From nrao at wellesley.edu Mon Feb 12 06:53:19 2007 From: nrao at wellesley.edu (Nikhil Rao) Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2007 06:53:19 -0500 Subject: [Urban-Media] Spring Sessions In-Reply-To: <1171142678.5041.43.camel@nowhereman> References: <1171142678.5041.43.camel@nowhereman> Message-ID: hello all, I'm looking forward to our meetings this semester. Wednesdays work best for me, 7-9 slot as before. On Thursdays I will be able to make some/many meetings. Fridays are not good for me. Cheers, Nikhil MIT Urban Media Mailing List on Saturday, February 10, 2007 at 4:24 PM -0500 wrote: >Dear All: > >Now that the semester has begun at MIT, I wanted to see when we can >re-convene for our seminar this coming semester. Thursday or Friday >evenings work best for me, though Wednesday is also possible. I imagine >we could continue with the 7.00 to 9.00 p.m. slot as before. Please >write back with your preferred time and day, and I'll begin assembling a >schedule for this semester. This will include presentations by Eric, >Ilham and myself, as we had discussed earlier, and we can meet next week >to think about other sessions. > >Best, > > >S.K. Nikhil Rao Assistant Professor Dept. of History, Wellesley College 106 Central Street Wellesley, MA 02481 Voice: 781.283.2918 Fax: 781.283.3661 From i.khuri-makdisi at neu.edu Mon Feb 12 12:03:55 2007 From: i.khuri-makdisi at neu.edu (i.khuri-makdisi@neu.edu) Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2007 12:03:55 -0500 Subject: [Urban-Media] Spring Sessions Message-ID: hi, wedn 7-9 is ok by me, too. To "MIT Urban Media Mailing List" cc "MIT Urban Media Mailing List" bcc Subject Re: [Urban-Media] Spring Sessions "Nikhil Rao" Sent by: urban-media-bounces at MIT.EDU 02/12/2007 06:53 AM

Please respond to MIT Urban Media Mailing List

hello all, I'm looking forward to our meetings this semester. Wednesdays work best for me, 7-9 slot as before. On Thursdays I will be able to make some/many meetings. Fridays are not good for me. Cheers, Nikhil MIT Urban Media Mailing List on Saturday, February 10, 2007 at 4:24 PM -0500 wrote: >Dear All: > >Now that the semester has begun at MIT, I wanted to see when we can >re-convene for our seminar this coming semester. Thursday or Friday >evenings work best for me, though Wednesday is also possible. I imagine >we could continue with the 7.00 to 9.00 p.m. slot as before. Please >write back with your preferred time and day, and I'll begin assembling a >schedule for this semester. This will include presentations by Eric, >Ilham and myself, as we had discussed earlier, and we can meet next week >to think about other sessions. > >Best, > > >S.K. Nikhil Rao Assistant Professor Dept. of History, Wellesley College 106 Central Street Wellesley, MA 02481 Voice: 781.283.2918 Fax: 781.283.3661 --- MIT Urban Media Mailing List http://urban.media.mit.edu http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/urban-media From pcperdue at MIT.EDU Wed Feb 14 16:07:06 2007 From: pcperdue at MIT.EDU (Peter C. Perdue) Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2007 16:07:06 -0500 Subject: [Urban-Media] American Scholars not Welcome in India! In-Reply-To: <1171218820.18900.65.camel@nowhereman> References: <1171218820.18900.65.camel@nowhereman> Message-ID: <003901c7507c$50f5eed0$2102a8c0@mit4075fa808f1> Dear Shekhar, Thanks for the information about India. I take some grim consolation from the fact that China is no worse than India in denying visa spplications to Fulbright scholars; just maybe a bit faster in saying no to those they don't like! It will be interesting to see if our Secretary of State, a former Stanford provost, cares about this issue at all, Peter Peter C. Perdue T.T. and Wei Fong Chao Professor of Asian Civilizations Professor of History E51-291, History Faculty Massachusetts Institute of Technology 77 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge MA 02139-4307 Tel: 617-253-3064 FAX: 617-253-9406 Cell: 617-905-3702 -----Original Message----- From: urban-media-bounces at MIT.EDU [mailto:urban-media-bounces at MIT.EDU] On Behalf Of Shekhar Krishnan Sent: Sunday, February 11, 2007 1:34 PM To: Prachi Deshpande; Svati P Shah; Svati Shah; Manan Ahmed; Nikhil Rao; Eric Lewis Beverley Cc: urban-media at mit.edu Subject: [Urban-Media] American Scholars not Welcome in India! Have a look at this story from the Indian Express and my blog post. Looking forward to your comments and disagreements. http://www.indianexpress.com/iep/sunday/story/23071.html http://www.heptanesia.net/2007/02/11/need-for-regime-change/ Best, S.K. -- "Are you an American scholar? You aren't welcome in India" That's the signal from the UPA to Fulbright scholars in the US: delaying their visas for weeks, months; rejecting their research proposals without any reason. Even asking them to change their subject. This when Indo-US equation couldn't have been better THE SUNDAY EXPRESS Shubhajit Roy Posted Sunday 11 February 2007 NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 10 :For all the talk about a buzzing, confident India, there couldn't be a better - or, to be more accurate, worse - showcase of how some things haven't changed than this: the country, which is on its way towards signing a landmark nuclear deal with the United States, whose engagement with Washington is a centrepiece of its foreign policy, makes US scholars virtually bend and crawl when it comes to their visiting India for research. The Sunday Express accessed latest official records on the Indo-US Fulbright programme, one of the most prestigious bilateral scholar-exchange programmes, under which about 100 scholars from India go to the US and an equal number of Americans come here to pursue research with relevant institutions. Fulbright scholars - including graduates from premier universities, like Stanford, Harvard, Berkeley and Chicago - have gone on to win 34 Nobels and more than 60 Pulitzer Prizes. Records show that for US scholars, the last two years - since the UPA came to power - have been the worst in the 57-year history of the programme. Not only has the Government kept the highest number of scholars waiting for anywhere between anywhere between six months to 21 months - effectively derailing their entire schedule - it has also, in several cases, rejected research proposals without giving any reason. Sample the subjects rejected by the babus of this "secular" Government: Democratization in Kerala and the role of associations; perceptions of Muslim women; Left politics in Mumbai; how migration affects Hindus and Muslims in Hyderabad and Dubai. Many scholars refused to re-apply while some changed their subjects to get a visa (see chart). Significantly, the scholars get no explanation why their research proposals have been rejected. While Indian scholars, selected under the Fulbright programme, get their visas from anywhere between two hours to two weeks, US scholars are told that the Indian government needs "three months" to process their application. Even those three months are only on paper. At the beginning of the academic year, in August 2006, when the Fulbright scholars should have been in India, there were 93 applications pending for grant of visas of a total of 100. And this included not just last year's pending applications, but also some from 2005. So delayed was the process that the Fulbright Commission in India, popularly known as the United States Educational Foundation in India (USEFI), had little choice but to cancel its August orientation programme. And 33 scholars sent an angry letter to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asking her to intervene. As of today, over six months into the academic year, there are still eight applications pending. Another seven are still waiting for their visas after they changed their subject. Key to the delay is the stifling red tape: HRD, the nodal ministry, first gets the visa applications from scholars through USEFI; it then sends each scholar's file to the Ministry of External Affairs and the Home Ministry which, in turn, asks the Intelligence Bureau for clearance. Sometimes, even the Ministry concerned is asked to vet the subject. For example, the Environment Ministry may be asked to clear a research proposal on India's energy needs. While HRD officials do not specify who decides on the "suitability" of the proposal, sources said an "IB-negative report" or a Ministry's "concerns" lead to the blacklist. When asked to explain the delay, HRD Secretary R P Agarwal said: "Our Ministry is only a postbox. We have asked the MEA and Home Ministry to speed up clearances." (Tomorrow: Desperate scholars appeal to US Secretary of State) shubhajit.roy at expressindia.com -- Shekhar Krishnan 400, West 119th Street, Apt.10D New York, NY 10027 U.S.A. http://www.mit.edu/~shekhar http://www.heptanesia.net http://www.crit.org.in/members/shekhar --- MIT Urban Media Mailing List http://urban.media.mit.edu http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/urban-media