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Like many South Asians, I grew up watching Bollywood movies. When I first arrived in Canada in 2013, they were like a piece of home for me. So I was thrilled to have the opportunity to learn about women in film, working behind the camera as writers, producers and directors, when I enthusiastically signed up for the Research Assistant position with the Canada India Research Centre for Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE). My role was to assist with the conference "Women in Films and Media Conference" funded by the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute.

An exhausting travel schedule awaited Dr. Karine Gagné when she arrived in Delhi, India, after a 14-hour journey from Canada in April 2019. Her destination, Zanskar in the Himalayan Mountains, was still a full two days away, in a bumpy truck over very rocky roads. And while the heat of Delhi gave way to more moderate temperatures in higher elevations, it was a gruelling trip nonetheless.

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Dr. Praveen Saxena delivered the Dr G Rangaswami Endowment Lecture at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India in March 2020.

Dr.Jayasankar Subramanian is one of the recipients of the 2020 Grant’s Desi Achiever award. The Grant’s Desi Achiever Award recognizes the outstanding service to the community and setting the bar higher for south Asians in Canada.

Muhammad Saif Islam, from the School of English and Theatre Studies, defended his MA thesis, Representing the Partition of 1947: Rohinton Mistry’s Tales from Firozsha Baag, Such a Long Journey, and A Fine Balance as Political Allegories (co-advisors Ajay Heble and Gregor Campbell), September 2020.

Josie Wittmer successfully defended her PhD dissertation, "Women's work in the 'clean city': Perspectives on wellbeing, waste governance, and inclusion from the urban margins in Ahmedabad India," on December 15, 2020.

Prof. Karine Gagné of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Guelph will lead a study on climate knowledge in the Indian Himalayas.

This five year (2020-2025) study, funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Grant, is titled "Decolonizing climate knowledge: an ethnographic study of travel and mobility in Indian Himalayas in an era of climate change"

Dr. Tirtha Dhar of the Department of Marketing and Consumer Studies at the University of Guelph and Dr. Arindam Banik of the Department of Economics at the International Management Institute, New Delhi, will lead a study on the interplay of various forces on the pharma industry in India and Canada.

Prof. Belinda Leach of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Guelph and Prof. Urmi Nanda Biswas of the Department of Psychology at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda will lead a study on the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on Indian female migrants.