Advisory Council
Our advisers come from diverse backgrounds and are lending their knowledge, time and expertise in helping towards two aspects of our mission: the 1) Oral History Program which entails the recording of witness oral histories and 2) The Task Force for Institutionalizing the Memory of Partition which entails researching the most ethical, educational and effective approach for disseminating the oral histories of Partition.
In alphabetical order:
Maryam Eskandri - Institutionalizing the memory of Partition, Harvard
Maryam Eskandari is Educator, Entrepreneur, and CEO and Founder of MIIM Designs a multidisciplinary design studio that is in the vanguard of creating sacred spaces that reflect contemporary needs through environmentally sustainable materials. She is a graduate of the Aga Khan Program in Islamic Architecture Fellow at Harvard and MIT. Prior to MIIM Designs, Eskandari was the Director for the American Institute of Architect Associates and DLR Group where she led the design team to several award winning projects, including the Christine and Steven F. Udvar-HazyLibrary and Learning Center at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, Phoenix College Fine Arts and Eric Fischer Gallery. Currently, Eskandari is working on projects in New York City, Accra, New Delhi and San Francisco. She is also a 2015 Rothschild Fellow at Cambridge University Judge Business School. She serves on the Board of Directors of Harvard’s Alumni Association, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Foundation and is an Ambassador to HRH Reema Bint Bandar’s 10ksa Breast Cancer Awareness in the Middle East.
Gita Dang - Organizational Consultant
Gita is a business leader with three decades of corporate experience. Gita, Founder Director, Talent Advisory Services has successfully placed senior executives in the C-suite for a wide range of companies including CARE India, Charities Aid Foundation, Omidyar Network, Acumen Fund, Impact Investors Council, Matrix Partners, Gap Inc., ADP, Gap Inc., and Cisco Systems. She has also worked as an external consultant for a number of organizations, including, Community Business, Diversity Best Practices and Northern Trust Bank. Gita has a strong interest in development and entrepreneurship and serves on the Board of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), Delhi NCR. She is also working very closely with University of Chicago and corporates for inclusive employability for special needs. She also serves on the governing council of Skill Council for Persons with Disability (SCPwD). Gita has also has co-authored English language text books and workbooks for primary schools, including “Meeting Early Challenges: Special Steps for A Special Child” with Meena Cariappa. Gita has received a Master’s Degree in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.
Shaili Jain, M.D.- Psychological effects of Partition, Stanford
Shaili Jain is the daughter of a survivor of the 1947 Partition. In 2007, during a road trip, her father told her the complete story of what happened to his family during the 1947 Partition. His testimony spurred Jain on a new career path committed to advancing the science of psychological trauma and unlocking the secrets of what fosters human resilience in the aftermath of unspeakable traumas. In 2015, Jain was part of the team that interviewed her father for the 1947 Partition archive. Currently, Dr. Jain serves as a psychiatrist and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) specialist at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. She is a researcher affiliated with the National Center for PTSD and a Clinical Associate Professor affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She is the author of The Unspeakable Mind: Stories of Trauma and Healing from the Frontlines of PTSD Science (Harper, 2019).
Urvashi Butalia - Oral History Program Advisor, Delhi
Urvashi Butalia is a writer and publisher based in India. Co-founder of India's first feminist publishing house, Kali for Women, she now heads Zubaan, an imprint of Kali. She has a long involvement in the women's movement and writes and publishes widely on a range of issues related to gender. The study of Partition is an abiding interest for her and she has written on the subject. Her best known works are the award winning history of Partition: The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India (winner of the Oral History Book Association Award 2001 and the Nikkei Asia Award for Culture, 2003); Speaking Peace: Women's Voices from Kashmir (edited) and, more recently,an edited volume, Partition: The Long Shadow. In 2011 she was awarded the Padmashri by the Indian government.
Dr. Priya Satia - Oral History Program Advisor, Stanford
Dr. Priya Satia is Professor of History at Stanford University where she teaches courses on modern Britain and the British Empire. Her research interests span modern British cultural and political history, colonialism and imperialism, the experience and practice of war, technology and culture, human rights and humanitarianism, the state and institutions of government, arms trade, political economy of empire, and environmental history. Satia's first book Spies in Arabia: The Great War and the Cultural Foundations of Britain's Covert Empire in the Middle East (Oxford University Press, 2008) won several prizes, including the American Historical Association's Herbert Baxter Adams Prize. Her second book, Empire of Guns: The Violent Making of the Industrial Revolution (Penguin, 2018) will shortly be released. She is now working on a book on the history of the global Left, including a particular focus on the Partition of British India. Her work has also appeared in numerous academic journals and edited collections. She also writes on historical subjects for popular media in the US, UK, India, and Pakistan. For more information, see http://history.stanford.edu/people/priya-satia
Dr. Janmeja Singh - Organizational Consultation
Dr. Janmeja Singh is a clinical psychologist and organizational consultant. He was a Visiting Professor/Lecturer in Psychology at the University of California in Berkeley from 1991 through 2009. He is the President Emeritus and Chief Psychologist at the Portia Bell Hume Behavioral Health and Training Center, Concord, CA. He also served as the Dean of the Rosebridge Graduate School of Integrative Psychology for ten years and as the Assistant Director of The Center For Training In Community Psychiatry and Mental Health Administration at Berkeley for fourteen years. For two years he worked in a State Hospital and for 16 years in the Community Mental Health Programs.
Dr. Trishanjit Kaur - Story Scholars Program Adviser, Patiala
Dr. Trishanjit Kaur is serving as Professor & Dean of the Faculty of Education and Information Science at Punjabi University in Patiala. She has contributed nearly 100 papers including research articles in peer reviewed journals, conference papers, book chapters, book reviews, and more. She also serves on the editorial boards of numerous prestigious international peer reviewed LIS journals. Dr. Kaur is a life member of several national level associations of Library and Information Science. She has served as General Secretary of the Indian Association of Teachers of Library and Information Science (IATLIS). She has been a member of the Canadian Library Association and the American Library Association (ALA). She has also served for two terms (2007-09) on the International Relations Committee (IRC) Sub-committee Near East and South Asia of American Library Association. She has participated and presented papers at various conferences held in India, USA, Canada, Thailand, and Finland. Her paper “Strategies of Preserving Memories of Refugee Women in India: A Case Study of Punjab” for the 78 IFLA Satellite Meeting, Tampere (Finland) from 8-10 August 2012 was highly appreciated and ignited her interest in The 1947 Partition Archive. She is a Punjab based adviser to the Story Scholars Program.
Previous Advisers
We are immensely grateful to those who have taken the time to advise us throughout our inception. The following advisers have completed their Board of Advisers terms: