Chasing Innovation: Making Entrepreneurial Citizens in Modern India

The ethos of innovation and entrepreneurship, honed in high-technology firms, has colonized philanthropy, development projects, government policies, and even thinking about international diplomacy. Innovation competitions, hackathons, and corporate mythologies around figures such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs proliferate optimism that passionate dreamers can change the world. But do entrepreneurial approaches to innovation really serve social needs? In this talk, I trace the history of this entrepreneurial form of citizenship in India, from colonial times to the present. I offer case studies that demonstrate how innovation needs to change to prioritize the needs of people over elite companies and institutions. This talk is drawn from my book Chasing Innovation: Making Entrepreneurial Citizens in Modern India (Princeton University Press).

Lilly Irani is an Associate Professor of Communication & Science Studies at University of California, San Diego. She also serves as faculty in the Design Lab, Institute for Practical Ethics, the program in Critical Gender Studies, and sits on the Academic Advisory Board of AI Now (NYU). She is author of Chasing Innovation: Making Entrepreneurial Citizens in Modern India (Princeton University Press, 2019) and Redacted (with Jesse Marx) (Taller California, 2021). Chasing Innovation has been awarded the 2020 International Communication Association Outstanding Book Award and the 2019 Diana Forsythe Prize for feminist anthropological research on work, science, or technology, including biomedicine.

2021 > Denmark > Directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen
With Daniel Karimyar, Farhan Karimyar, Fardin Mijdzadeh
Amin arrived in Copenhagen as a teenage refugee from Afghanistan under the Taliban. Now, 20 years later, he relates his story to director Rasumussen as he struggles with secrets from his past on the brink of marrying his boyfriend, in a stunning animated documentary which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. The film has been shortlisted for both Best International Feature and Best Documentary Feature Oscars. Subtitled. More at www.fleemovie.com
1 hr 30 min

This is the second day of a two-day virtual workshop on peacebuilding, climate change, and migration. The first day of the workshop is March 22, 2022; participants are welcome to attend for just one or both days.

On this second day, we will examine understudied regions which are at substantial risk of climate change impacts, including Latin America, Southeast Asia, and South Asia. What resources, methods, and approaches can help us better understand the relationship between peacebuilding, climate change, and migration in these understudied regions? How can we achieve environmental justice in these areas?

The first day of the workshop is March 22, 2022.

WORKSHOP AGENDA

Introductory reflection
Karim-Aly Kassam
International Professor of Environmental and Indigenous Studies, Department of Natural Resources and the Environment & the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University

Dr. George Wilkes
Director, Religion and Ethics in the Making of War and Peace Project
Research Fellow, School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh

Presenters
Alpa Shah
Professor, Department of Anthropology, The London School of Economics and Political Science

Jonathan Padwe
Associate Professor and Undergraduate Chair, Department of Anthropology, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

Fábio Zuker
Journalist, Anthropologist, and Amazon Rainforest Journalism Fund Grantee

This workshop is being organized by Cornell University’s Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, with support from the Migrations Initiative, and co-sponsorship from the Institute for African Development, the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program, the South Asia Program, the Southeast Asia Program, and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

This is the first day of a two-day virtual workshop which takes a novel approach to peacebuilding, climate change and migration. The first day of the workshop is March 22, 2022; participants are welcome to attend for just one or both days.

On this first day we will explore the following questions: What do we know about the relationship between peacebuilding, migration, and climate change? How can we develop a socio-environmental conception of positive peace, which entails developing means of peacefully resolving conflict, and which centers Indigenous perspectives and environmental justice?

The second day is March 24, 2022

WORKSHOP AGENDA

Introduction
Rebecca Slayton, Director, Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, Cornell University
Associate Professor, Department of Science and Technology Studies

Rachel Beatty Riedl, Director and John S. Knight Professor of International Studies, Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies
Professor, Department of Government, Cornell University

Presenters
Marieme Lo, Director, African Studies Program
Associate Professor, Women and Gender Studies, University of Toronto.

Päivi Lujala, Professor of Geography and Academy of Finland Research Fellow
Geography Research Unit, University of Oulu, Finland

Noor Ahmad Akhundzadah, Dean and Professor of Environmental Science, University of Kabul, Afghanistan
Visiting Professor, Department of Natural Resources and the Environment & the South Asia Program, Cornell University

This workshop is being organized by Cornell University’s Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, with support from the Migrations Initiative, and co-sponsorship from the Institute for African Development, the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program, the South Asia Program, the Southeast Asia Program, and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Are you interested in the intersection of mental health and culture, global health, and community engagement? Do you want to gain field research skills and learn about indigenous communities in South India’s beautiful and fragile Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve? If so, the Cornell-Keystone Nilgiris Field Learning Program might be for you! Join Faculty Director, Andrew Willford, and the Office of Global Learning to learn more about the Cornell-Keystone NFLP Summer Program in India!

Are you interested in the intersection of mental health and culture, global health, and community engagement? Do you want to gain field research skills and learn about indigenous communities in South India’s beautiful and fragile Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve? If so, the Cornell-Keystone Nilgiris Field Learning Program might be for you! Join Faculty Director, Andrew Willford, and the Office of Global Learning to learn more about the Cornell-Keystone NFLP Summer Program in India!

The Lingua Mater competition invites students to translate Cornell's Alma Mater into a different language and submit a video of the performed translation. The inaugural Lingua Mater student competition took place in 2018 as part of Cornell's Global Grand Challenges Symposium. The top three videos received cash prizes.

2022 competition details

Can you translate Cornell’s Alma Mater into your mother tongue (or a language you are learning/have learned at Cornell) and sing it? We invite you to translate “Far Above Cayuga’s Waters” and submit a video of you (and your friends!) performing it somewhere on any of Cornell’s campuses.

Translations do not need to be exact or perfectly in meter but should capture the feel and tune of our university’s Alma Mater. As is customary, include the first verse, refrain, second verse, and refrain in your video submission (for guidance, listen to a performance and read the lyrics).

Video submissions need to be MP4 files at 1920 x 1080 (1080p), in landscape mode with an aspect ratio of 16:9. Please ensure that you have copyright permission for any images/videos you use.

Entries will be reviewed by a panel of judges. Submissions will be judged equally on the translation, the musical quality, and the creativity in visual presentation.

The top three entries will win cash prizes.

Winners will be announced during International Education Week (November 14-18, 2022) and the top three videos will be posted online that week.

Entries may be submitted by any registered Cornell student or group of students.

Submission deadline: Sunday, November 6, 2022

SUBMIT YOUR VIDEO AND LYRICS HERE

Please contact Angelika Kraemer, Director of the Language Resource Center, if you have any questions.

The Lingua Mater competition is co-sponsored by the Language Resource Center and the Office of the Vice Provost for International Affairs.

The Lingua Mater competition invites alumni to translate Cornell's Alma Mater into a different language and submit a video of the performed translation. The inaugural Lingua Mater alumni competition took place in 2018 as part of Cornell's Global Grand Challenges Symposium. Winners included the Cornell Club of Thailand in 2018, Cornell Club of Gaeta, Italy in 2019, and alumni in Argentina in 2021. They received financial support for a local alumni event.

2022 competition details

Can you translate Cornell’s Alma Mater into your mother tongue (or a language you learned at Cornell) and sing it? We invite you to translate “Far Above Cayuga’s Waters” and submit a video of you (and your friends!) performing it, wherever you may be!

Translations do not need to be exact or perfectly in meter but should capture the feel and tune of our university’s Alma Mater. As is customary, include the first verse, refrain, second verse, and refrain in your video submission (for guidance, listen to a performance and read the lyrics).

Video submissions need to be MP4 files at 1920 x 1080 (1080p), in landscape mode with an aspect ratio of 16:9. Please ensure that you have copyright permission for any images/videos you use.

Entries will be reviewed by a panel of judges. Submissions will be judged equally on the translation, the musical quality, and the creativity in visual presentation.

The top entry will receive financial support and Cornell swag for a local alumni event.

Winners will be announced during International Education Week (November 14-18, 2022) via Noteworthy, and the top video will be posted online that week. Be sure to subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay in the know of this competition and international alumni activities.

Entries may be submitted by any Cornell alumni groups outside of the United States and Canada.

Submission deadline: Sunday, October 30, 2022

SUBMIT YOUR VIDEO AND LYRICS HERE

Please contact the International Alumni Relations team if you have any questions.

The Lingua Mater competition is co-sponsored by the Office of International Alumni Relations, the Language Resource Center, and the Office of the Vice Provost for International Affairs.

Perspectives in Global Development Seminar Speaker: Ashish Bajracharya, deputy director at Population Council Location: Emerson 135 and Zoom. In recent years, the garment industries of countries in South and Southeast Asia, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Vietnam have grown to provide economic opportunities to millions and become significant contributors to their economies. The workforce in the garment sector across the region is dominated by women, typically under the age of 30, who have significant unmet need for sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and family planning (FP) information and services. There has recently been a growing recognition of these needs and the vulnerability of women from development actors, governments, donors and industry stakeholders. In this talk, I will share the experience of the Population Council and our work on improving the health and wellbeing of women working in the garment sectors of Cambodia and Bangladesh, with support from the United States Agency for International Development. Between 2013-2019, the Population Council conducted rigorous implementation science research, and engaged with government and industry stakeholders to co-lead the implementation of one of the most comprehensive women’s health focused interventions in the garment sector. Our worked combined policy advocacy, improved service delivery and rigorous research to drive prioritization of women’s health in the garment sectors of these countries. I will discuss lessons learned through the evidence we that we generated and ways forward for this work. About the speaker Dr. Ashish Bajracharya is the Deputy Director for Country Strategy in the International Programs Division at the Population Council, and its Regional Representative for South and East Asia. Dr. Bajracharya is a social demographer and behavioral scientist who specializes in issues related to gender, transitions to adulthood, maternal, sexual and reproductive health, family planning and HIV & AIDS outcomes of vulnerable populations, and rigorous evaluations of health financing and health systems strengthening interventions in low- and middle-income countries. Over the last decade, Dr. Bajracharya has lived and worked in South and East Asia, with bases in Hanoi, Vietnam, Phnom Penh, Cambodia and Dhaka, Bangladesh, where he is currently based, with research engagements in Lao PDR, Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines, Tanzania, Tajikistan, and Vietnam among others. Between 2015 and 2019 co-led WorkerHealth, a $3.8 million USAID initiative aimed at improving access to reproductive health and family planning services among female garment factory workers in Cambodia. Dr. Bajracharya received his Ph.D. in Policy Analysis and Management from Cornell University in 2008 where he specialized in social demography and human development. He was also a Bixby Postdoctoral Fellow at the Population Council in New York. He is a native of Nepal. About the seminar series The Perspectives in Global Development seminars are held Wednesdays from 12:25 – 1:15 p.m. eastern time during the semester. The series will be presented in a hybrid format with some speakers on campus and others appearing via Zoom. All seminars are shown in Emerson 135. Students, faculty and the general public are welcome to attend. The series is co-sponsored by the Department of Global Development, the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, and the School of Integrative Plant Science as part of courses IARD 6960, NTRES 6960, PLSCS 6960 and AEM 6960.