OPERATION UPLIFT
South Asian Studies Department
Harvard University
COMPONENTS
PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT
In these sessions, as SAS graduate students, we learn about and share professionalization tools and skills with one another. We vote on which topic to discuss each time, so that we're always addressing the most pressing professionalization questions and needs of our community.
INSIGHT INTO RESEARCH PROCESSES
We join in conversations (fire-side chats, if you will!) with faculty members at Harvard and beyond. The goal is to discuss best practices for doing and organizing research, writing, and navigating the academic path.
GRADUATE
WORKSHOP
Many of us are working on writing projects - a dissertation chapter, a term paper, a journal article, etc.
In our Graduate Workshop sessions (which take place between 2-3 times a semester, we meet as a community of scholars studying South Asia, share our works-in-progress, and provide each other with encouragement and feedback.
BUILDING COMMUNITY
We gather together to get to know each other as people and as scholars. Our goal, through movie nights, book clubs, informal hangouts, and so on, is to build a departmental cultural that is grounded in camaraderie and co-elevation.
SUSTAINING WELLNESS
We share our challenges with sustaining mental and emotional wellbeing in graduate school. We share tools and insight to address these challenges, but also discuss what we need from larger departmental and institutional structures in order to thrive.
SCHEDULE
2020 - Present
- Graduate WorkshopThu, Dec 02Barker Center 218 (Fong Room)
- Discussion of Park's Africa, Asia, and the History of PhilosophyThu, Nov 18Cambridge
- Graduate WorkshopThu, Nov 04Barker Center 218 (Fong Room)
- Managing a Dissertation ProjectThu, Oct 21Managing a Dissertation
- Operation Uplift Kick-off - Fall 2021Fri, Oct 01Cambridge
- SAS Student ColloquiumFri, Apr 30Colloquium
- Fireside Chat with Kalyani RamnathFri, Apr 23Chat
- Fireside Chat with James ReichFri, Apr 09Chat
- Diversity and Positionality in SASFri, Apr 02Discussion
- SAS Student ColloquiumFri, Mar 26Colloquium
- SAS Student ColloquiumFri, Feb 26SAS Student Colloquium
- Fireside Chat with Mircea RaianuFri, Feb 12Online Event
- Fireside Chat with Tyler NeillFri, Jan 29Online Event
- Fireside chat with Nilanjan DasFri, Dec 11Chat
- Fire-side chat with Sravana Borkataky-VarmaThu, Nov 05Online Event
- Professional Development Session 2Fri, Oct 23Online event
- Fireside chat with Sravanthi KolluFri, Oct 09Online event
- Professional Development Session 1Fri, Sep 25Online event
ABOUT US
Operation Uplift is a graduate peer-mentorship initiative that was launched in the South Asian Studies department in the Fall of 2020. Our objective is to create a departmental culture that empowers graduate students to co-elevate with one another. When we say co-elevate, we mean: sharing insight and resources with one another, building a larger network of professional development support for graduate students, and grounding our relationships with one another in camaraderie, and in the vision that we can all grow and thrive together.
CONTACT US
Site moderators:
Divya Chandramouli
Smriti Khanal