President to deliver address in India, connect with Brandeis constituents
President Jehuda Reinharz
Brandeis University President Jehuda Reinharz will visit India in early February to speak at the 2010 Sustainable Development Summit in Delhi, address the Asia Society in Mumbai, and visit with Brandeis alumni, parents, partners, and friends.
He will be accompanied by Harleen Singh, Brandeis professor of literature and co-chair of South Asian Studies, and Daniel Terris, vice president for global affairs. Dates of the trip are Feb. 1-13.
On Feb. 6, Reinharz, Ph.D ’72, will speak at the 2010 Delhi Sustainable Development Summit, the first gathering of major world leaders on climate change since the December conference in Copenhagen. The summit will attempt to make headway on climate agreements and help foster private-public sector collaborations.
Reinharz will speak to fellow education and business leaders during a session on "Mobilizing Knowledge and Knowledge Institutions." The session will be chaired by Sir Peter Crane, dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.
India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will open the summit, which takes place Feb. 5-7 at the Taj Palace in New Delhi. The gathering is being hosted by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), which is headed by environmentalist and chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, R.K. Pachauri. Pachauri received an honorary degree from Brandeis last May.
On Feb. 10, Reinharz will speak in Mumbai at a public talk hosted by the Asia Society on the role of higher education in promoting social equity and justice in a time of accelerating globalization. The talk, at St. Xavier's College Hall, will be followed by an invitation-only reception honoring members of the extended Brandeis community who are involved in social causes.
The Brandeis group will visit several nongovernmental organizations in Mumbai whose work is focused on sustainable development and education, and where many university alumni are now leaders. President Reinharz also will attend a lunch hosted by the Jewish community of Mumbai.
The trip will build on two previous trips made by Singh and Terris in 2008, and on the recent development of a number of programs and partnerships at Brandeis.
In 2007, the university created a new Office of Global Affairs, which is directed by Terris, and the Brandeis-India Initiative, a multi-dimensional effort which seeks to strengthen Brandeis connections to India and South Asia in a comprehensive way. It aims to forge partnerships with Indian institutions, NGOs and businesses and government; to strengthen the community of alumni and parents in India; to enhance opportunities for student exchange, study and work abroad; and to recruit Indian students to Brandeis programs.
The South Asian Studies Program at Brandeis is coordinated by an interdisciplinary group of faculty with specialties in South Asian culture, literature, economics, and society. Research partnerships have been increasing, including a new collaboration with the National Science Foundation and on-going projects in Brandeis’s Heller School for Social Policy and Management.
Student activities include a vibrant South Asian Students Association (SASA) and Revive Mumbai, a student-led organization that created a summer internship program.
In 2009, the university launched the Soli Sorabjee Lecture Series, honoring the former attorney general of India and friend of the university. The lecture series focuses broadly on justice in South Asia.
