Join us for our annual India China Day to celebrate this year’s cohort of student fellows and hear about their research projects. Also meet new and old ICI friends, learn about new ICI fellowships, opportunities, and programs for the new academic year. Five student fellows from the current cohort will present their research findings.

SPEAKERS

Aratrika Debrath: Hungry Tides: Climate Migration and Resettlement Planning in the Sundarbans

This project examines climate-induced migration in the Sundarbans region spanning India and Bangladesh. Through fieldwork with displaced communities and analysis of stakeholder perspectives, it aims to produce policy solutions that support resilience and protection for climate migrants.

Emily Li: Precarious Labor and Political Identity of South Asian Platform Workers in Hong Kong

This project explores how South Asian food delivery workers in Hong Kong organize and resist exploitation, especially in the context of rising precarity and weakened trade unions. It focuses on how ethnic identity shapes labor activism and the possibilities for collective struggle in modern Hong Kong.

Parth Patel: Off Grid Assemblies

Off Grid Assemblies aims to co-design a low-cost energy kit with the community of Turtuk— a remote village in Leh, India. As an alternative to limited diesel generation, this project aims to build a decentralized, self-sufficient, and resilient off-grid electricity source for rural communities dealing with extreme climates. 

Nolan Young: E-Commerce as Rural Development Strategy in China — Contours of a Public-Private Partnership

This project examines the public-private partnership model between the Chinese government and private e-commerce platforms as a rural development strategy. The project seeks to identify tangible forms of state involvement, and to understand the impacts on local communities as well as possible implications for global development.

Florian Chi Zhang: Seeking Taohuayuan in a Foreign Land: Chinese New Migrants in Southeast Asia

This project explores Chinese migration to Chiang Mai, Thailand, and how these migrants build new communities and navigate local society. Through ethnographic research, it connects this migration trend to the history of Chinese immigration in Thailand and shifting ideas of mobility, hope, and China’s global role.