Grant Recipients

Grants from the Dr. Hari Sharma Foundation (HSF) are intended to support graduate studies, research and publication, cultural activities, and community events related to South Asia or the South Asian Diaspora. Grants are adjudicated by the HSF Board. Amounts typically range from $1,000 – $5,000, with a maximum of $10,000.

Cultural Grant: Indian Summer Arts Society
Cultural Grant: Vancouver International Jazz Festival
Cultural Grant: Mohamed Assani
Cultural Grant: Meghna Haldar
Cultural Grant: CIELO Films

Community Grant: BC Labour Heritage Centre
Research & Publication: JAMHOOR
Social and Community: South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD)
Cultural Grant: Sher Vancouver LGBTQ Friends Society
Cultural Grant: Sarah Singh
Cultural Grant: Mohamed Assani
Cultural Grant: Vancouver Art Gallery
Cultural Grant: Indian Summer Arts Society
Research and Publication Grant: Indranil Chakraborty

Research and Publication Grant: Sanjeev Routray for the book “The Right to be Counted: Displacement, Resettlement, and the Politics of the Poor in Delhi”
Social Grant: West Coast Coalition Against Racism
Cultural Grant: Dance Collection Danse and Nova Dance Group
Cultural Grant: Charles Rahul Singh
Cultural and Social Grant: Nawaz Soomro – Science awareness
Cultural Grant: Indian Summer Arts Society
Cultural Grant: Surrey Art Gallery – Rajesh Vora Photo exhibition
Cultural Grant: Rungh Cultural Society
Cultural Grant: Mohamed Assani
Social Grant: Alternatives – Campaign to support Indian Farmers

Research and Publication Grant: Ajay Bhardwaj, completion of PhD project
Research and Publication Grant: Meghna Halder for workshop in Chhatisgarh in relation of film project
Research and Publication Grant: Sam Barnett and SFU students for website DHANAK for South Asian LGBTQ stories
Cultural Grant: Indian Summer Society for events with Vandana Shiva and others
Social Grant: South Asian Legal Clinic
Cultural Grant: Tamil Student Association at University of BC for tenth anniversary celebration
Research and Publication Grant: Simon Fraser University for conference on “Indigenous struggles and the ideology of development”
Cultural and Social Grant: Alex Sangha and Sher Vancouver for film, “Emergence: Coming out of the Shadows”

Cultural Grant: Vancouver Art Gallery, Exhibition: “Moving Still: Performative Photography from India”
Cultural Grant: Indian Summer Festival: several events, including “Conjuring the Future”, talk by Pico Iyer, and concert with Amjad Ali, “Strings for Peace”
Cultural Grant: Rungh Magazine, for special issue on music
Cultural Grant: Mohamed Assani for intercultural musical composition
Cultural and Social Grant: Habiba Zaman (SFU) for Canadian South Asian Youth conference
Research and Publication Grant: Courtney Tzto for publication of book on South Asians in Canadian hockey
Research and Publication Grant: University of Fraser Valley, South Asian Studies for oral history project recording memory of South Asian elders
Cultural and Social Grant: Anne Murphy, Centre for India and South Asia Research, UBC for event on the politics of violence in India in commemoration of 1984 Sikh massacre
Cultural and Social Grant: Simon Fraser University for talk by Amitav Ghosh
Cultural and Social Grant: SANSAD for recording event, “What is at Stake in India’s Elections: Hypernationalism and its Victims”
Research and Publication Grant: SANSAD for organizing book launch of “Culture and Resistance” by Edward Said and David Barsamian
Community Grant: SANSAD for recording dinner celebrating Pervez Hoodbhoy, Sadhu Binning, and Ali Kazimi, recipients of honorary degrees at UBC
Cultural and Social Grant: Simon Fraser University for talk by Amitav Ghosh on The Great Derangement
Cultural and Social Grant: Lower Mainland Bengali Cultural Society for musical program with Indian musician
Community Grant: Independent Jewish Voices for talk on Palestine by David Sheen
Research and Publication: SANSAD for book launch of “Witness Kashmir” by Sanjay Kak

Cultural and Social Grant: University of British Columbia: session on caste and gender at 17th World Sanskrit conference
Cultural and Social Grant: Vancouver Jazz Festival for presenting Red Baraat
Cultural and Social Grant: Indian Summer Festival for presenting various writers
Research and Publication Grant: SANSAD for book release of David Barsamian and Noam Chomsky book
Cultural and Social Grant: Sejal Lal for producing solo CD of her music
Cultural and Social Grant: Mohamed Assani for writing a sitar concerto
Cultural and Social Grant: SANSAD for screening SOZ: A BALLAD OF MALADIES
Research and Publication Grant: Sameena Siddiqui for UBC PhD field work in North India
Research and Publication Grant: Stacy Pigg for “BATOGATO: a graphic narrative about Himalayan lives and the roads that change them”
Research and Publication Grant: Samir Gandesha for presenting on a panel on Ajay Gudavarthy’s book, “India after Modi: Populism and the Right”; lectures at various Indian universities; and interviews on the rise of political authoritarianism in India
Cultural and Social Grant: SANSAD for video recording panel on “Peace Now: No Nukes in South Asia”
Cultural and Social Grant: Nawaz Soomro for screening Neil deGrasse Tyson’s documentary, COSMOS, with subtitles translated into Sindhi for school students in Sindh
Community Grant: Surrey Muse for memorial event, Naming the Unnamed: celebrating Pakistani women

Cultural Grant: Vancouver Art Gallery for the Inaugural Institute of Asian Art Symposium
Cultural Grant: Indian Summer Festival for inviting M. G. Vassanji
Community Grant: SANSAD for conference, “Gathering in the Shadows of a Nuclear Winter”
Cultural Grant: Skyrocket Digital for “250 Years of Heer” concert with Madan Gopal Singh and Chaar Yaar
Cultural Grant: Vancouver Mural Festival for Sandeep Johal’s mural at 147 E Broadway, Vancouver
Cultural Grant: Rungh Cultural Society for digital archive project
Community Grant: South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy for conference on “Gathering in the Shadows of a Nuclear Winter”
Hari Sharma Foundation Annual Graduate Scholarship: Srijani Datta

Hari Sharma Foundation Annual Graduate Scholarship: Michael Oram (PhD project: impact of democratic governance on policy development in Vancouver and Singapore)
Cultural Grant: Labour Studies Awards: Dylan Webb, Eric Segment, Yawen Wan
Cultural Grant: Lady Jams for producing their first CD
Cultural Grant: Vancouver Art Gallery for exhibition of Bharati Kher works
Cultural Grant: VIASFF South Asian Film Festival for sponsoring Gujarati film, “Wrong Side Raju”
Cultural Grant: Mohamed Asani for creating a Sitar concerto in collaboration with John Oliver for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
Cultural Grant: Vancouver Summer Festival for event on Islamophobia and invitation to Vandana Shiva
Research and Publication Grant: Habiba Zaman for conference on Bengali migration to British Columbia
Research and Publication Grant: Rahat Imran for book project on women’s historical and oppositional filmmaking in the Muslim countries of Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan
Research and Publication Grant: Anne Murphy, UBC Asian Studies, for aesthetics of fragility project
Research and Publication Grant: Bob Hackett, SFU Communications Studies for supporting Communications 431
Community Grant: SANSAD for the visit of Noor Zahir

Cultural Grant: Annual Awards for Labour Studies: Bonnie Tetlock, Dylan Webb, Joel Warren
Cultural Grant: Women in Film and Television Festival for screening of Shonali Bose’s film, “Margarita, with a Straw”
Cultural Grant: Vancouver International Bhangra Celebration, “Songs of Revolution” conference and performance
Cultural Grant: Mangla Bansal for development of film project on Nobel Laureate (2015), Kailash Satyarthi
Cultural Grant: Indian Summer Festival: (1) The Ever After: Memories, Silences, Traumas: conversation with Padma Viswanathan and Jaspreet Singh. (2) The Strings that Bind: Amjad Ali and Sons in Concert. (3) The Wrath of God: Religion and Violence in the World Today: Reza Asla
Research and Publication Grant: Rohit Mujumdar, PhD candidate, UBC, “Made in USA: Livelihood, Property and Urban Inclusion in Ulhasnagar, India”
Research and Publication Grant: Nishant Upadhyay, PhD candidate, York University, “Indians and Other Indians: Race, Indigeneity, Diaspora, and Settler Colonialism”
Research and Publication Grant: Raj Khadka, Phd candidate, UBC, “Exploring Resettled Bhutanese Refugee Family Employment Practices in Negotiating Structural Realities of the Canadian Labour Market”
Research and Publication Grant: Habiba Zaman, Professor, GSWS-SFU, “Engaging With a Dalit Community in Bangladesh”
Cultural Grant: South Asian Film Education Society, “The Bard in Bombay,” public lecture, conference, and screenings on the presence of Shakespeare in Indian cinema
Community Grant: Institute for the Humanities, SFU, “State of Extraction” conference
Community Grant: South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy, “Our Common Home: Conference on Climate Change”
Community Grant: University of the Fraser Valley, public lecture by David Barsamian on climate change
Community Grant: South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy, public forum with Arun Kundnani on “Race, Class, and Empire”
Hari Sharma Foundation Annual Graduate Scholarship: Simanpreet Badesha (PhD project: Gender, Sexuality, body, racialization, and identity construction for South Asian women in Canadian Society)

Research and Publication Grant: Sanjeev Routray, “Urban Restructuring and Politics of Poverty in Delhi” (PhD project)
Research and Publication Grant: Indranil Chakroborty, “Informal Labour in the IT Sector in Bangalore”
Annual Labour Studies Grant: Edith Cuellar Mata; Cayley Joel Warren; Dylan Webb
Annual Graduate Scholarship: Courtney Szto (PhD project: South Asian Canadians in Ice Hockey)
Cultural Grant: Indian Summer Arts Society, ARTPOLITIK
Cultural Grant: India Music Society, Saskatoon, concert by sitarist Vikas Gupta
Cultural Grant: Mohamed Asani, workshop with Ustad Shaheed Parvez
Community Grant: PICS, Golden Tree Memorial Project for Farmworkers
Community Grant: University of the Fraser Valley, talk by David Barsamian
Community Grant: SANSAD and SBCJ, public forum on climate justice
Cultural Grant: Sherri Duggal, support for book launch

Research and Publication Grant: Progressive Intercultural Services Society, Farmworkers Union Book project
Cultural Grant: Sarah Singh, film project on musical heritage of South Asia, “A Million Rivers”
Hari Sharma Foundation Annual Graduate Scholarship in South Asian Studies, SFU: Dharashree Das, “Matters of the Womb: Muslim Women’s Narratives of Fertility, Family, and the Indian State”
Hari Sharma Foundation Annual Grant for Labour Studies, SFU
Community Grant: Seriously Free Speech Society, Public Lecture by Deepa Kumar on Islamophobia
Community Grant: South Asian Film Education Society, Cinema for Change: Addressing Violence Against Women
Cultural Grant: Mohamed Assani, Sitar workshop with Ustad Shaheed Pervez
Community Grant: Society for Bangladesh Climate Justice, Seminar, UBC
Community Grant: South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy, Ghadar Centenary Celebration, Public Forum and screening of film, “Chittagong”

Hari Sharma Foundation Annual Graduate Scholarship in South Asian Studies, SFU
Hari Sharma Foundation Annual Grant for Labour Studies, SFU
Research and Publication Grant: Supriyo Routh, University of Victoria, BC (“Informal Workers in India: Reconceptualizing Labour Laws to Promote Capabilities”)
Cultural Grant: Fazeli Films (Phoolan Devi Project)
Cultural Grant: Praxis Screen Writers Centre, SFU (screening of Anjum Rajabali film, “Rajneeti”)
Community Grant: Progressive Intercultural Services Society, Harmony House Project
Community Grant: South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (Lecture by David Barsamian)
Community Grant: The Mother Language Lovers of the World (Seminar on “Multilingualism for Inclusive Education”

Cultural Grant: South Asian Film Education Society: Tagore-on-Film Festival
Cultural and Social Grant: Kwantlen Polytechnic University: A South Asian Women’s Empowerment Conference
Research and Publication Grant: Jennifer Ganapathy: “Community Dialogue Project for Domestic Workers and Low-Income Communities, Bangalore, India
Annual Grant for undergraduate studies in Labour Studies, Simon Fraser University