SAJAforum

AWARDS: MIT's Negis Mavalvala wins MacArthur "Genius" award

A note from India-West's Sunita Sohrabji points out that we didn't note a major award. From her piece in the California weekly:

MIT quantum astrophysicist Nergis Mavalvala was announced Sept. 28 as one of 23 winners of the coveted 2010 MacArthur Fellowship, also known as a genius grant, and will receive a $500,000 “no strings attached” award over the next five years.

“I had always known of the MacArthur fellowship and all the wonderful scientists, historians and artists who had won it in the past, but I never, ever in my wildest dreams thought that I would be one of them,” Mavalvala, the first-known Parsi to receive the award, told India-West.

“I am incredibly humbled and so grateful to my colleagues and everyone who has supported my work,” she said from her office at MIT on the afternoon the winners were announced.

In 2006, there were two South Asian winners of the MacArthur: Atul Gawande, physician and writer; Shazia Sikander, painter. Have any desis won since then?  Think you might be a genius? See the FAQ.

Back in 1996, we put together a list of past South Asian winners (or, in the case of Jhabvala, South Asian connections). Anyone missing? The award was first given out in 1981.

• 2006 - Atul Gawande, physician
• 2006 - Shazia Sikander, painter
• 2005 - Fazal Sheikh - photographer
• 2004 - Dr. Vamsi Mootha, clinical molecular biologist
• 2002 - Sendhil Mullainathan - MIT economist
• 1998 - Ayesha Jalal - historian
• 1991 - Ali Akbar Khan - classical Indian music performer
• 1984 - Ruth Prawer Jhabvala - novelist and screenwriter
• 1983 - A. K. Ramanujan - poet, translator and literary scholar
• 1982 - Ved Mehta, author

Post your comments below.

PAKISTAN FLOODS: TIME Removes Pakistan Floods Story from Cover of US Edition

Via Climate Progress:

[T]he big new Time magazine cover story for their European, Asian, and South Pacific editions, Through Hell And High Water, doesn’t make the cut for the U.S. edition’s cover (as the screen capture [below] shows).  In fact, can someone tell me if it made the print edition at all, since I can’t find the story in the table of contents?

Equally significant, the Time story itself never mentions the link to climate change or global warming at all, even though it is pretty basic physics.... [link] 

What does in fact "make[] a school great," you ask?  You won't find this in TIME Magazine, but at least according to a pair of reports [one, two] reprinted on the Asia Society website back in September 2008, it is "crucial" for U.S. schools to improve students' development of "international knowledge and skills."  Ahem.

[HT: Manan Ahmed]

Related post on SAJAforum: NATURAL DISASTERS: How you can help the Pakistan flood victims

Share your reactions below.

EDUCATION: UPenn's Lauder Institute Adds India Focus to MBA Offerings

An unusual announcement regarding MBA classes at Wharton and the University of Pennsylvania:

The Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania announced today that they will add Hindi to their roster of programs in international business and culture. The Hindi Program, focused on doing business in India, will become the ninth Language and Culture offering at the Lauder Institute, a unique two-year, joint-degree course of study that combines a Wharton MBA with a Master of Arts in International Studies from the School of Arts & Sciences. Students undergo intensive, advanced-level language training and take courses aimed at a comprehensive understanding of the economic, political, and cultural context in which business takes place. They also spend several weeks at different locations around the world engaged in a rigorous experiential and action-oriented academic program of activities. The new Hindi Program will prepare MBA students for successful managerial careers in and with India, a region of increasing business and economic significance.

Full press release below. Post your comments, please.

SPELLING BEE: Kavya Shivashankar wins. "Laodicean"

Hegemony! Kavya Shivashankar became the 8th Indian kid to win the Spelling Bee. (Sameer Mishra won it last year.)

She's a 13 year old from Olathe, Kansas. Kept spelling out every word on her palm. Amazing kid - really, all these kids just blew me away. ABC did a phenomenal job of presenting these kids as interesting, regular personalities. So far removed from just a few years ago, when the Spelling Bee was synonymous with useless regurgitation or a sport for the socially inept.

My only quibble was the requisite zoom in on the kids who'd just spelled a word wrong and were burying their faces in their hands. Give them their dignity, ABC.

Here's Kavya's word-journey to immortality:

1	Round One Test
4	ergasia	ergasia
5	kurta	kurta
6	escritoire	escritoire
7	hydrargyrum	hydrargyrum
8	blancmange	blancmange
9	baignoire	baignoire
10	huisache	huisache
11	ecossaise	ecossaise
12	diacoele	diacoele
13	bouquiniste	bouquiniste
14	isagoge	isagoge
15	phoresy	phoresy
16	Laodicean	Laodicean

Earlier: Desis in the Spelling Bee semifinals

SPELLING BEE: Fourteen Indian semifinalists

I haven't been paying attention to the Spelling Bee yet, but with the semis and final round coming up tomorrow, I thought I'd take a look at the Semifinalists list online. As I scrolled down through all the faces, I got that sinking feeling: Where are all the desi kids?? How will they maintain their hegemony?? I had to scroll past five kids of varying hues before I finally came to the first, Ramya Auroprem, an 8th grader from San Jose ("Ramya is fascinated by linguistics and is eager to learn new languages."). Out of 41 semifinalists, I counted 14 Indian kids - a goodly percentage, but they'd best not let that kind of scare happen again.

FYI, the Semifinals are on ESPN on Thursday at 10 a.m. Eastern time, and the Finals start on Thursday at 8 pm on ABC.

A onetime competitor, Ahalya Nava, wrote to me today, pointing out this little Fun Fact posted on the Scripps website:

"In 1985 Balu Natarajan of Chicago, Illinois, became the first Indian-American to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Since 1985 six additional Indian-Americans have won the championship: Rageshree Ramachandran (1987), Nupur Lala (1999), George Thampy (2000), Pratyush Buddiga (2002), Sai Gunturi (2003), Anurag Kashyap (2005) and Sameer Mishra (2008)."

So I asked her to share some more of her thoughts on the contest, since she was in it:

Things have certainly changed since the 1980’s.  I remember back in 1986, perhaps only a handful of us South Asians at the National Spelling Bee, and being surprised at seeing even 3 or 5.  We were a shy group, in awe and full of gratitude for the opportunity to represent our schools and our states, and to have the opportunity to meet and shake hands with President Reagan.  I don’t think any major news channel might have even carried our stories or the competition.

Fast forward 23 years, and there are at least 32 South Asians represented in the National Spelling Bee of approximately 293 total competitors – that’s approximately 10% of the entire competitor base. 

ESSAY: Class of '09, exit stage left

While many of my friends are getting their diplomas and moving into the real world this spring, I’m taking the scenic route to graduation – pinning on an extra semester that allows time for a Gainesville Sun newspaper internship, journalism trip to Brazil, volunteer work in north Indian villages, and some extra multimedia classes.

“Oh, you’re such a free spirit,” my mom’s friends tell me as they nudge their children toward law school or MCAT classes.

But my sense of adventure might have something to do with the fact that finding a job has me shaking in my hiking boots.

The other day I looked up from my elliptical to the gym TV to see a headline that read “Worst year to graduate ever?” Soothing.

It’s not just the news, or the demise of the Boston Globe, CosmoGirl or Oprah Home. It’s also the journalism conferences where even lighthearted, successful columnists like Dave Barry have given budding writers the yellow light.

Professors in j-schools around the country are arming students with “backpack journalism” skills like video editing, RSS-savvy writing and Web design, but telling us to be open to PR and advertising.

My mother, who still makes me open up Word or upload photos for her, is pushing me to become more technical. Basically, a computer programmer who might have a couple story ideas too.

BOOKS: Wendy Doniger's "The Hindus: An Alternative History"

The Hindus: An Alternative History by Wendy Doniger fills a significant gap: It is a scholarly but mostly accessible book that recounts millennia of South Asian history, as much as possible, through the eyes of non-elites. The book has garnered both praise and sharp criticism, as Doniger’s work often does, and has spawned a feisty but confusing New York Times review by Pankaj Mishra.

Doniger (bio) is the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions in the Divinity School at the University of Chicago. To match her hefty title, Doniger’s curriculum vitae weighs in at 39 pages. For better or for worse, she is one of the most influential American scholars of Indian religion.

Blogging for The Washington Post, Doniger explains her purpose in writing the book:

My narrative is alternative both to the histories promulgated by some contemporary Hindus on the political right in India and to those presented in most surveys in English—imperialist histories, all about the kings, ignoring ordinary people. But the texts tell us not just who was the ruler but who got enough to eat and who did not.

The reviews that appeared recently in The Washington Post and The New York Times could not be more different. The former is simple and unsurprising while the latter is convoluted and apparently looking to pick a fight.

Michael Dirda’s review in the WP summarizes the book and argues that it is “probably too scholarly and specialized for readers looking simply for an introduction to Indian philosophy and religion” but still recommends it for people who already know the basics.

In contrast to Dirda’s by-the-book review, Pankaj Mishra wrote a more interpretive piece in the NYT that was destined to be misinterpreted. The first three grafs invoke a hodgepodge of references: the novelist E.M. Forster, the colonial preference for the supposed clarity of Islam over the supposed muddle of Hinduism, and the claim that “the first British scholars of India went so far as to invent what we now call ‘Hinduism.’”

POLITICS: The Case of Varun Gandhi and the Fake Degrees

At just 29 years old, Varun Gandhi is widely regarded as a rising star in his political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP, which could sweep to power in India’s upcoming national elections when the results are announced on May 16th, is a Hindu nationalist party with a history of anti-Muslim rhetoric.

Recently Gandhi caused uproar when he was caught on tape using such rhetoric. In the aftermath it was discovered that he had lied about academic credentials from the London School of Economics (LSE) and the School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS), both constituent colleges of the University of London.

The young Gandhi is an asset to the BJP because he is a high-level defector. His family is a political dynasty in the Congress Party, the secularist party currently holding on to power with a thin majority in the Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament). His aunt Sonia Gandhi is currently leader of the Congress. Additionally, his grandmother is the late former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (Congress) and his great grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, was the first Prime Minister of India (Congress). After a family feud, Gandhi and his mother joined the BJP in 2004. (He explains his conversion to the BJP in a 2005 interview with the BBC.)

In contrast to his usually soft demeanor when speaking to the media in English, Gandhi recently made a series of fiery Hindi speeches in Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh, where he is the BJP’s candidate for the Lok Sabha. In them he threatens violence against Muslims, saying for example that after the election the “Lotus Hand” (the BJP’s emblem) would cut the throats of the “circumcised.”  That is of course a derogatory reference to Muslims that has more or less the same effect as the ‘N’-word in American politics. A video is available here from IBN, and it is not pretty to watch.

PAKISTAN: Swat valley's resilient girl students and an NYT video

“In the area where I live there are some people who want to stop educating girls through guns,” says Ziauddin, after 200 girls schools have been forced to close down in the Swat valley, Pakistan, over last year.

This is the theme of a moving online video by The New York Times' Adam Ellick and Irfan Ashraf, "Class Dismissed: Education in Swat Valley" [alternately subtitled "The Death of Female Education"]. SAJAforum interviewed Ellick about the making of the video.

The 14-minute story takes us through the region while narrating the story of Ziauddin, who runs a private school for girls, and his bright 11-year old daughter Malala, who is pursuing the seemingly futile goal of becoming a doctor.

The documentary opens with serene shots of the valley and, just as sounds of civilized society begin to filter in, gunmen open fire, bombs blast and insurgents take control. Images of burning houses, torn-down classrooms and deserted markets follow, as well as some gruesome scenes of Taliban-style justice. From the narration:

Since 2007 Swat has become Taliban territory. Those who defy the militant strict codes of Islam are publicly punished. And those are the lucky ones. Politicians and social activists are murdered and their corpses displayed in the center of the capital Mingora.

Last week the government signed a truce with the Swat Taliban agreeing on a form of Islamic law. Some people now fear that the Taliban are even more emboldened.

While boys school remain open, more than 200 girls schools have been blown up by the Taliban.
<snip>
There are 12,000 Pakistani troops in Swat. But since last summer, they have been unable to quell the 3,000 Taliban fighters and their guerrilla insurgency.

Perhaps the stars of the documentary are young Malala and the other girls in the valley who bravely make the case for female education, even giving stirring speeches, in English, out in the open:

"Swat Valley: the land of waterfalls. Lush green hills and other gifts bestowed upon it by the nature. But my dear friends, today, Swat, has in the past few years become a heartland for Pakistan Islamic militancy. Today, this idyllic valley of peace is burning. Why the peace of this valley is destroyed? <snip> Why our future is targeted? Schools are not places of learning but places of fear and violence. <snip> Our dreams are shattered. And let me say, we are destroyed."

SAJAforum spoke to Ellick about getting permissions, his general mobility as a foreign journalist and whether he was in fact endangering his subjects by interviewing them. Above are two images of Adam. One of him in New York and the other of him incognito in Pakistan. Apparently, his cover worked well: people spoke to him in Pashtu, the local language, and thought he was a local.

EDUCATION: Molly Easo Smith named president of Manhattanville College

The quiet town of Purchase, about 20 miles from New York City, will soon be home to two women chief executives from the bustling Indian city of Chennai (and both are alumni of Madras Christian College).

One of them is Indra Nooyi, the celebrated CEO of Purchase-HQed PepsiCo (and Fortune magazine's most powerful woman in business for two years in a row).

The other is Molly Easo Smith (pictured at right), who has recently been named president of Purchase-based Manhattanville College, a private liberal arts college with about 1,600 students from 58 countries and 38 states (see the school's official site and Wikipedia entry).

Smith, who is currently provost of Wheaton College in Massachusetts, will start her new role in the summer of 2009 and will be the 11th president since Manhattanville was founded in 1841. From the annoucement by the chair of the trustees (in full below):

Many members of the college community have had the opportunity to meet personally with Dr. Smith in recent days and have some sense of her energy, passion, and eloquence.  The Board of Trustees believes she has an uncommon ability to communicate and inspire, which will help challenge and guide us to build on [retiring president] Richard Berman's exceptional leadership and legacy that have returned the college to great strength and promise.

Read her job description in this PDF from the search committee and see her 15-page CV in this PDF.

SAJAforum asked Dr. Smith to share some info on her background, role models and more - here's what she sent us (journalists are welcome to quote from this):

Born in Madras (now Chennai) to Anna Easo and P. C. Easo.

Attended Ewart School, Ethiraj College for Women, and Madras Christian College

Majored in English Literature

Two siblings:  Brother Jacob Easo lives with his family in New Jersey and sister Annie Mathew lives with her family in San Diego, CA.

Molly came to the US in 1981.  She earned her Ph. D. in English at Auburn University and also studied at the University of Delaware.

Her husband, Duane Smith, works as an academic director at Temple University in Philadelphia. Their son's name is Christopher Smith and their grandson is Eldan Christopher Smith.

Passionate about the transformative power of liberal arts education and deeply committed to fostering leadership in others, Molly attributes her own successes to faculty,  colleagues, and mentors at the institutions where she has studied and worked -- in India, Scotland, and the US.