the Fulbright-Nehru project, the book is extending its territory to India. Prof. Romano is also studying how Bhimrao Ambedkar, John Dewey’s most influential Indian student, shaped Indian law and politics. Besides, he is probing and analyzing modern Indian philosophy, cinema, literature, TV, and journalism to identify pragmatist elements and resonances.

Srinivas Reddy

Mr. Srinivas Reddy is a scholar, translator, and musician. He studied classical South Asian languages and literatures at UC Berkeley and currently teaches at Brown University and IIT Gandhinagar. His research in South Asian studies ranges over multiple disciplines, including translation studies, history, cultural studies, and musicology, but his foundation lies in the reading and translation of classical Indian texts. He has published numerous scholarly articles and four books: Giver of the Worn Garland (Penguin, 2010); The Dancer and the King (Penguin, 2014); The Cloud Message (Penguin, 2017); and Raya (Juggernaut, 2020). His forthcoming book, Illuminating Worlds: Anthology of Classical Indian Literature, is set to be released in 2024. Mr. Reddy is also a concert sitarist and spends his time performing, teaching, and conducting research around the world. His performances can be viewed at: http://www.sankalpana.org/

Mr. Reddy’s Fulbright-Nehru project is exploring the ways in which traditional oral repertoires of raga music were transcribed into written manuals for general instruction in late colonial India. Early texts like Maula Bakhsh’s Sangitanubhav (1888), Hazrat Inayat Khan’s Minqar-i-Musiqar (1912), and V.N. Bhatkhande’s Hindusthani Sangeet Padhdhati (1910–32) all enshrined traditional raga music compositions in fixed and printed notational forms. Mr. Reddy is revisiting this rich archive of educational materials with the critical ear of a practicing musician and a modern-day raga music educator.

Robert Pennock

Dr. Robert Pennock is University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University where he is on the faculty of Lyman Briggs College, the departments of philosophy, computer science, and engineering, and the ecology, evolution, and behavior program. He received a BA with honors in philosophy and biology from Earlham College in 1980 and a PhD in history and philosophy of science from the University of Pittsburgh in 1991. His research involves both empirical and philosophical questions that relate to evolutionary biology, cognitive science, and the scientific character virtues. He was an expert witness in the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School Board intelligent design creationism case. He also develops software to help students learn about evolution and the nature of science using digital organisms. He is a co-founder of BEACON, an NSF Center for the Study of Evolution in Action, and he also directs the Vocational Virtues Project. He is the principal investigator (PI) of the VERITIES Initiative, which aims to implement a virtue-based approach to RCR (responsible conduct of research) training at scale; he is also the PI of the largest national study of the scientific ethical mindset. Dr. Pennock is a senior fellow and a past president of Sigma Xi and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His book Tower of Babel: The Evidence against the New Creationism was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. His latest book is An Instinct for Truth: Curiosity and the Moral Structure of Science.

In his Fulbright-Nehru project, Dr. Pennock is conducting a small-scale replication of his sociological/philosophical study of scientists’ views about the character virtues that are important for scientific research. These data will help gain an understanding about the scientific mindset and what scientific values are shared across cultures. Aspects of this idea of the scientific mindset were anticipated by India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru’s notion of “scientific temper” and this project is exploring that connection philosophically and empirically. He is also giving talks and leading workshops on scientific virtue and responsible conduct of research for graduate students and faculty.

Arjendu Pattanayak

Prof. Pattanayak is a mathematical and computational physicist with over 30 peer-reviewed publications on problems in irreversibility and entropy in complex dynamics, with a focus on quantum systems (“quantum thermodynamics” or “quantum chaos”). He got his undergraduate degree from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University, his master’s from Brown University, and his PhD from The University of Texas at Austin. After his postdoctoral training at the University of Toronto and a visiting position at Rice University, he has been with Carleton College since 2001 where students from his group have helped build the now-burgeoning quantum information industry. His recent research has shifted to also include biophysics, and explores applied and interdisciplinary complexity alongside challenging thermodynamics questions about the statistical mechanics of cell fates using innovative information theory approaches and tools.

Prof. Pattanayak has served as chair of his department and as an associate dean of the college. He has also co-organized conferences on liberal arts universities in India as well as led study abroad programs to India. He has held fellowships at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics in Santa Barbara twice. He has also been hosted for long-term research and teaching visits by the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden, the National University of Singapore, the University of Insubria in Como, the University of Perugia, and the University of New Mexico.

For his Fulbright-Nehru project, Prof. Pattanayak is teaching a course at Ashoka University on contemporary topics in quantum physics by advancing beyond the typical undergraduate quantum course to introduce students to the rapidly growing frontiers of quantum information and quantum computing technology. This will build on his previous work at Carleton and involve Ashoka students in creating a strong course for future students at both institutions, as well as enable others to teach it in the long run by sharing elements of the final course with the broader community. Prof. Pattanayak also hopes to seed bilateral research and pedagogy exchanges and long-term connections between Ashoka and Carleton.

Sundeep Muppidi

Dr. Sundeep Muppidi is a tenured professor of communication in the College of Arts and Sciences. He has close to 30 years of global experience in administration, research, film-making, and teaching. His research and teaching interests are in global communication, emerging media technologies, Indian cinema, and communication for social change. He has a doctorate in mass communication from Bowling Green State University, Ohio. He has four co-authored/edited books and has published over 50 book chapters and journal articles.

Dr. Muppidi served as the associate provost/director of special programs at Eastern Connecticut State University. At the University of Hartford, he held leadership positions like the special assistant provost for strategic initiatives. At the College of Arts and Sciences, he has been the director of the School of Communication. Dr. Muppidi has also served as the secretary general of the Asian Media Information and Communication Center in Singapore. In his administrative capacities, he has led efforts in strategic planning, academic program review, accreditation, fund-raising, educational technology, institutional review, and faculty development.

Dr. Muppidi is a trained peer reviewer for the Center for Teaching Excellence and Innovation. In 2021, he was honored with the Oscar and Shoshana Trachtenberg Award for distinguished service to the University of Hartford. He was also a fellow of the American Council on Education and a fellow of the Journalism and Mass Communication Leadership Institute for Diversity of the AEJMC; besides, he is an alumnus of the Management Development Program at Harvard University.

In the last decade, the creative media industries in Telugu have registered an increased pan-Indian and global presence. Dr. Muppidi’s Fulbright-Nehru project is a political economy case study on the Telugu television, film, animation, and other creative media/communication industries in the state of Telangana. The research’s focus is on understanding the factors driving planning and decision-making about local production and digital distribution, as well as their complex networks, along with understanding what goes into their global marketing strategies. This project will help advance disciplinary knowledge in global media and communication regarding regional language-based global media industries.

Joseph Meert

Dr. Joseph Meert, originally from Jackson, Michigan, completed his bachelor’s (1986) and master’s (1988) in geology from the University of Florida. He got his PhD in geology from the University of Michigan in 1993. The focus of his doctoral work was on Precambrian tectonics and paleogeographic reconstructions. Dr. Meert completed a short (eight-month) postdoctoral fellowship at the same institution before assuming an assistant professorship at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Indiana, until 2001. Following a one-year sabbatical to Norway and France, he moved to the University of Florida in Gainesville where he is currently a professor and undergraduate coordinator in geological sciences. Dr. Meert and his wife are celebrating their 30th year of marriage and are proud parents of Joseph, Brian, and Alex. They enjoy raising butterflies and bluebirds in their garden.

Dr. Meert’s research on Earth’s paleogeography has continued apace with a focus on the assembly of Peninsular India between 2.3 to 0.5 billion years ago. He has worked on five continents and published more than 170 articles and book chapters. His research in India has garnered international press attention. Most recently, he was featured in New York Times (Forget the Fossil Error It isn’t the First) and the French magazine Science & Vie (“ERREUR sur les fossile!”). Dr. Meert is also a fellow of the Geological Society of America and has served as president and vice president of the International Association for Gondwana Research.

Dr. Meert’s Fulbright-Nehru project in India is examining the Vindhyan sedimentary basin in both Rajasthan and the Son Valley region to solve a long-standing conundrum regarding the age of the rocks and their role in India’s geological history. His research is using the study of fossil magnetism to determine their past location and geochronology to provide a temporal framework. He is also teaching a short course in paleogeography and paleomagnetism at his host institution and hopes to generate student interest in these fields.

George James

Prof. George James received his PhD in history and philosophy of religion from Columbia University in 1983. He served on the faculty of the University of North Texas from 1983 until his retirement and appointment as Professor Emeritus in 2020. In addition to his research on the activism and environmental philosophy of Sunderlal Bahuguna, titled Ecology Is Permanent Economy (State University of New York Press, 2013; Motilal Banarsidass, 2020; Hindi transl., 2022, Kannada transl., 2022), he is the author of Interpreting Religion (Catholic University of America Press, 1995), a study of phenomenological approaches to religion, and the editor of a volume of essays titled Ethical Perspectives on Environmental Issues in India (APH Publishing Corporation, 1999). For the past 30 years, he has been researching and publishing in the areas of comparative environmental philosophy and environmental movements in India. His research has been published in such journals as Zygon, International Philosophical Quarterly, and Worldviews. He has also contributed to the Encyclopedia of Religion, the Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature, and the Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy. He is interested in the relationship between the environmental values embedded in Indian religious traditions and environmental movements in India.

The Appiko Movement of Karnataka emerged in 1983 as a response to the degradation of the natural forests of the Western Ghats. Inspired by the non-violent ways of the Chipko Movement of the Western Himalaya, Appiko supported the forest biodiversity that sustained village economies. The concern for forest diversity led to projects that addressed the issue of the income of the forest dwellers. It also initiated legislation that limited environmental degradation in the Western Ghats and endorsed village sustainability. In his Fulbright-Nehru project, Dr. James is employing archival research, interviews, and visits to Appiko project sites to produce a monograph on the origin, development, and achievements of the movement.

Parakh Hoon

Dr. Parakh Hoon is a professor of political science at South Puget Sound Community College in Olympia, Washington. He earned a PhD in political science from the University of Florida, a master’s in international development from Brigham Young University, an MA in international relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University, and a BA from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi. His academic career includes faculty positions at American University, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Virginia Tech, California State University Long Beach, and Saint Martin’s University.

With over 25 years of diverse teaching and research experience, Dr. Hoon has significantly contributed to the fields of governance and policy, particularly in southern Africa. He has participated and co-led various international workshops, including the Africa-APSA workshop in Botswana in 2012, funded by the Andrew Mellon Foundation. His research employs a mixed-methods approach, integrating qualitative and quantitative techniques to study topics ranging from livelihood adaptation and climate change to wildlife conservation politics in southern Africa. His work has been published in scholarly journals such as African Studies Quarterly, Development Southern Africa, and Society & Natural Resources.

Jaipur, with its rich history of cultural syncretism, is serving as the backdrop for Dr. Hoon’s Fulbright-Nehru project. Dr. Hoon is examining vocational education frameworks by contrasting the community college model in the United States with the Swiss-German system at Bhartiya Skill Development University (BSDU) in Jaipur. He is leading a faculty community of practice, offering workshops and presentations on the politics and ethical use of generative artificial intelligence tools, assisting BSDU with curriculum development, and exploring industry partnerships, especially in green technologies like solar and wind. The project is also identifying vocational and technical programs between BSDU, South Puget Sound Community College, and community and technical institutions in the U.S. to foster faculty and student collaboration and exchange.

Uriel Halbreich

Dr. Uriel Halbreich has been professor of psychiatry and director of bio-behavioral research at the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences of the University at Buffalo (UB) since 1985. He has served as president of three professional organizations: the International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology (ISPNE); Hormones, Brain, and Neuropsychopharmacology (HBN); and the International Association of Women`s Mental Health (IAWMH, of which he is the founding president). He has also chaired educational committees of the International College of Neuropsychopharmacology (CINP), the Association of Medicine and Psychiatry (AMP), and the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) Section on Interdisciplinary Collaboration. Under the aegis of the CINP and WPA, he has conducted over 40 educational workshops in Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America.

Dr. Halbreich has also served as a visiting professor in Harvard University, which was followed by a 12-year stint with the same university as an executive consultant. He was also a visiting professor in Al-Quds University in Palestine and a teaching professor in the University of Pisa, Italy. He is also a recipient of US NIH grants and contracts as well as of over 50 grants and contracts from pharmaceutical companies. He has published 14 books and over 400 scientific articles and chapters. He is currently the editor-in-chief of the open-access journal, Academia Mental Health and Well-Being.

Dr. Halbreich’s current scientific interests are: interdisciplinary integrative comprehensive well-being with an emphasis on culturally sensitive and person-centered stress and resilience; neuropsychoparmacology; and biomarkers for affective disorders.

The UN states that three of the world’s largest metropolitan areas are in India – Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata. Urbanization in India is having an accelerated adverse impact on multiple aspects of well-being and health. Dr. Halbreich’s Fulbright-Nehru project is identifying the vulnerable populations in these megacities and locating the gaps in services involving bio-social interventions. This is being carried out by conducting culturally sensitive workshops on bio-social-economic interventions with mental health and primary care providers as well as with policymakers and the interested public. The expected results are enhanced awareness about the multiple aspects of well-being and the planting of seeds for sustainable bio-social services