In their December e-newsletter, the Fulbright Scholar Program featured a collaboration between GWSS Professor Priti Ramamurthy and Sumangala Damodaran, a Scholar-in-Residence at the University of Washington during the 2023–2024 academic year.
The editorial delves into how Priti's Fulbright research in India and her connection with Sumangala sparked innovative cross-disciplinary work that bridged political economy and music. It highlights the far-reaching impact of their collaboration on students, faculty, and the broader Seattle community, as well as the enduring influence of Sumangala’s residency on the GWSS department.
Below is the full article, reprinted with permission from the Fulbright Scholar Program:
"Getting to know somebody who was so intellectually alive": A conversation with Scholar-in-Residence Host Priti Ramamurthy
In the 2017-2018 academic year, Professor Priti Ramamurthy went to Ambedkar University in Delhi on a Fulbright Scholar Award to conduct research for her upcoming book on the life stories of people in India's "informal economies." While the interviews she conducted in Hyderabad (her hometown!) and Delhi were instrumental to her research, when asked about the main takeaways from her Fulbright, she gave equal weight to the ongoing collaborations that resulted from her time in India as a Fulbright Scholar.
Priti met Professor Sumangala Damodaran in an organic way, stating that "She had an office right by the office that Ambedkar University gave me [during my Fulbright]." The collaboration flowed organically as well, albeit in an unexpected direction. While both Priti and Sumangala have shared interests, Priti observes that "During my Fulbright, I realized that, as fellow economists, we did a lot of work which was similar on labor histories...But I was very drawn to her work as a musician and a music scholar." In addition to her work in labor studies as a political economist, Sumangala "has created an archive of music, performs creatively, and teaches about historical and contemporary politics through music" drawing on the working-class histories of the Indian People's Theater Association. Priti knew this would "resonate very well" in her home department at the University of Washington Seattle and was excited by the cross-cultural "dialogues" that Sumangala's work could bring to a community of scholars working on "histories of rock music" and "theater and artistic performance" in the U.S. and across global contexts.
To invite Sumangala as a Scholar-in-Residence, Priti undertook the process of finding institutional allies for the Scholar-in-Residence application, in which a U.S. institution of higher education as a whole is the applicant. She started close to home at the University of Washington - Seattle, enlisting "the most important support [...] the Chair of my department, who early on was convinced that [the Scholar-in-Residence Program] would be great for the department." Then she cast a wider net, working with some "people I knew, some incidentally, to get them involved with this effort." She reached out to "the director of the South Asia Center, the director of the Jackson School of International Studies, and the Department of Ethnomusicology and the School of Music to enlist them as collaborators."
This reaching across the academic aisles worked very well: the University of Washington - Seattle's application was successful. As soon as Sumangala arrived on campus, Priti notes, "We had students from across disciplines take her courses, and we had not just students - undergraduate and graduate - but also faculty and the wider Seattle community come to the University of Washington for her concert." Beyond providing an enchanting, educational night out, Sumangala's public concert for nearly 200 people "showcased the university...We need to show the local communities the quality of what we do and the importance of it, and she was able to do that for us in amazing ways." Indeed, one of these "amazing ways" that Sumangala's time as a Scholar-in-Residence served to build connections was just as unexpected as the merging of political economy and music: Priti mused, "The other day I was meeting with colleagues and we shared, 'We got together a lot more when Sumangala was here!'"
The experience was also beneficial for Sumangala and Priti personally. Priti characterized Sumangala's time in the U.S. as "amazingly productive," noting that, in addition to the major concert event, "She finished a major report. She finished a book!" In her own words, Sumnagala wrote that "The six months that I spent at the University of Washington - Seattle, have been among the most special periods of my life. Teaching two courses [there] challenged me substantially, because the mix of students was unlike any other cohort I had taught before, and they responded to the lectures with great enthusiasm, generosity and warmth...Apart from new lifelong friendships and very lively interactions during my time in Seattle, the Scholar-in-Residence program gave me a lot of time to work on ideas, read extensively and have a wonderful community of colleagues." As for Priti herself, she first noted that it was a pleasure "just get to know somebody so intellectually alive and creative, who approached material in a completely different way." Sumangala's impact went beyond the intellectual and into the tangible in the next semester of Priti's teaching: "I started each class [the next semester] with music, and I wouldn't have done that before. The students absolutely loved it; we did evaluations of the course yesterday and several of them said, 'We really loved the music that started the class.' Her impact was tangible, very tangible." Sumangala's impact endures even after she has returned to India.
When asked what she would recommend for would-be applicants for a Scholar-in-Residence, Priti recommended strategies for finding a fit as fruitful as Sumangala's with the University of Washington - Seattle. "[Applicant institutions] need to think through carefully what kind of critical niche or need [a Scholar-in-Residence] would fit that is both new and exciting" while building on ongoing conversations at that institution and/or with the scholar. Her "niche" for bringing Sumangala to Seattle was focusing on how the application's named scholar was "somebody working on music in India in these creative ways, both historically and in the contemporary moment." Priti knew that Sumangala would continue her department's strong engagement with music in Priti's department, making the connection between political economy and music manifest to scholars and the public at large.
Lastly, Priti commented on the importance of looking to the Scholar-in-Residence Program and beyond Scholar Awards to support one's own research, because "an important part of what we do as faculty is try to multiply the impact of our work. The Scholar-in-Residence might well put you in touch with people you didn't know or ideas you didn't have or collaborations which you could dream up together. It could be that it will actually be quite instrumental to help you think about your own work and make contacts and collaborate globally."
There is perhaps no better way to summarize the power of the Fulbright Program's reciprocal exchange and the Scholar-in-Residence Program's critical role in connecting academics, professionals, and artists around the world.