EVENTS

In collaboration with the Harvard Yenching Institute (HYI), the ICS inaugurated the Institute of Chinese Studies-Harvard Yenching Institute (ICS-HYI) Joint Scholarship for Doctoral Research in January 2014. Two scholarships for a period of five years each, are awarded to selected candidates, enrolled in the doctoral Programme in Indian universities. In the first year the selected candidate would strengthen Chinese language capabilities in India and thereafter spend one year in a Chinese university and the third year at the HYI in the United States. The recipients of the scholarship work across disciplines and are based in different universities in India. In the panel discussion, the panelists will share their journey as recipients of the prestigious fellowship and how it has helped them in their evolution and development as scholars/academics/researchers.

About the Speakers

Mr Shanky Chandra  is an Assistant Professor and Head of the Chinese Studies Department. School of Languages at Doon University. He is currently finalising his doctoral thesis titled "Socio-Political and Cultural Factors in the Making of Chinese Science Fiction Writer Liu Cixin: Understanding The Three-Body Problem," at the Centre for Chinese and Southeast Asian Studies, JNU New Delhi. His research interests include modern and contemporary Chinese science fiction. In 2021 he spent one year at the Department of Modern and Contemporary Chinese Language and Literature at the School of Chinese Language and Literature of Beijing Normal University as a senior visiting scholar and recipient of the ICS-HYI Doctoral Fellowship under Prof. Wu Yan's supervision. Thereafter, he conducted research at the Harvard-Yenching Institute, Harvard, under the supervision of Prof. Mingwei Song. He is also a member of the International Forum of Chinese Language Teachers and its official Account e-journal（国际汉语教师500强公众号）. He has participated in numerous conferences and has various research publications to his credit.

Dr. Nishit Kumar is a trained sinologist currently working as a Research Analyst at the Centre for Contemporary China Studies, Ministry of External Affairs, Govt. of India. In 2018, he was awarded the Institute of Chinese Studies-Harvard Yenching Institute (ICS-HYI) Doctoral Fellowship to conduct research at Peking University, Bejing and Harvard University, Boston. He was also awarded the Huawei-Maitree Scholarship in 2012 to pursue Chinese language training at Ningbo University (NBU), China. His recent publications include “Howard Goldblatt’s Translations of Mo Yan’s Works into English: Reader Oriented Approach” in Translation Today (Volume 15 (1), 2021) and “The New Culture Movement and Huaju: From an Art form to an Agent of Change” in China’s May Fourth Movement: New Narratives and Perspectives, Routledge (forthcoming, 2022). He is also a published translator of Chinese short stories into Hindi.

Ms. Saloni Sharma is a doctoral researcher in Chinese Studies at the Centre for Chinese and Southeast Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. She also holds a postgraduate diploma in Liberal Studies from Ashoka University as part of the Young India Fellowship. She is passionate about studying ecological and cultural intersections. She is a recipient of the prestigious ICS-HYI Doctoral Fellowship, 2019. Presently, she’s enrolled at National Taiwan Normal University where she’s building on her linguistic skills and writing her doctoral thesis on China’s Ecological Civilisation.

Mr. Pawan Amin is a researcher on China Studies based in New Delhi. He is pursuing his PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University's Centre for East Asian Studies. His research interests include China's interactions with the UN and other regional organizations, Beijing's foreign and economic policies towards countries facing protracted domestic conflicts, and its influence on deterrence stability in East and South Asia. He is a recipient of the ICS-HYI Doctoral Fellowship, 2019 and is presently pursuing his Chinese language training from National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei.

About the Chair

Prof. Alka Acharya is Honorary Director of the ICS and; Chairperson at the Centre for East Asian Studies, SIS, Jawaharlal Nehru University. She has been teaching courses on Chinese Foreign Policy and Political Economy to the Masters and M.Phil students and guiding doctoral research since 1993. She is the joint editor of the book Crossing a Bridge of Dreams: 50 years of India-China and has contributed chapters to many books and journals. She has authored a book China & India: Politics of Incremental Engagement, published in 2008 and most recently edited a volume titled Boundaries and Borderlands: A Century after the 1914 Simla Convention (Routledge, New York 2023). She was nominated by the Indian government as a member of the India-China Eminent Persons Group (2006-2008) and member of the National Security Advisory Board of the Government of India for two terms (2006-2008) and (2011-2012).

Event Registration Link Here