Ph.D. Candidates | Second-Years M.A.s | First-Year M.A.s | MIPPs If you are interested in contacting any of our students, please send an email to Rahul Madhavan at southasia@jhu.edu and he will provide you with available contact information. Ph.D. Candidates Sai Ma is a Ph.D. candidate in South Asia Studies at SAIS. Originally from China, she earned her M.A. in International Politics and received two B.A.s in both Indian Language and Culture and Economics from Peking University. She worked in the Programme Planning Group at China Central Television prior to beginning joining the Ph.D. program at SAIS. She is researching issues of modernity and identity in Indian political institutions. Anit Mukherjee, a native of New Delhi, is a Ph.D. Candidate at SAIS. His dissertation focuses on civil-military relations in India. He earned his M.A. at SAIS concentrating in South Asia Studies and Strategic Studies. While at school he has conducted research projects at the Institute of Defense and Security Analyses (IDSA) and United Service Institute of India (USI), two of India’s premier security think tanks and the Brookings Institution. Most recently he worked at RAND as a Summer Associate and has been retained as an adjunct staff. He has been elected to the governing council of the International Security Studies Section of the International Studies Association (ISA). Prior to joining SAIS, he was a Major in the Indian Army and served in numerous command and staff appointments. He has published in the New York Times, Armed Forces Journal and Indian Express, among others. He is an alumnus of National Defense Academy (NDA), Khadakwasla.
Joshua White started at SAIS in the Fall of 2006 and is concentrating in South Asia Studies. Originally from Oregon, he graduated magna cum laude from Williams College with a double major in History and Mathematics. While at Williams, he interned at Hewlett-Packard and at the U.S. Department of State in Washington. Since graduation, Josh has done work on religious freedom issues and comparative religion law at the Institute for Global Engagement, where he remains a graduate fellow. He spent last year studying the role of religion in politics in northwest Pakistan, where he lived as a guest of the MMA Islamist provincial government. Joshua plans to pursue a Ph.D. on a topic relating to religion and political stability in South Asia. Constantino Xavier, a Portuguese of Indian and German origin, joined SAIS as a Fulbright scholar and plans to focus his Ph.D. on a topic related to India’s foreign policy. He graduated in International Relations from the Department of Politics, New University of Lisbon, with an exchange year at Sciences Po, Paris. From 2004 to 2008 he lived in New Delhi, where he got his M.A. and M.Phil. from Jawaharlal Nehru University, with a dissertation on India’s diaspora policy, and worked as a press adviser for the Embassy of Portugal during the Presidency of the European Union. Before moving to the U.S., Constantino taught at his former department, and coordinated a research project on Asia and edited the weekly Lisbon India Monitor at the Portuguese Institute of International Relations.
Second-Year M.A. South Asia Studies Concentrators
Brian Orland is pursuing a MA in South Asia. He graduated from Davidson College in 2007 with a B.A. in Political Science. As a sophomore, he studied abroad in India and returned shortly thereafter to conduct a research project on public health at a leprosy hospital and research center in south India. After graduation, Brian was an intern at two think tanks in India. At the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies in New Delhi, he researched India’s Sri Lanka policy, and he worked on South Asia’s water security with a focus on climate change in the Tibetan Plateau and India-China relations at Strategic Foresight Group in Mumbai. After graduating from SAIS, Brian intends to return to South Asia to work on issues involved in conflict and/or water security. Kumiko Murata is a second year M.A. student at SAIS with a concentration in South Asia Studies. Originally from Japan, she graduated from Keio University majoring in Law. After graduation, she worked for the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Tokyo) for six years. First, she worked in the volunteer sector as liaison officer on external relations and as program officer for health, IT and education sector volunteer programs. Later, she worked as a project manager for agriculture/rural development projects in China, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Papua New Guinea. She also travels extensively and has visited 45 countries so far. Kumiko is interested in a career in international development Danny Cutherell was born in Roanoke, VA, but grew up in Pakistan's North-West Frontier province, where his parents worked at a mission hospital. After attending college at William and Mary, Danny returned to Pakistan in 2005 and worked for two years at the National Rural Support Program, a Pakistani NGO. In 2007 he moved to Kabul, Afghanistan, where he has been working with the Aga Khan Foundation on issues of governance and community development. Kevin Sieff is a native of South Florida. Kevin graduated with honors from Brown University in 2007 with a B.A. in International Relations and Comparative Literature. Following graduation, he worked for two years as a journalist on the U.S.-Mexico border. Cited by the Columbia Journalism Review and the Associated Press Managing Editors, Sieff has written for the Financial Times, the Associated Press and the Texas Observer. He has reported on immigration and border security issues from South Asia, Latin America and native villages on the Alaskan coast. In the summer of 2010, he'll work on the enterprise desk of the Washington Post. He is particularly interested in the intersection of migration and security issues in South Asia Vinay Tripathi came to SAIS following four years in the United States Marine Corps, where he held the military occupational specialty of infantry assaultman. His enlistment included a deployment to Ramadi, Iraq in 2006. Vinay majored in human biology at Stanford University. A first year SAIS student, he is concentrating in South Asia studies. He is especially interested in the region's energy and security issues Alex Etra is a second year student concentrating in South Asia Studies. After graduating from Lewis & Clark College Alex spent several months working as a visiting fellow at a security and political risk analysis think tank in New Delhi. Upon returning to the United States Alex was awarded a Service Fellowship at Innovations in Civic Participation where he conducted research on youth development through civic engagement in South Asia. More recently Alex served as an intern in the Office of South and Southeast Asia at the U.S. Department of Treasury. In addition to his concentration in South Asia Studies, Alex is pursuing a specialization in finance and quantitative methods which he hopes to apply towards a career in economic and financial development in emerging markets. First-Year M.A. South Asia Studies Concentrators Rosalind Piggot studies International Economics and South Asia Studies at SAIS. Rosalind completed her undergraduate studies at the London School of Economics, where she received a BSc International Relations in 2006. Prior to SAIS, Rosalind spent several years in taxation consulting at Deloitte UK in London. In 2010, Rosalind researched developments in Tajik microfinance and worked with different microfinance stakeholders as a fellow for the US-based microfinance organization Kiva.org in Tajikistan. Rosalind’s study interests center on employment, migration and financial sector trends in South and Central Asia, and she is focusing on South Asia as an intern at the US Department of Treasury in Spring 2011. Upon graduation, Rosalind hopes to continue working with economic and financial issues in the wider South Asia region. Ben Michener comes to SAIS from a career in management and IT consulting in the private sector. He is interested in institutional development, internal conflict, and the rule of law with a particular eye on South Asia. He seeks to enter the public sector. Ryan Holliway is a second-year M.A. student in South Asia Studies. In May 2007, he received a B.A. in Government from the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to coming to SAIS, Ryan worked as an analyst at ASI Group, a global security risk management company based in Houston. He provided analysis of political and security developments in South Asia and East Africa to the company’s mainly private sector clients. Ryan would like to pursue a career in the public sector. Gorav Chaudhry is a first year M.A. Student at SAIS with a concentration in South Asia Studies and an emerging markets specialization. Gorav graduated with honors from the University of Waterloo in 2009 with a B.A. in Economics, a specialization in Finance and received an award for excellence in written communication for a reserach piece on the determinants of the Great Recession. During his undergraduate tenure, he participated in a variety of different internships which have provided him with experience in private, public and academic settings. Additionally, Gorav has spent two years working in Canada’s financial sector as a Treasury Analyst for the Toronto Dominion Bank Financial Group. Gorav is interested in a career in international development, with a particular focus on migration and diaspora issues pertinent to the South Asian region. Shamarukh Mohiuddin is a South Asia Studies concentrator at SAIS who hopes to focus on economic development and security issues in South Asia. She also serves as the Executive Director of the U.S.-Bangladesh Advisory Council where she leads the organization's programs, operations and policy advocacy initiatives. Previously, Ms. Mohiuddin also served as Director at the Trade, Aid and Security Coalition (TASC) and the Business Council for Global Development (BCGD) where she briefed U.S. policymakers managed policy development and programs. Prior to that, she worked as a Research Associate at the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) and has authored numerous articles on topics including trade policy, labor standards, global development, and climate change, some of which have been cited in the press. Ms. Mohiuddin has completed internships at the Council on Foreign Relations, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the World Bank. Allison Asplin is pursuing an M.A. in South Asia Studies and Conflict Management. Prior to SAIS, she spent four years as Development Manager and Sustainability Director for Vornado, the U.S.'s second-largest real estate investment trust (REIT). She also worked as a financial analyst and transaction/project manager for Wachovia Securities and Jones Lang LaSalle. She is publisher of the independent blog Helping Women Helps the World (http://hwhtw.wordpress.com/). Allison graduated from the University of Virginia in 2000 with a B.A. in Economics and Foreign Affairs. Her interests include South Asian energy and gender relations issues. Fatima Alam is a first year MA student at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), specializing in International Economics and South Asian Studies. A native of India, her previous experience includes working in New Delhi with The Patna Collective, an NGO focused on disadvantaged communities; in Bangalore with the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society; and in Jogjakarta, Indonesia on a Development and Human Rights fellowship. Her research experiences in India have given her insights into the challenges of growth that the country faces, and she is also interested in the political impact of religious and caste movements. She is fluent in Hindu and Urdu. Masters of International Public Policy (MIPP) with focus on South Asia | 
