AIIS Announces its 2014-2015 Fellowship Recipients

The American Institute of Indian Studies is pleased to announce that the following scholars and artists have been awarded fellowships to carry out their projects in India in 2014-2015:

David Atwill, an associate professor in the Department of History at Pennsylvania State University, was awarded a senior scholarly development fellowship to carry out his project, “Islamic Shangri-la: Tibetan Muslim Identity, Hybridity and Assimilation.” Professor Atwill’s fellowship is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Lalit Batra, a graduate student in the Department of Geography, Environment and Society at the University of Minnesota, was awarded a junior fellowship to carry out his project, “Caste Subalterns and Urban Infrastructure: The Spatial Politics of Sewers in Delhi.” Mr. Batra is the recipient of the Thomas W. Simons Fellowship.

Poulomi Chakrabarti, a graduate student in the Department of Political Science at Brown University, was awarded a junior fellowship to carry out her project, “One Nation, Many Worlds: Varieties of Developmental Regimes in India.”

Manish Chalana, an assistant professor in the Department of Department of Urban Design and Planning at the University of Washington, was awarded a senior fellowship to carry out his project, “History, Theory and Practice of Historic Preservation in India.”

Soundarya Chidambaram, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University, was awarded a senior fellowship to carry out her project, “Neoliberalism, Hindu Nationalism and Political Resistance in Urban Slums.”

Emmerich Davies, a graduate student in the Department of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania, was awarded a junior fellowship to carry out his project, “The State and its Shadow: The Individual Level Consequences of Private Welfare Provision in India.”

Ankur Desai, a graduate student in the Department of History of Art at Ohio State University, was awarded a junior fellowship to carry out his project, “Creating Abodes: The Forms and Meanings of Svaminarayana Temples.”

Kyle Gardner, a graduate student in the Department of History at the University of Chicago, was awarded a junior fellowship to carry out his project, “The Frontier Complex: Environment, Technology and Law in the Northwestern Himalayas.”

Chithra Jeyaram, a film maker, was awarded a performing/creative arts fellowship to carry out her project, “1001 Breast Cancer Nights.”

Rajbir Judge, a graduate student in the History Department at the University of California, Davis, was awarded a junior fellowship to carry out his project, “Occult Intrigue: Rebellion and the Theosophical Society.”

Samira Junaid, a graduate student in the Department of South Asia Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, was awarded a junior fellowship to carry out her project, “Situating Tamil Islam: Materializing the History of the Nagore Dargah, c. 1650-1850.” Ms Junaid is the recipient of the Metcalf Fellowship in Indian History.

Rehanna Kheshgi, a graduate student in the Department of Music at the University of Chicago, was awarded a junior fellowship to carry out her project, “Crowning the Bihu Queen: Rural Youth Culture, Media and Gender in Liberalizing Northeast India.”

Ateya Khorakiwala, a graduate student in the Department of Architecture, Landscape and Urbanism at Harvard University, was awarded a junior fellowship to carry out her project, “The Well-Fed Subject: Modern Architecture in the Quantitative State.”

Padma Maitland, a graduate student in the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, was awarded a junior fellowship to carry out his project, “The Birth of the Religious Commons: Public Temples in Modern India.”

Leya Mathew, a graduate student in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania, was awarded a junior fellowship to carry out her project, “Consumer Citizenship, School Choice and Enduring Inequalities in Kerala.”

Dennis McGilvray, an emeritus professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Colorado, was awarded a senior short-term fellowship to carry out his project, “Matrilocal Marriage on the South Indian Coast.”

Cristin McKnight Sethi, a graduate student in the Department of History of Art at the University of California, Berkeley, was awarded a junior fellowship to carry out her project, “Producing, Collecting and Display: Phulkari Embroidery from Punjab.” Ms McKnight Sethi is the recipient of the Asher Family Fellowship.

Kartik Nair, a graduate student in the Department of Cinema Studies at New York University, was awarded a junior fellowship to carry out his project, “Cheap Thrills: Bombay Horror in the Long 1980s.”

Neeti Nair, an associate professor in the Department of History at the University of Virginia, was awarded a senior short-term fellowship to carry out her project, “Higher Education: An Indian History.”

Shakthi Nataraj, a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, was awarded a junior fellowship to carry out her project, “Cowdis, Kothis, and Colonial Ethnographies: LGBT Identity in Tamil Activist Narratives.”

Amit Prasad, an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Missouri, was awarded a senior short-term fellowship to carry out his project, “Selling a Miracle or Life-Changing Innovation: Stem Cell Therapy in a Clinic in India.” Professor Prasad’s fellowship is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Sumathi Ramaswamy, a professor in the Department of History at Duke University, was awarded a senior short-term fellowship to carry out her project, “Dying to Give: The Life and Afterlives of Pachaiyappa Mudaliar.”

Jay Ramesh, a graduate student in the Department of Religion at Columbia University, was awarded a junior fellowship to carry out his project, “Representing Sacred Space in Medieval South India.” Mr. Ramesh is the recipient of the Daniel H. H. Ingalls Memorial Fellowship.

Eva Natanya Rolf, a graduate student in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia, was awarded a junior fellowship to carry out her project, “Rediscovering Indian Buddhist Philosophy of Tantra through the Works of Je Tsongkhapa.” Ms Rolf is the recipient of the Ludo and Rosane Rocher Research Fellowship in Sanskrit Studies.

Andrew Rotman, an associate professor in the Department of Religion at Smith College, was awarded a senior fellowship to carry out his project, “Bazaar Religion: Marketing and Moral Economics in Modern India.”

Akira Shimada, an assistant professor in the Department of History at SUNY, New Paltz, was awarded a senior short-term fellowship to carry out his project, “Buddhism, Hinduized South India and Indian Ocean World.”

John Stavrellis, a graduate student in the Department of Languages and Cultures of Asia at the University of Wisconsin, was awarded a junior fellowship to carry out his project, “Deep Criminality in Modern India: From Dharmasastra to the Criminal Tribes Act.”

Emma Natalya Stein, a graduate student in the Department of History of Art at Yale University, was awarded a junior fellowship to carry out her project, “Kanchipuram as Temple-City: The Local and the Global, ca. 8th-12th Centuries AD.” Ms Stein is the recipient of the Rachel F. and Scott McDermott Fellowship.

Elizabeth Thelen, a graduate student in the Department of History at the University of California, Berkeley, was awarded a junior fellowship to carry out her project, “Intersected Communities: Urban Histories of Rajasthan, 1500-1800.” Ms Thelen is the recipient of the Thomas R. Trautmann Fellowship.

Andrew Willford, an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at Cornell University, was awarded a senior fellowship to carry out his project, “Sacred Groves, Urban Depression, and Biomedicalizing Mental Health Care in South Asia.”

Chitralekha Zutshi, an associate professor in the Department of History at the College of William and Mary, was awarded a senior fellowship to carry out her project, “Between India and Pakistan: The Life and Times of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah.” Professor Zutshi’s fellowship is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Kathryn Zyskowski, a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Washington, was awarded a junior fellowship to carry out her project, “New Muslim Identities: Student Migration, Indian Universities, and Transnationalism.”