This summer has been busy at the South Asian Studies Institute with a number of scholars, staff and students working on different projects. Read below about some of these people and their projects:
Ishpreet Singh Anand
Ishpreet Singh Anand is a business graduate from the UFV Chandigarh campus and worked with the South Asian Studies Institute, assisting with the branding, public relations and communications aspects of various projects. He worked on designing two websites – one that would be showcasing the various past and current research projects and another one for the Sikh Heritage Museum, National Historic Site, Gur Sikh Temple in Abbotsford. Ishpreet is currently working as Regional Coordinator for the Punjabi Canadian Legacy Project, a joint project between the South Asian Studies Institute and the Royal BC Museum, providing administrative and online assistance.
Shea Ian Wind
Shea is an alumni of UFV, having graduate in 2015 with a major in History and minor in Library Information Technology. Shea catalogued sources referenced in the Canada 150 exhibit on the South Asian vote. Each source was catalogued in accordance with the Rules for Archival Description, the national standard. Shea also engaged in research to establish an online digital database for the South Asian Studies Institute.
Virendra Kumar
Viren recently (summer 2017) completed his post graduate Data Analysis Certificate at UFV. He has worked on the re-designing of the new SASI website as well as assisting with the Canada-India Chair website. Viren is also worked on the re-designing of the Sikh Heritage Museum website and created a new South Asian Canadian Heritage website which highlights the many projects undertaken by SASI. Viren also worked on wire frames for an upcoming proposal for a South Asian Canadian Digital Archive, which is a pan-Canada repository of archival material on the 100 plus year history of South Asians in Canada.
Amitaj Bhinder
Amitaj assisted with the re-designing of the Canada-India Chair website as well as preparing the new SASI website for public launch. Amitaj has also also helped translating panels from English to Punjabi as a part of the SASI Canada 150 project. Amitaj also assisted with the South Asian Canadian Digital Archive project and preparing archived newsletters (from 1907-1914) for public access.
Divesh Sharma
Divesh is in his 3rd year of the Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A) degree (2015-2018) at GGDSD College, Chandigarh, UFV India campus. Divesh worked on a research project looking at the sustainability measures of the Vancouver based transit company, TransLink under the supervision of Satwinder Kaur Bains, SASI Director. Divesh hopes to start his own business related to the transportation industry.
Sapan Gupta
Sapan, a third year BBA student from the UFV Chandigarh campus in India was at UFV for two months as part of a visiting exchange program based on a scholarship he received. He worked to compile a research paper/report on the topic of ‘FINTECH: Future of International Business and Digital Currency’ and under the supervision of Satwinder Kaur Bains, SASI Director. Sapan’s future ambition is to run a company.
Diljot Kaur Soin
Dr. Diljot Soin is a PhD (Organizational Psychology), MA (Psychology), and MBA (Human Resource Management) from Punjab University, Chandigarh, India. She is a certified Mental Health Trainer and holds advanced diplomas in French and Spanish. Dr. Soin is presently working with the South Asian Studies Institute as an Associate Research Fellow where she is conducting a literature review on the health determinants of South-Asian Canadian immigrant families living with diabetes. Dr. Soin is also sessional faculty with Department of Psychology and School of Business at the University of Fraser Valley. Dr. Soin’s teaching philosophy focuses on self-directed and experiential learning by developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills amongst the students which leads to engagement and practice-based learning.