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Nicholson Students Spotlight Indian Caste System in New Documentary
BY LISA MILLS, PH.D. A non-governmental organization (NGO) that fights caste discrimination with education is the subject of a new documentary directed by Lisa Mills, Ph.D., associate professor of film in the Nicholson School of Communication and Media. The NGO, Movement for Scavenger Community (MSC), was founded by Vimal Kumar, a doctoral candidate at the […]
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New Photo Exhibit Captures Indian Festivals in Florida
A new photo exhibit opening this week in the John C. Hitt Library opens a window into the connection between Indian festivals and Central Florida. The more than 30 photos, commissioned by the Asian Cultural Association (ACA), follow more than a year of Indian festivals, including Holi, the Festival of Colors, and Navratri Garba. The […]
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UCF History Instructor Explores the Cinema of West Bengal
BY DAVID MORTON Last summer I embarked on an extraordinary journey into India’s remarkable cinematic past and present. As a passionate enthusiast for international cinema, I was presented with an extraordinary opportunity to go behind the scenes to study one of India’s oldest and internationally prestigious motion picture industries. While many westerners may have at […]
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Guest Speaker Explains India’s Election Year Political Climate
The 2019 Indian elections, which will be the largest exercise in democracy in world history, look increasingly competitive. While the incumbent, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, remains personally popular, his Bharatiya Janata Party is facing an unexpectedly robust challenge from the Congress Party and its coalition partners. Max Rodenbeck, South Asia bureau chief of The Economist, […]
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Global Perspective’s John Bersia Pushed for International Awareness
BY GENE KRUCKEMYER ’73 John C. Bersia ’77, director of UCF’s Global Perspectives Office, a professor of international issues, and a Pulitzer Prize recipient while an editorial writer at the Orlando Sentinel, died Thursday of metastatic cancer. He was 62. Bersia started working at UCF in 2001, later became a special assistant to the president […]
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Veteran Policymaker To Discuss Growing U.S.-India Relationship
Former Deputy Secretary of State Manpreet Singh Anand will visit the University of Central Florida as a guest of the India Center. Singh will participate in a series of events for students, faculty and members of the community. On Tuesday, Feb. 19, he will give a talk title: “Examining the U.S.-India Relationship: Growth, Opportunities & […]
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India Center Visits Smart City Champions
A UCF delegation led by Michael Johnson, Ph.D., dean of the College of Sciences, and interim director of the India Center, recently completed an intense, 8-day visit to the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The delegation, which included individuals from the College of Sciences, College of Engineering, and the Office of Research, met with […]
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Cultural Traditions of India: Music and Art
by Madison Kjosa This past Wednesday, Nov. 14, the Burnett Honors College was swathed in the sights and sounds of India during “Cultural Traditions of India: Music and Art” as part of UCF’s International Education Week (IEW). Described by UCF Global, IEW is a “joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Department […]
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Lady Bikers, Street Dogs and Kolkata Featured in New Films from UCF Students
By ROBERT WELLS Lady bikers, street dogs and visceral sights and sounds from a city nearly 10,000 miles away are showcased in new documentaries completed by UCF film students while they spent a few weeks in Kolkata, India. The documentaries will make their UCF debut at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 15, at the Burnett Honors College as part […]
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Study Links Ethnic Violence and Natural Disasters in India
Didara Nurmanova, a Ph.D. candidate in the Security Studies program in the Political Science Department, is conducting a study on the links between natural disasters and ethnic conflict in India. In June 2013, India was hit by the North India floods, described as the country’s worst natural disaster since the 2004 tsunami. The floods resulting […]
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Tactics For Resolving Kashmir Conflict Focus of Book
Longstanding disputes between countries are not solved overnight. But there are ways to mitigate the violence during the transitional period. That’s the focus of a book by Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra, Ph.D., entitled “Conflict Management in Kashmir: State-People Relations and Peace,” published by Cambridge University Press. Mahapatra, an adjunct professor in the Political Science department, […]
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India Border Disputes Inspires Award-Winning Research Paper
A research paper investigating why bordering countries with settled borders engage in militarized conflicts earned a political science doctorate student the Jim Wintakes award for best graduate paper at the International Studies Association (ISA)-South Conference in Ashland, Va., recently. Karthikeyan Thiagarajan, who is pursuing his doctoral degree in security studies, won the award Oct. 13 […]
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Scholar Brings Insights on Indian and South Asian Politics
The India Center welcomed G. Gopa Kumar, Ph.D., to UCF last week. Kumar is vice chancellor of the Central University of Kerala, India. Kumar met with students and faculty to discuss issues in Indian and South Asian politics. During his presentation, Kumar highlighted that current political economy approaches to studying politics might not provide the […]
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Students Build International Bridges Through Filmmaking
Sponsorships from the India Center at UCF opened up the opportunity for eight students to travel to India this summer and grow their filmmaking chops. Six undergraduate and two graduate film students joined film professor and Fulbright Scholar Phil Peters in Kolkata on an innovative research project conducted by The India Documentary Lab. The […]
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Consul General of India Visits UCF
Dr. Swati Vijay Kulkarni, the new consul general of India based in the Atlanta Consulate, visited the University of Central Florida on September 11 for an introduction to campus leadership and faculty members. Kulkarni also met with several Indian students studying and conducting research at UCF who shared their experiences with student life. “We are […]
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IACC Recognizes Leaders, Celebrates Success at 9th Gala
Distinguished guests and a year of growth were recognized Saturday at the Indian American Chamber of Commerce’s 9th Annual Awards Gala. IACC President Yog Melwani addressed more than 300 entrepreneurs and business managers gathered in Orlando International Airport’s Intermodal Terminal Facility. “IACC continues to experience extraordinary growth in 2018, while building a strong presence in […]
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UCF-Madhya Pradesh State Sign Agreement for Research, Academic Cooperation
Dean of the College of Sciences and Interim Director of the India Center Dr. Michael Johnson announced that UCF and the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh have signed an agreement to cooperate on a range of research, education, and sustainability projects. The memorandum of understanding agreement was the result of an April visit to […]
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Connecting with India’s Experts
This summer, UCF’s India Center had the unique opportunity to meet with two delegations of experts from India. In May, the India Center hosted a group focused on U.S.-India space policy cooperation. The visiting group included two professors, a scientist and a member of the news media. The delegation met with India Center co-chairs John […]
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COS Distinguished Alumni Award Winner 2018: Rishi Bagga
For alumnus Rishi Bagga, attending UCF was a last minute choice after visiting the campus with his older sister. However, majoring in political science was the obvious choice. “My first interest in politics came through my dad,” he said. “But the real kicker came when I joined my high school debate team; I loved hanging […]
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The India Center Helps Send Debate Team Around the World
The weather in Orlando was chilly during the winter break, but the UCF Debate Team continued to heat up. Not only did the team compete at the Hurricane Debates hosted by the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, some of the team also traveled to India and participated in Calcutta’s Festival of the Spoken […]
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The India Center at UCF Honors Distinguished Professor
The India Center at UCF hosted an event to honor the retirement of Narsingh Deo, Ph.D., Charles N. Millican Eminent Scholar’s Chair in Computer Science and Director of the Center for Parallel Computation in the College of Computer Science and Engineering. The evening of celebration was made possible by Sharad Mehta, Anil Deshpande and Ajit […]
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India Center Welcomes Dr. Tanvi Madan
The India Center at UCF was honored to host Dr. Tanvi Madan in early December. Madan is a fellow for the Project on International Order and Strategy in the Foreign Policy program at The Brookings Institution, and director of The India Project. Her work explores Indian foreign policy, focusing in particular on India’s relations with […]
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The India Center Sponsors Trip for Students
The India Center at UCF, housed in the Political Science Department in the College of Sciences, co-sponsored four undergraduate students to travel to India during summer 2017. The trip was organized by Phil Peters, Professor of Film and Animation in the College of Arts and Humanities. The four-week long trip to India was part of […]
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Professional Exchange Builds Friendships
A delegation representing Indian think tanks and print and broadcast media visited The India Center recently. The World Affairs Council of Central Florida facilitated the visit. John C. Bersia, UCF’s special assistant to the president for Global Perspectives and co-chair of The India Center, hosted the group, along with Amanda Fleming, the center’s senior program […]
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Junked Cash Sends India Economy in Tailspin
Sunitha Natti, a senior business journalist, is a non-resident Fellow for The India Center in the College of Sciences at the University of Central Florida. Below, Natti provides an update on India’s economy: Nov. 8 was a historic day for the world in general, and for the United States and India in particular. If president-elect […]
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Gandhi’s Grandson Provides Insights on Peace Process
Peace activist and grandson of Mahatma Gandhi Dr. Arun Gandhi has long shared his wisdom with audiences and administrators at UCF, where he advises The India Center and the Global Perspectives Office. In October, Gandhi delivered his insights in a special setting as the keynote speaker for UCF’s annual interfaith forum. He drew lessons from […]
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Big News for The India Center at UCF
A new collaboration between The India Center at UCF and The New Indian Express newspaper is serving to broaden awareness and understanding between the world’s two largest democracies – and providing an opportunity for writers at UCF to be seen around the world by readers of the publication. Beginning in October, articles written at UCF […]
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Author Shares Insights On India Youth Culture
On Thursday, Sept. 8, 2016, the UCF Global Perspectives Office and The India Center at UCF hosted Somini Sengupta, a foreign correspondent for The New York Times. Sengupta discussed her book, The End of Karma: Hope and Fury among India’s Young. Sengupta emigrated from Kolkata to California as a young child in 1975. She returned […]
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Internship Opens Up Awareness of Indian Human Trafficking
Robert Vogan, a senior at UCF majoring in International and Global Studies with a minor in Spanish, spent his summer as an intern in Washington, D.C. There, he contributed to efforts to fight human trafficking in India. We asked Robert to share his internship experience. During the summer of 2016, I spent ten weeks in […]
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Indian Journalists Visit Central Florida
Journalists from several Indian news organizations participated in an International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) visit to the Orlando area in April. The local schedule of activities was organized and facilitated by the World Affairs Council of Central Florida. Hailing from the Indian states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, the journalists spent two weeks in various […]