Workshops

Vijay Prashad teaches at Trinity College in Hartford, CT. He is the author of eight books, including two that were chosen by the Village Voice as the top 25 books of the year, Karma of Brown Folk (2000) and Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting: Afro-Asian Connections and the Myth of Cultural Purity (2001). His most recent books are Keeping Up with the Dow Joneses: Debt, Prison, Workfare (from Boston's South End Press) and Namaste Sharon: Hindutva and Sharonism under US Hegemony (from New Delhi's LeftWord Books). You can read his frequent pieces of journalism in South Asian periodicals (his monthly column "Letter from America" in Frontline), in North American periodicals (his monthly "Under Construction" in Little India or occasionally for ColorLines) or else on the web (monthly at ZNET, occasionally at Counterpunch). He is on the Executive Board of the Center for Third World Organizing (www.ctwo.org), on the Advisory Board of the Connecticut Union Community Fund (AFL-CIO), an editor of Amerasia Journal and of The Subcontinental. A native of Calcutta, India, he has lived in the US for over two decades, now in Northampton, MA.
Aalok Mehta is an LA-based actor and musician. He is a classically trained sitar player (disciple of Pt. Nayan Ghosh), singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. Aalok began his musical journey on the harmonium at age seven and has been steeped in music ever since. Recently he completed his indie debut CD "Technicolour" (limited release available on www.aalokmusic.com) which has been nominated for an LA Music Award for Best Independent Pop Album. Aalok has toured in both the US and India. His music video for the song "Breathe" can be seen on MTV India. His professional acting career began a few years back playing the lead role in the award winning American Chai (www.americanchai.com) Aalok loves expressing in both mediums and believes they serve each other. Aalok is first and foremost an artist. Whether singing with his highly acclaimed band, doing a film, TV, or theatre gig, Aalok strives to do work that has a positive message.
Rahul Mahajan is a former Green Party candidate for Texas governor. He is also a founding member of the Nowar Collective and serves on the National Board of Peace Action. His first book, "The New Crusade: America's War on Terrorism" (April 2002, Monthly Review Press), has been described as "mandatory reading for anyone who wants to get a handle on the war on terrorism." His latest book, "Full Spectrum Dominance: U.S. Power in Iraq and Beyond," just came out from Seven Stories Press. Mahajan writes frequently for mainstream and alternative media, in print and on the Web. His publications include articles in USA Today, Newsday, the Baltimore Sun, the Dallas Morning News, the Houston Chronicle, The Hindu (one of India's largest papers), the Jordan Times, and the Mideast Times in Cairo.

For more info, please visit: www.rahulmahajan.com.
Shazia Mirza is an award-winning writer and comedian and has rapidly achieved international status performing stand-up in Germany, Denmark, Italy, Sweden, USA, Canada, France, UK and Ireland. As a practising Muslim, there are some members of Shazia's culture who frown upon her profession, but with the support of many from her community she has recently won the 'Young Achiever of the Year' at The Leadership and Diversity Awards. In 2001 Shazia won the 'Hackney Empire Best New Act' and in 2002 received the 'Metro Magazine's People's Choice Best Comic Award' at the London Comedy Festival.

For more info, please visit: www.shaziamirza.org.
S. Mitra Kalita is an education reporter at The Washington Post and serves as president of the South Asian Journalists Association. She is the author of "Suburban Sahibs: Three immigrant families and their passage from India to America," published by Rutgers University Press and Penguin-India. She has written extensively about immigration and the South Asian diaspora. She previously worked for Newsday in New York City as a business reporter, carving a beat out of immigration and the economy. In the aftermath of Sept. 11, she did extensive reporting on the backlash faced by Arabs and South Asians in the New York area, and authored a chapter in a book about the experience ("At Ground Zero: The Young Reporters Who Were There Tell Their Stories"). She has reported from Buffalo and Bombay, and many points in between. Mitra graduated from Rutgers University, Phi Beta Kappa, with a bachelor's in history and journalism.

She received her master's degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Mitra has received numerous awards for her work, is featured in the "Best Business Stories of 2003" and was most recently named Young Journalist of the Year by the New York State Associated Press Association. She has lived in New York City, Long Island, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.
Nadine Naber is an assistant professor in the Program of American Culture and the Department of Women's Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She conducts research and teaches courses in the area of Arab American Studies. Her first book in progress, Arab San Francisco: On Gender, Cultural Citizenship, and Belonging. focuses on negotiations of race, gender, and sexuality among Arab youth in San Francisco, California. Her current research is funded by the Russell Sage Foundation and focuses on shifts in racial formations among Arab and Muslim Americans in the aftermath of September 11th.

She has published articles that situate Arab Americans in the context of U.S. Racial and Ethnic Studies (Naber, N. 2002. "So our History Doesn't Become your Future: The Local and Global Politics of Coalition Building Post September 11th. The Journal of Asian American Studies. October: 217-242; Naber, N. 2000. "Ambiguous Insiders, An Investigation of Arab American Invisibility." Journal of Ethnic and Racial Studies. 23(1)). She has also written on the implications of the World Conference against Racism for Transnational Feminist Practice (Naber, N. and Blackwell, Maylei. "Intersectionality in an Era of Globalization: The Impact of the World Conference Against Racism on Transnational Feminist Practice." Meridians: Race, Transnationalism, and Feminism. 2(2).

Nadine Naber is a board member of INCITE! Women of Color against Violence, Racial Justice 911, and RAWAN (Radical Arab Women's Activist Network).
Kashish Chopra ran for Miss India USA's Miss Congeniality (2003) as Miss India Massachusetts and was recently nominated for "Woman of the Year" by the New England publication, INDIA. With her profile in the Indian community, Kashish has tried to raise awareness for the gay south Asian community as well as issues of stereotypes and cultural fusion. Kashish is an active member of Boston MASALA (Massachusetts Area South Asian Lambda Association) an organization that reaches out to provide a safe and supportive social environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual & transgender individuals. Recently she has made visits to the University of Arizona and Yale. Recently featured in the New York Blade and She newsmagazines, at the age of twenty she is a senior at Suffolk University's School of Management and continues to use her different Miss India titles to help bridge cultural gaps.
Rahul M. Shah is an attorney with the Board of Immigration Appeals at the U.S. Department of Justice. In this position, he researches appealed immigration cases, identifies salient issues of immigration and asylum & refugee law, and prepares final agency decisions. Rahul received his J.D. from American University's Washington College of Law in 2002 and his B.A. in Political Science & Asian Studies from the University of Michigan in 1999.

While pursuing his J.D., Rahul served as a student attorney in American University's International Human Rights Law Clinic, where he successfully represented refugees seeking asylum protection in proceedings before the U.S. Immigration Court and the Board of Immigration Appeals. During law school, he also served as a law clerk with the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Immigration (Office of Senator Edward M. Kennedy) and the American Immigration Law Foundation, a non-profit organization that advances the legal rights of immigrants by promoting fundamental fairness in American immigration law and policy.

Rahul is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and serves on the executive board of the South Asian Bar Association in Washington D.C.
Javed Nazir is a Howard R. Marsh Visiting Professor in Journalism at the University of Michigan, and former editor of the Frontier Post, and an independent English-language newspaper in Pakistan. He has spent 25 years in journalism in South Asia, and he has written mostly on politics and social issues. In recent years, radicalization of religion, and its impact on societies in South Asia and Afghanistan, has been the major focus of his research efforts. A Fulbright Scholar, he is working on a book about the predicament of minorities (mainly Christians) in Islamic countries. His newspaper withstood intense pressure from those who practiced one of the most virulent forms of dictatorship and religious extremism.
Nirav Desai is founder and has served as Executive Director for the Subcontinental Institute for the last two years. He also serves as the Editor-in-Chief to its flagship publication, The Subcontinental: A Journal of South Asian American Political Identity. Nirav Desai worked as a software engineer for various companies over the past seven years. Additionally, he served as Chief Technology Officer of WordSoundAction, a non-profit arts organization that develops integrated human networks through performance art in new immigrant communities. During his studies, he served as Senior Editor of /Ex Nihilo/, the undergraduate philosophy journal for the University of Texas at Austin for one year and was an Editor for three years before that.

He received a B.S. in Computer Science and a B.A. in Mathematics and Philosophy from the University of Texas at Austin where he graduated with honors. He is a member of the South Asian American Congressional Staffers Association and the South Asian Journalist Association. He currently lives in Washington, DC.
Nita Kumar is a historian and anthropologist who works on community and identity formation in modern South Asia, and the nature of modernities and postcolonialities. She has written on urbanism, artisans, women, children, and education in several books and articles including The Artisans of Banaras (Princeton, 1988), Women as Subjects (Virginia, 1994), Friends, Brothers and Informants (Berkeley, 1992), Lessons from Schools (Sage, 2000), and Imagination: the Intelligentsia in Modern India (forthcoming). She is interested in methodology and argues that a possible history for South Asia demands our own presence in that history.
Sonal Shah is the Associate Director for Economic and Foreign Policy at the Center for American Progress, working on trade, outsourcing and other international economic policy issues. Prior to joining the Center, she was the Director of Programs and Operations at the Center for Global Development responsible for managing the daily operations of the center, serving as a strategic advisor to the president, and developing and managing policy and advocacy programs for the Center. Before joining the non-profit world, Sonal worked at the Department of Treasury on various economic issues and regions of the world, most recently as the Director of African Nations, covering all of sub-Saharan Africa. She also has extensive experience in post-conflict countries, working as the Treasury attaché in Bosnia and Kosovo working with these countries to develop an economic base after the conflict, including developing a new currency, banking system, budget and foreign investment laws. She also worked as the senior advisor to the Under Secretary and Assistant Secretary at the Department of Treasury during the Asian financial crisis. In addition, Sonal is co-founder of a non-profit organization called Indicorps (www.Indicorps.org), a new, US-based non-profit organization that offers one-year service fellowships for Americans of Indian origin to work on specific developmental projects in India. Indicorps develops projects with entrepreneurial and innovative non-governmental organizations in India with the aim of fostering an exchange of ideas and expertise. Indicorps cultivates Indian-American leaders in the U.S. to have a better understanding of India and the challenges of development.
Sanjay Bhatt earned a BS in Biology from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Currently, he is a first year student at the UIC medical school with an interest in neurology and international medicine. In addition, he is involved with a recently started program called MedicIndia that pairs medical students with Indian hospitals. Sanjay spent a year in tribal and underprivileged India with Ekal Vidyalaya and as an Indicorps fellow. He visited over 130 rural and tribal villages in 12 states and evaluated/documented their progress in primary education, health education, and village development. During his year in India, Sanjay tackled issues such as village exploitation, the importance of primary education, the benefits of adequate health care, all the while experiencing India’s rich culture and diversity.
Bindi Gandhi earned a BS in Chemistry and Sociology from Wofford College, SC and her MA in Child Development and Urban and Environmental Policyfrom Tufts University, MA. Currently she is working at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the Division of Adolescent and School Health on school environmental health issues for school-aged children. She spent a year living and working in India as an Indicorps fellow in Gujarat's largest slum community, Ramapir No Tekro, on creating tracking programs or an NGO-sponsored medical clinic and nonformal school. During the year there, she had an opportunity to really understand grassroots development, Indian NGOs, Indian government, public health problems, poverty, and marginalized/underserved populations.
Niraj Warikoo is a staff writer for the Detroit Free Press, where he covers Michigan's Arab and Muslim American communities, the largest concentration in the U.S. He also reports on the area west of Detroit. Warikoo has spoken about Arab-American issues on NPR, MSNBC's Hardball Show with Chris Matthews, and the BBC. Raised in Pennsylvania, he graduated from Columbia University with a bachelor's degree in political science and a masters in journalism. He has spoken at several forums, including the Investigative Reporters and Editors conference, Poynter National Writers Workshop, and the South Asian Journalists Association conference. Warikoo has exposed workplace safety problems at one of Ford's biggest plants, traveled abroad to report on the use of child labor in making bidi cigarettes, and revealed Michigan's decade-long neglect of its wetlands.
Photo Unavailable Debashish Mishra is a founder and Vice-Chair of South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow, SAALT, a national nonprofit organization that fosters leadership and civic engagement among South Asian Americans.. He is the author of "American Backlash," a report documenting 645 incidents of bias or violance against South Asian and Arab Americans in the wake of the September 11th. The report, along with a companion video, have been used by community groups and law enforcement as a tool to combat the striking trends in bias crime against South Asians. He currently resides in Pittsburgh, PA.
Photo Unavailable Bhavna Mehta is a respected member of the Detroit Jain Community. Since she joined the Detroit area group she has been involved in all aspects of the temple's activities. She is a key member of the religious committee, as well as instrumental in the temple opening ceremonies conducted in 1998 for the Jain temple in Farmington Hills. She has been involved with the youth, as a pathshala (sunday school) teacher and as the youth group's original founder and advisor. She is also the Director of Business Services at Lawerence Technological University. She will be on the panel for women and religion representing the women's perspective in the Jain Religion.
Photo Unavailable Shivali Bathani graduated in 2000 from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in psychology. She continued her graduate studies at University of Michigan School of Public Health and pursued a Masters in Health Services Administration in 2003. During her undergraduate career at the University of Michigan, she co-founded SEVHA, Students Educating and Volunteering for Health Awareness, in November of 1997. Shivali is currently pursuing an Administrative Fellowship with Trinity Health at St. Mary Mercy Hospital in Livonia, MI. Her special interests are impacting public health epidemics through the health care delivery system-specifically obesity and nutrition
Photo Unavailable Raman Singh has a Masters in Mechanical Engineering. She is currently working as a realtor with her sister, Isha Singh. She is married and has two kids. Raman is a trainer for law enforcement officials on Muslim - Sikh relations. She is also an active member of SMART- Sikh Mediawatch And Resource Taskforce.
Photo Unavailable Isha Singh is an attorney, who is married with three children. They are both active in the Sikh and interfaith communities. She, along with her sister, Raman Singh, is involved in language/religion classes and Sikh Youth Camps at the Gurdwara in Plymouth, MI. Some of the interfaith activities that she is involved with include the TV show Interfaith Odyssey and World Sabbath Events. She, with her sister, is one of SMART's Detroit area representative.
Photo Unavailable Lee Ann S. Wang currently works at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center as the Voting Rights Project Assistant. Prior to that, she worked on the political projects that aim for social change at the structural level. Lee Ann is an active member of the Labor/Community Strategy Center and the Bus Riders Union, a board member on the Organization of Chinese Americans Greater Los Angeles Board, and the Recent Student Trustee for Scripps College in Claremont, CA. Specific to affirmative action, Lee Ann organized students to attend the April 2003 march for affirmative action in Washington DC, panels and debates in Claremont, news reporting, and policy changes at Scripps College.
Photo Unavailable Tanzila “Taz” Ahmed is a graduate from the University of Southern California. Taz has been an organizer in the youth environmental movement for the past 4 years. At EnviroCitizen, she trained over 400 youth in political campaign trainings and supervised student fellows on Vote Environment campaigns. She was solely responsible for the creation and implementation of the Alumni Connection for EnviroCitizen, including a newsletter publication and managing an alumni base of over 1,000 youth. She is the Vice Board Chair for Project Democracy , a non-profit mobilizing youth in civic engagement. For fun, she long boards, goes to punk shows, and writes testimonials on Friendster.
Photo Unavailable Justice for Bhopal-Ann Arbor was started in 2002 as a coalition of members from student groups at the University of Michigan and inter ested community members. Justice for Bhopal is dedicated to achieving an adequate and just resolution for the victims of the 1984 Union Car bide chemical gas leak in Bhopal, India. Justice for Bhopal is dedicated to making these voices heard through educational documentaries and lectures as well as by various actions on campus and Dow’s headquarters in Midland, MI.
Photo Unavailable SEVHA (Students Educating and Volunteering for Health Awareness) is a non-profit, student-run organization, originating at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). It aims at increasing tobacco awareness within India by presenting information regarding the harms of tobacco use. SEVHA seeks to empower India’s youth to make educated decisions about health related issues; additionally, SEVHA provides students with resources to further promote health education in India. SEVHA also collaborates with other health organizations in India to encourage continuous tobacco awareness and community action.
Photo Unavailable Michelle Lin works for the Arab Community Center for Economic & Social Services (ACCESS) in Dearborn, MI. She serves in the Environmental Program, and coordinates an anti-racism project and an afterschool program around environmental education and youth development. Outside of ACCESS, Michelle is also engaged in the Detroit Chinatown Revitalization Workgroup. Michelle is a recent U-M graduate and was involved with the APA student community and organizing students around the affirmative action lawsuits last year.
Photo Unavailable Carmel Salhi was born in Damascus, Syria in the Yarmouk Refugee Camp. Since he moved to Dearborn at the age of 3, he’s lived in Dearborn, Michigan, a city with the highest concentration of Arabs outside the Middle East. Since coming to the University of Michgan, he has been active in numerous events dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict including the Second National Divestment Conference which had an attendance of over 400. He is now the head chair of Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, SAFE.
Sanjay Gupta is senior medical correspondent for the health and medical unit at CNN. Gupta, a practicing neurosurgeon and an assistant professor of neurosurgery, plays an integral role in the network’s medical coverage, which includes daily packages, the half-hour weekend show Weekend House Call with Dr. Sanjay Gupta and coverage of breaking medical news. Based in Atlanta, he also co-hosts Accent Health for Turner Private Networks, provides medical segments for the syndicated version of ER on TNT, contributes health news stories to CNN.com and writes a column for TIME magazine. Gupta joined CNN in the summer of 2001 and became part of the network team covering the Sept. 11 attacks in New York City. Breaking news about anthrax and its deadly effects highlighted Gupta’s coverage.
Kal Penn was born in New Jersey and trained in theater extensively in the New York City area while growing up. His most memorable experiences include working with the George Street Playhouse, Atlantic Theater Company, New Jersey Governor's School of the Arts, and Rutgers University's Summer Arts Institute. When he graduated from the Freehold Regional High School District’s Performing Arts High School, Kal was accepted into the prestigious School of Theater, Film, and Television at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he enrolled the following fall. Frustrated with the theater program at UCLA, Kal stayed in school but focused on building his work in film & television outside the classroom.



Speakers

General Information:

The main focus of the conference is to educate, inspire, and empower attendees through a series of interactive workshops. Our programming committee has worked hard to develop engaging ways of presenting information, fostering dialogue, and challenging students. These discussions will relate to the workshop topic, but will focus on attendees’ opinions and thoughts concerning the issues. Workshops are designed to be inspirational and to spark the attendees’ interests. Each workshop will fall into one of three categories: Awareness, Activism, and Initiative.

* Please note that the content and availability of workshops is subject to change between now and January.

Awareness Workshops:

Awareness workshops will feature an issue or current event such as poverty in South Asia or the conflict in Kashmir. The purpose of this category is to educate attendees about current issues that affect South Asia, and to encourage participants to envision the future of these problems if no initiative is taken to find a solution.

Women and Religion: This workshop is dedicated to examining the issues facing South Asians across religious borders. Hear from a distinguished panel of women speak about overcoming obstacles and changing the way women are perceived in the South Asian community.

Poverty, Globalization, and Empire: Large corporations are increasingly using the South Asian subcontinent as a source of cheap labor and outsourcing for a wide variety of jobs, including IT and manufacturing. As a result, the United States is increasingly being criticized for its imperialistic tendencies. This workshop will feature acclaimed anti-war activist and political scholar Rahul Mahajan. It will focus on how the globalization of industry and increased American warfare affects the disparate wealth distribution and class structures of South Asian countries.

Health and Hunger: At last year’s conference, Dr. Sanjay Gupta from CNN spoke about the AIDS epidemic in South Asia being potentially equal to or larger in scale than the current crisis in Africa. This workshop will continue the discussion of the AIDS crisis, but will also focus on the perpetual problems in much of South Asia of hunger, and sorely lacking basic health care amenities.

Arab-Israeli Conflict and its impact on South Asia: This workshop will educate its participants on the current Arab-Israeli conflict, it’s growing affects outside the Middle East, and how it affects ongoing tension in South Asia, and why South Asians should be concerned.

The De-Secularization of India:India is one of the oldest and largest secular democracies in the world. But with the rise of Hindu nationalism in India's government and politics, some argue that the secular foundations of India are being threatened. This workshop will examine recent conflicts in Gujarat and Kashmir, and will attempt to explain how the rise of Hindu nationalism in India has affected India's Muslims as well as India's relationship with Pakistan.

Patriot Act and Post 9/11 Backlash: The Patriot Act and other post 9/11 legislation have had a great impact on the South Asian community. From changes in immigration policy, student and work visas, immigration regulations, and blatant racial profiling, the current administration’s efforts to thwart terrorist acts have had a disparate effect on South Asians in America. Learn how recent initiatives of the US government have affected the South Asian American community.

The Pressure to Conform: Breaking Taboos in America: Startling statistics point to the growing rate of teenage suicides in the South Asian community. This workshop will focus on how the pressure to conform to the ideal South Asian American image may be hurting the South Asian community. Discussion will center on teenage suicide, homosexuality, and other issues that are considered ‘taboo’. We will examine how the pressure on South Asian Americans to succeed affects their lives.

Initiative Workshops:

Initiative workshops will feature one or two prominent South Asian leaders that have already taken the initiative to raise awareness and contribute to solutions about world issues. Listening to the stories of these established leaders will provide inspiration to conference attendees.

Fusion: The stars of the critically acclaimed independent film, American Chai, Sheetal Sheth and Aalok Mehta will speak about their own experiences in “taking the path less traveled.” They will speak on how their culture has affected their careers, and what they hope to bring to an industry that has traditionally been unkind to South Asian Americans.

On Being the Model Minority: Groundbreaking South Asian author, Vijay Prashad will examine race politics within America and the role of South Asians in the minority community. Taking from themes of his two acclaimed books, Everybody was Kung-Fu Fighting and The Karma of Brown Folk, he will assess the stigma of being the model minority and the importance of cross-cultural coalition and alliance building.

Activism Workshops:

Activism workshops will feature paths that one can take to become political, social, or cultural leaders. This last category will include a panel of activist organizations and the chance to see how actual student activists have successfully organized in the past.

Hate Crimes: This workshop will discuss the post 9-11 backlash against South Asians, how the increasing amount of violent and non-violent hate crimes can be stopped, and what you can do about it. We will introduce you to national organizations and leaders that actively fight this frightening trend.

South Asian Political Unity: As the fastest growing minority constituency, South Asians wield a surprising amount of power, yet their political influence is often unrealized. Rahul Mahajan will lead this workshop on the various ways South Asians can get involved in political activism

Health and Hunger: These are two massive issues that South Asia is struggling to solve. Learn how students at the University of Michigan have organized to help educate other students, at home and in South Asia, about the extent of the health and hunger dilemma in South Asia.

Breaking the Mold: Challenging Traditional Professional Roles: Many South Asians students are faced with daunting pressures to conform to traditional professional roles. This workshop is dedicated to showcasing South Asian professionals who have used their careers to challenge norms and to become activists.

Justice for Bhopal: The Bhopal chemical disaster is still one of the world’s worst industrial accidents, but nearly 20 years later, Dow Chemical has still refused to clean up the contaminated site. Hear from Justice for Bhopal activists on ways to bring justice to Bhopal. For more information, please visit www.umich.edu/~bhopal.

Affirmative Action: How does Affirmative Action really affect the South Asian community? We have all been exposed to the Affirmative Action debate, but never with a South Asian perspective. Come to understand just how Affirmative Action affects our community, voice your own opinions, and hear why we believe its existence is necessary.