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Feldman Engaged Scholar: THE HELLER SCHOOL FOR SOCIAL POLICY AND MANAGEMENT WELCOMES SPRING 2007 FELDMAN ENGAGED SCHOLAR Dr. Navina Jafa
Dr. Navina Jafa
Dr. Navina Jafa combines a multifaceted personality in the field of culture. Dr. Jafa is the Secretary General of Foundation for Arts - an NGO involved with rural development through crafts and grassroots communities. Dr. Jafa teaches and performs Kathak dance, has studied Art History, a Ph D in aspects of Indian Culture. She designs and executes Indian cultural heritage tours and lectures. Her recent articles include Transitional Identities of Women Artists in Kathak, Expanding Parameters of Sufism in South Asia, Rural Development through Crafts, and Shifting Identities of Muslim Women Artisans in Afghanistan and India. As a 2005 Fulbright Arts fellow at the Smithsonian Center for Folk Life and Cultural Heritage, Washington, D.C., Dr. Jafa researched and completed her manuscript for her forthcoming book on Cultural Brokering as Tapestry of Metaphors and Fables: Perspectives in Cultural Management. During her Fulbright tenure, Dr. Jafa lectured at the Smithsonian, the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University, Fletcher's School of Diplomacy at Tufts University, and Harvard University among others, and gave dance performances at the Kennedy Center and the Indian Embassy in Washington, D.C. She has been appointed by Smithsonian Journeys to lead cultural tours to India from 2006 to 2008. Her firm ICON- (Educational tours & Cultural Services) provides innovative heritage programs, cultural relation education for business development in India, consultancy on culture and sustained development.
Dr. Navina's Focus of Work as the Feldman Engaged Scholar at The Heller School "Performance, Culture and Development is a small module that hopes to bring out the relevance of using the canvas of indigenous cultural specific performing arts to communicate alien ideas of development and social change . The module treats inner dynamics of culture and development as concepts of flow, and the agent of performing arts as tools of blending one flow into another. The flows from Bottom to top and top to bottom. Case studies are used from various countries to illustrate different models addressing the themes of environment, health, gender, education, conflict and tourism. The second part of the module will look into the idea of actually inducting performing arts into policy and management. It refers to the idea of inclusive cultural specific policy as 'performed policy'." - Navina Jafa
Dr. Jafa works for a small NGO, Foundation for Arts, that works with artisan crafts communities in North India. Their main objective is sustainable development throught crafts. It is fighting child labor by introducing among caste crafts community informal schools for artisan children having the motto 'work and learn'. Over 3000 women are being trained in painting ceramic pottery; their main products are ceramic beads and tiles. These women are now organized in Self Help Groups through which they are introduced to micro-finance, receive access to regular medical checkups and adult education. Workshops teach them legal matters and simple techniques of money management. By providing design inputs, the Foundation has produced a range of beautiful beads, necklaces, tiles, tea sets, and vases, and is looking for markets mainly for beads, tile and strung necklaces. For more information about The Foundation for Arts, please visit the website: http://www.foundationforarts.com.
Her work in Cultural Management Her work in Culture and Development
Kathak: The Only North Indian Classical Dance |
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