Newsletter    February 2, 2018

February 2-10, 2018
Sugata Bose is the Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs at Harvard University. He's also a member of India's Parliament. On behalf of SAI, he's speaking at the Dhaka Art Summit, a huge South Asian cultural event.
"The first step in making wastewater 'safe' is education through scientifically sound studies from reputable sources that prove that wastewater irrigation is not a health hazard. In fact, municipal wastewater is replete with nutrients." - SAI Research Affiliate and MIT SPURS Fellow,  Alka Palrecha Rawal

February 11-12, 2018
SAI is one of the partners of the student-run India Conference. Three of the organizers spoke to us about their involvement with the conference and this year's theme of "Disruptive Innovations."


Featured Publications:
A Harvard study found high rates of diabetes and hypertension among middle-aged and elderly people across all geographic measures and sociodemographic groups in India. Surprisingly, researchers also found high rates of hypertension among young adults.

Harvard Professor on "Tribal Nationalism"
Interviewed by The Quint at the Jaipur Literature Festival in India last month, Professor Homi Bhabha discusses "tribal nationalism": "Today we see it in countries where individuals like Erdogan, and to some extent even Trump, see themselves as a figure representing the essence of majoritarianism."

Featured Events:
Friday, February 7, 4-5:30pm: CGIS S050
In the urban metropolises of India, social exclusion is on the rise.  Patrick Heller (Brown University) has conducted fieldwork in a range of communities in Delhi, documenting inequity in citizenship rights across settlement types.  
February 2 to March 18, 2018, Mumbai
Rahul Mehrotra (Harvard), Ranjit Hoskote, and Kaiwan Mehta curated an exhibition about the State of Housing in India. Related events include an inaugural keynote lecture, parallel weekly lecture series, and a closing conference.

Student Opportunities:


Flashback Friday:
Image of Zayan Faiyad
Zayan Faiyad '18 received an SAI Grant to conduct field research in Bangladesh. An overwhelming majority of Islamic schools are in low-income rural areas. In order to identify the root causes of achievement gaps, Faiyad conducted interviews in several state-regulated schools and with officials from the Madrasa Education Board in Dhaka.

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