Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Campus & Community
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Campus & Community

Nimisha Thakur Receives Newcombe Fellowship for Doctoral Research in India

Thursday, June 6, 2024, By Kelly Homan Rodoski
Share
Center for Fellowship and Scholarship AdvisingGraduate SchoolMaxwell School of Citizenship and Public AffairsStudents

Nimisha Thakur graphic Newcombe FellowshipNimisha Thakur, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Anthropology in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, has received a Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship. Awarded by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, the Newcombe Fellowship supports promising scholars completing dissertations examining ethics and religion in interesting, original or significant ways. Fellows receive a 12-month award of $31,000 to support their final year of dissertation writing.

Thakur is one of 22 scholars in the United States to receive the award, which the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation calls the largest and most prestigious award for Ph.D. candidates in the humanities and social sciences addressing questions of ethical and religious values.

Funded by the Charlotte W. Newcombe Foundation, the fellowship was created in 1981 and has supported nearly 1,300 doctoral candidates. Newcombe Fellows have gone on to be noted faculty at domestic and foreign institutions, leaders in their fields of study, Pulitzer Prize winners and more.

Thakur’s dissertation, “River song: Riverine ethics and autonomy on the Brahmaputra floodplains,” focuses on the ethical actions shaping the lives of people inhabiting the floodplains of the Brahmaputra River in Assam, India, as they build a future amidst socio-economic, political and environmental precarity.

When Thakur began preliminary research in 2017, she followed the flows of the Brahmaputra River and its many tributaries in upper and central Assam. “This helped me understand how a mobile approach to land and life allows local communities across the Brahmaputra floodplains to deal with the uncertainties posed by climate change and infrastructures upstream,” Thakur says. “I specifically focus on how place-based ethics and ancestral values centering an autonomous mode of life emerge in narratives about a future for riverine communities living in small river islands on the Brahmaputra River’s northern bank.”

From 2021-22, Thakur explored riverine communities’ relationships with the Brahmaputra River and its tributaries through songs, stories and participation in everyday life while living in the river island region. She also interviewed activists and community leaders to understand their perspectives around development infrastructures that adversely impact community access to land and resources. She also conducted research at several archives in India.

“Nimisha’s research is fascinating, timely and important, and I enjoyed working with her to hone her application materials,” says Daniel Olson-Bang, director of professional and career development in the Graduate School. “I’m so pleased that such a deserving researcher will have this opportunity.”

Thakur’s research was supported by the American Institute of Indian Studies Junior Dissertation Fellowship from 2021-22. She also received support from the Department of Anthropology and the Moynihan South Asia Center in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and the Education Model Program on Water-Energy Research, a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Traineeship Program at Syracuse University.

  • Author

Kelly Rodoski

  • Recent
  • WiSE Hosts the 2025 Norma Slepecky Memorial Lecture and Undergraduate Research Prize Award Ceremony
    Friday, June 13, 2025, By News Staff
  • Inaugural Meredith Professor Faculty Fellows Announced
    Friday, June 13, 2025, By Wendy S. Loughlin
  • Lab THRIVE: Advancing Student Mental Health and Resilience
    Thursday, June 12, 2025, By News Staff
  • 7 New Representatives Added to the Board of Trustees
    Wednesday, June 11, 2025, By News Staff
  • Whitman Honors Outstanding Alumni and Friends at 2025 Awards and Appreciation Event
    Tuesday, June 10, 2025, By News Staff

More In Campus & Community

Inaugural Meredith Professor Faculty Fellows Announced

Three professors have been named Meredith Professor Faculty Fellows. Part of the Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professorship Program, the Faculty Fellows program was launched this year. Fellows will work in partnership with the Center for Teaching and Learning…

On Your Mark, Get Set, Go Orange! Faculty and Staff at the Syracuse WorkForce Run (Gallery)

The Syracuse WorkForce Run was held at Onondaga Lake Parkway Tuesday, bringing together workers from across Central New York for a night of food, fun, fitness and friendly competition among area employers. This year’s event, which raised funds for Ronald…

Oren Lyons Jr., Roy Simmons Jr. Honored With Alfie Jacques Ambassador Award

Oren Lyons Jr. ’58, H’93 and Roy Simmons Jr. ’59, H’14 formed a lifelong friendship that stems from their days starring for the Syracuse University men’s lacrosse team from 1955-58. Recently, Lyons and Simmons were honored with the Alfie Jacques…

McDonald Assumes New Role as Associate Vice President for Research

Katherine McDonald, professor of public health and senior associate dean for research and administration in the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, will join Syracuse University’s Office of Research in a new role as associate vice president…

7 New Representatives Added to the Board of Trustees

Chancellor Kent Syverud has appointed Dean Mark Lodato of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications as academic dean representative to the Board of Trustees. In addition, Andrea Rose Persin, assistant dean of budget, finance and administration in the College…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2025 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.