University of Richmond Undergraduates Conduct Research in India
April 14, 2004
Ten University of Richmond undergraduates have spent a year doing research on "Negotiating Change: Twenty-First Century Indian Identity in Mumbai," both on campus and in India.
Their interest ranges from Bollywood cinema to hi-tech projects, international art markets, and the transformation of fishing villages surviving amidst Mumbai's skyscrapers.
Ken Buonforte, a senior from Ramsey, N.J., for example, is studying the Indian software industry and how U.S. companies' outsourcing of millions of technology jobs to India is changing business prospects of both counties. David Frost, a senior English major from Yardley, Pa., is looking at Bollywood's expansion as an industry.
Kimberly Garnett, a junior economics major from Bethlehem, Pa., is analyzing the impact of foreign investment and the shift from agricultural development to industrial development. Caroline Weist, a senior English major from York, Pa., is studying the persistence of the "macho, macho man" in Indian film. Jack Creel, a senior philosophy major from Houston, is studying novelist Salman Rushdie and violence.
Each student applied for and was awarded a grant from the Richmond Quest fund. The Quest program at Richmond enables a campus-wide study of an important question for an entire academic year. The Mumbai project was one attempt to examine the question "When does discovery inspire change?" Mumbai, having undergone dramatic recent changes, including its name change from Bombay, seemed like an ideal city to study, according to Kathy Hewett-Smith, who teaches the course along with John Marx.
The students read and discussed an interdisciplinary array of scholarly articles and one influential novel that treated the city and its recent changes. They also wrote a 10-page paper, lectured on their research and developed plans for additional research in Mumbai.
Once in India, the students worked solo or in pairs, meeting with local scholars, journalists, activists and businessmen and women. They also participated in group activities, such as architectural walks and visits to religious and cultural sites accompanied by local scholars.
This semester they have been completing their research for presentation at the Arts and Sciences Student Symposium April 16, 1-5 p.m., in the Modlin Center for the Arts.