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5 Month Rewind

June 18, 2015

Jeff Roy, 2012-2013, Fulbright-mtvU Fellow to India

In honor of Pride Month, we revisit 2012 Fulbright-mtvU alum Jeff Roy’s five month reflection on his grant to India exploring how members of the LGBTQIA community in India use music and dance to navigate tradition, modernity and globalization, in order to craft a contemporary, urban identity.

Now that we’re about half-way through, I thought we would rewind the past five months and also take a look at some plans for the future. It’s a pretty good time to do this, incidentally, since it’s holiday season in just about every part of the world. Last week, Hindus celebrated one of their most cherished festivals Holi. Like many Hindu religious festivals, “playing Holi” is less of a formal display of faith and more of a street party commemorated through a bombastic display of powdered colors, water, the use of mind-altering substances (which happen to be legal on religious holidays such as this), and dancing. Though not directly related to the LGBTQ movement, the use of paints and colored powders in street-side festivities provides an apt visual for what the festival symbolizes, namely the breaking-down of social norms and acceptability, the celebration of life in various dimensions, and the arrival of spring. I avoided most of the chaos on the streets for fear of my camera getting irreparably damaged.

With ‘Music in Liminal Spaces,’ my intention is to cover a diverse array of music and dance from individuals on both ends of the LGBTQ spectrum to see how, where, and in what forms queer voices manifest in Mumbai. Being one of the largest cities in the world, Mumbai has no shortage of talent. Because of this, I have managed to cover traditional and modern representations of gendered performance, from an Indian classical music mela (‘meeting’, or ‘concert’) held in the garden of a former Maharaja, to a rock concert inside a local club. For the past five months, I was able to produce a number of videos and deliver a successful presentation of these experiences at the Central and South Asia Fulbright Conference in February 2013. Ultimately, these events helped set the stage for the work I intend to pursue until the end of my stay in Mumbai.

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U.S. Fulbright

Learning to “Roll with It”: Working Through the Unpredictability of Research in a Another Country

December 29, 2014

Mitali Thakore, 2013-2014, India, taking in the sunset over the Rann of Kutch

As a Fulbright Study/Research grantee in public health in India, you are in one of the world’s largest public health labs. Of course, you will face challenges you never expected. But the opportunities are just as plentiful as the challenges, if you can learn to identify them.

About 25-50 percent of polio affected people are expected to experience Post Polio Syndrome (PPS), characterized by muscular weakness, atrophy, pain, and fatigue. Based in Gujarat, I aimed to understand the experiences of individuals with polio, to assess the medical and nonprofessional perception of PPS management, to evaluate social support for people with polio, and to increase awareness of PPS. This was a qualitative study in which I conducted semi-structured interviews with individuals with polio, medical practitioners, and lay people to assess their perceptions of disability, polio, and PPS.

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U.S. Fulbright

The Fingerprints of a Fulbright Student

August 27, 2014

Cameron Kruse, 2012-2013, India (left), with fellow Fulbrighters Amruta Sarma, Ajit Rajiva, and Sabrina Dek surviving in the great Rann of Kutch

I wearily push my way through the crowd stepping around a cow as I approach the chai stand. I yell over the noise of the street “Dean masala chai baia,” which means, “three spiced chais please, brother,” in Gujarati. He expertly pours out three cups of chai as I wipe the unrelenting sweat from my brow. I grasp three small, dirty, chipped cups of chai welcoming the burning sensation on my fingers as it snaps me out of the lethargy induced by a losing battle against heat exhaustion; I spent the morning fruitlessly trying to determine the efficacy of medicinal plant extracts in a room far exceeding the ambient temperature of 120 ºF. Walking back to my colleagues, I distribute the cups. We stand sipping our chai as I address the ever-present curious onlookers in broken Gujarati: “My name is Brother Cameron. I am from the United States. I am here to study medicine from the drumstick plant. I am a Fulbrighter.”

At the risk of a third degree sunburn, I stand in the sun and allow my mind to drift back to when I was finishing my bachelor’s degree at Pepperdine University, trying to join the Fulbright family on a grant to India. I poured myself into countless drafts of my application, attempting to convey how I would leave my fingerprint on the world of medicinal plant science while engaging with my local host community. Look at me now, standing in the middle of the street, leaving my grimy fingerprint on a cup of chai, vainly trying to maintain forward progress on my research.

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Foreign Fulbright

From India to New York: Going Global through Fulbright

January 22, 2014

Left to right: Suchi Gaur, 2012-2013, Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research Fellow from India, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gilard, and University of Texas, El Paso Professor of Communications Arvind Singhal, attending a session on polio eradication during the United Nations General Assembly 2012

There are many aspects of what it means to be a Fulbrighter. For instance, it changes not only how people identify you, but how you see yourself and the world. The amount of exposure to different cultures and experience that Fulbright provides is immense. The feeling of being a 2012-2013 Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research Fellow from India started sinking in the day I attended the pre-departure orientation. Being chosen as a representative of my country was huge. I knew that what I that my experience researching community radio and participatory communication in the United States would be different from my previous experiences in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, and I was very much looking forward to it.

When I attended the Gateway Orientation at Virginia Commonwealth University, the feeling of ‘going global’ overcame me, and I realized just how huge a responsibility being a Fulbrighter is. During the orientation, I learned much about the American Civil War and also from my fellow Fulbrighters from all over the world.

When I arrived at New York University’s (NYU’s) Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, I knew that as a Development Communication and Extension Specialist from India, NYU was going to be a great place to analyze global development, not just by studying what is happening within the field in the United States, but also by meeting with representatives from different countries. My Fulbright research focuses on community radio stations as models of participatory communication, and I intend to use my findings on American community radio stations’ financial and volunteer management when I return to India. Understanding the similarities and differences between Indian and American models will be particularly helpful in developing an in-depth analysis of global community radio stations’ best practices.

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Foreign Fulbright U.S. Fulbright

My Fulbright/Millennial Train Journey

January 1, 2014

Fulbright U.S. Student alumnus to India, and Millennial Trains Project founder, Patrick Dowd, (2010-2011, left), and Lakshmi Gopalakrishnan, 2012-2014, India (right), near San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge

I came to the United States from India over a year ago on a Fulbright Foreign Student Program grant to pursue a master’s in public health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), the country’s oldest public university. I was given this unique opportunity not just to study public health, but to also experience all the diversity American culture and its people have to offer.

So far, my academic experience at UNC has opened my eyes to limitless possibilities. From classroom discussions, seminars, and volunteer work, to my summer practicum at IntraHealth International, each experience has further solidified my understanding and commitment to public health. Within the field, I am specializing in maternal and child health. My research interests are in program monitoring and evaluation, strengthening existing health systems, improving water quality and sanitation, and health programs for adolescent girls. Upon my return home, I plan to work for a non-governmental organization where I can design and implement programs while enhancing government health systems.

Aside from my studies, I have participated in many multicultural potlucks with other students, celebrated Halloween and Thanksgiving with American and international friends, and engaged in community health issues through a local health clinic. I feel blessed to have experienced a slice of Southern hospitality in North Carolina. My Fulbright grant has also allowed me to dispel myths surrounding Indian-Americans and South Asian immigrants in the United States.

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FLTA Foreign Fulbright

Shrinking the World and Broadening Horizons

October 2, 2013

Yashpreet Bakshi, 2009-2010, Fulbright FLTA from India (second from left), teaching other Fulbright FLTAs an Indian dance

My first journey outside of India was to Syracuse, New York in 2009 to attend a summer orientation for my Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistantship (FLTA). My Fulbright experience went smoothly in part because of the guidance I received during the orientation at Syracuse University, and in part because of the mid-year conference in Washington, DC. Being a Fulbright FLTA and cultural ambassador, I interacted not only with people I met and worked with in the United States, but with my fellow Fulbright FLTAs from more than 50 countries. At times during my grant, I felt like a newborn baby being guided at every step by the United States India Educational Foundation, the Institute of International Education, and the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. The environment in the United States was filled with different accents, people, manners – but the welcoming diversity around me made me feel at home.

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