Spotlight

আজকাল, the Chowdhury Center’s e-Newsletter for Spring 2024 is out!! Please click this link to find out about all the exciting events that we have planned for this semester.Read more about আজকাল for Spring 2024

Bangladesh Development Initiative (BDI) is pleased to announce its 7th multidisciplinary international conference. It will be held on November 8–10, 2024 (Friday–Sunday) at the University of California, Berkeley, in partnership with the Institute for South Asia Studies and the Subir &...Read more about Call for Papers | Bangladesh Reimagined: The Next Half-Century

আজকাল, the Chowdhury Center’s e-Newsletter for Fall 2023 is out!! Please click THIS link below to find out about all the exciting events that we have planned for this semester.Read more about আজকাল, the Chowdhury Center’s e-Newsletter, for Fall 2023!

It’s been 10 years since the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh, which killed 1,134 people and injured thousands more, most of whom were working in factories supplying clothing for international brands. What did we learn from this disaster about how businesses and governments can...Read more about Rana Plaza ten years on: Lessons for human rights and business

Congratulations to Tausif Noor, SAAI Graduate Student Representative and PhD student in the History of Art Department, for winning the 2023 Dudley Prize for Art Writing, alongside T. J. Clark, Professor Emeritus, History of Art Department, UC Berkeley. Read more ...Read more about Former Chowdhury Fellow, Tausif Noor, awarded Prestigious Art Prize

আজকাল, the Chowdhury Center's e-Newsletter for Fall 2022 is out!! Highlights include distinguished lectures by ...Read more about আজকাল Fall 2022

আজকাল, the Chowdhury Center's e-Newsletter for Spring 2022 is out!! Highlights include distinguished lectures by Sukanta Chaudhuri and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and t...Read more about আজকাল Spring 2022

To celebrate the 50th year of independence of Bangladesh, the Department of Global Studies & Governance (GSG), Independent University Bangladesh (IUB) published a ‘GSG: 50...Read more about GSG: 50th Victory-day Anniversary Souvenir

The 2021 Subir and Malini Chowdhury Fellowships recipients, Nazmul Ahasan and Ariana Pemberto, were recently featured in The Daily Star, the largest circulating daily English-language newspaper in Bangladesh.

Please click...Read more about 2021 Chowdhury Fellows covered by The Daily Star

The Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies' rapid response survey of garment workers under Covid-19 (in collaboration with BRAC), and discussion on the film Threads (co-sponsored with the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology and the Textile Arts Council) was...Read more about A case for India, Bangladesh weaving new ties in textile and apparel

আজকাল, the Chowdhury Center's e-Newsletter for Spring 2021 is out!! See our new and improved look. And read it to find out about all the exciting Zoom events that we have planned for this semester.

Read আজকাল...Read more about Aajkal for Spring 2021 is now out!!!

আজকাল, the Chowdhury Center's e-Newsletter for October 2020 is out!! Read this special issue to find out about an exciting new report on the impact of Covid-19 on the RMG sector in Bangladesh, upcoming events, and recording of past events. ...Read more about Chowdhury Center Aajkal for October 2020 is out.

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has shaken the world’s economy and supply chains. In the case of Bangladesh, the RMG sector, which has been one of the major drivers of the socioeconomic development of Bangladesh in the last 40 years, has been especially hard hit with the garment workers...Read more about Research Brief: The Impacts of Covid-19 on the Lives of Workers in the Garment Industry

আজকাল, the Chowdhury Center's e-Newsletter for Fall 2020 is out!! Please click the link below to find out about all the exciting Zoom events that we have planned for this semester. ...Read more about আজকাল, the Chowdhury Center's e-Newsletter for Fall 2020 is now available!!!

Shikha Bhattacharjee, the Subir Chowdhury Fellow for 2019, was awarded a prestigious grant from the ...Read more about Chowdhury Fellow awarded a National Science Foundation Grant

In an effort to shed some light on the impact of the corona virus in Bangladesh, the Chowdhury Center organized a panel dicussion led by Dr. Sanchita Saxena featuring medical anthropologist Dr. Sabina Rashid, political scientist Prof. Ali Riaz, development sociologist Prof. Naomi Hossain,...Read more about Bangladesh and COVID-19

Following the alarming drop in consumption worldwide due to the COVID-19 crisis, many major brands have walked away from their contractual obligations. Many local factories in Bangladesh are unable to pay their workers, being forced to close, and creating the prospect of mass unemployment...Read more about [VIRTUAL EVENT] From Fragility to Resilience: Global Supply Chains and Worker Vulnerability, Spotlighting Bangladesh

Join us on Friday, February 7, 2020 for a day-long conference titled Beyond the Crisis...Read more about Beyond the Crisis Narrative: Rohingya Statelessness and its implications for Bangladesh

The Chowdhury Center mourns the passing of Sir Fazle Hasan Abed. We were privileged to have him inaugurate the Center on March 30, 2015.

An icon of international development and pivotal figure in Bangladesh, Sir Abed was a social worker who founded BRAC, the world's largest NGO, in 1972...Read more about Mourning the passing of Sir Fazle Hasan Abed

Edited by Chowdhury Center Director, Dr. Sanchita B. Saxena, "Labor, Global Supply Chains, and the Garment Industry in South Asia" book argues that larger flaws in the global supply chain must first be addressed to change the way business is conducted to prevent factory owners from taking...Read more about New SARN on Labor, Global Supply Chains, and the Garment Industry in South Asia: Bangladesh after Rana Plaza

Edited by Chowdhury Center Director, Dr. Sanchita B. Saxena, this book argues that larger flaws in the global supply chain must first be addressed to change the way business is conducted to prevent factory owners from taking deadly risks to meet clients’ demands in the garment industry in...Read more about New Book Announcement | Labor, Global Supply Chains, and the Garment Industry in South Asia: Bangladesh after Rana Plaza

Ph.D. candidate and the 2017 Subir Chowdhury Fellowship on Quality of Life in Bangladesh Fellow, Samira Siddique has received the prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship (GRFP) Award for 2019. The NSF will fund Samira's work on energy access...Read more about Chowdhury Center Fellow receives National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Award for work on Rohingya

The Chowdhury Center in collaboration with the Institute for South Asia Studies and the South Asia Art Initiative at UC Berkeley is thrilled to announce that a team of specialists from UC Berkeley will be representing Cal at the 2020 Dhaka Art Summit. The interdisciplinary program, titled...Read more about Chowdhury Center to send specialists to Dhaka Art Summit.

The Chowdhury Center, in collaboration with the The South Asia Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science, are co-organizing the second Bangladesh Summit to be held at UC Berkeley on February, 22, 2019. The first of its kind, the goal of this conference series is to...Read more about The 2nd Bangladesh Summit at UC Berkeley

Since August 2017, Burmese security forces have been carrying out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State forcing over half a million of them to flee to neighboring Bangladesh to escape killings, arson, and other atrocities. This mass migration has resulted...Read more about Announcing a New Working Group on the Rohingya Crisis

LSE South Asia Centre and the Chowdhury Center jointly organised the first-ever LSE-UC Berkeley...Read more about On the LSE-UC Berkeley Bangladesh Summit and future of Bangladesh studies

The Chowdhury Center is delighted to announce that Lauren Glasby, Marylin Wang Longley, and Lorraine Pereira have been awarded the Outstanding Paper Prize in Bangladesh Studies for 2018 for their paper titled, "Female Political Empowerment in Bangladesh and Pakistan: The Influence of...Read more about Winners of the 2018 Outstanding Paper Prize in Bangladesh Studies

We invite applications from faculty at Bangladeshi institutions of higher education to take part in a week-long program led by UC Berkeley faculty on research methodologies, writing, and the publishing process. Program covers coach class round trip airfare and all lodging/meal...Read more about The 2018 Faculty Training Workshop on Writing & Publishing in the US now accepting applications

Initiatives targeting working conditions in Cambodia, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka have sometimes been cited as the way forward to address issues of health and safety of workers. In this podcast, IHRB’s Salil Tripathi talks to Sanchita Banerjee Saxena, Director of the Chowdhury Center, about...Read more about Sanchita Saxena on Labor & Worker Safety (Podcast)

Cal sophomore Tarishi Jain died in a terror attack in Bangladesh last year, and her parents, Tulika and Sanjiv Jain, started the "Live Life Like Tarishi" scholarship award as a way to honor their daughter’s legacy. The scholarship requires participants to submit essay proposals on creating...Read more about UC Berkeley senior Aurora Ling wins first-ever ‘Live Life Like Tarishi’ scholarship award

A Profile on Sayah Bogor, our 2016-2017 Subir & Malini Chowdhury Center Fellow on Quality of Life in Bangladesh. Sayah was recently featured in UC Berkeley News for her astounding journey from refugee to health researcher at UC Berkeley. Read more about Sayah and her journey ...Read more about For Sayah Bogor, an Arduous Road from Refugee to Health Researcher

We are thrilled to announce the recipients of the 2017 Subir & Malini Chowdhury Center Fellowships and Internships! Information about the awardees can be found HERE>>Read more about Congratulations to our 2017 Chowdhury Center Awardees!

IIT Kharagpur is starting a school on Quality and Reliability (Q&R) a first of its kind in India, with the aim to improve the trinity of Process, Planet and People (3P’s) targeting Engineering systems, Human systems and natural systems. with the generous support of distinguished...Read more about Chowdhury Center founder establishes the Subir Chowdhury School of Quality and Reliability at IIT-Kharagpur!

The Subir & Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies is thrilled to announce that Bangladeshi lawyer and human rights activist, Sara Hossain, will deliver the 2017 Chowdhury Center Distinguished Lecture on February 16, 2017. Event details ...Read more about The Chowdhury Center Distinguished Lecture for 2017

Our 2015 Subir & Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies Fellow on Quality of Life in Bangladesh, Yoshika Crider (Energy & Resource Group), is one of 2000 awardees (out of an application pool of 17,000) who has been awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Award for her...Read more about Chowdhury Center Awardee wins Prestigious NSF Award

Op-ed in the Globe and Mail, co-authored by Sanchita Saxena, Chowdhury Center Director and Sarah Labowitz of NYU's Stern Center for Business and Human Rights on the failure of prevailing model for addressing poor working conditions in the apparel supply chain. To read more click ...Read more about Monitoring working conditions at factories won’t stop future tragedies

Our newly launched Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies was recently highlighted by ISAS Executive Director, Sanchita Saxena in The Dhaka Tribune (...Read more about ISAS Executive Director, Sanchita Saxena on the Chowdhury Center

Much needed analysis by the Chowdhury Center's very own, Sanchita Saxena. Read Dr. Saxena's recent Op-Ed in the New York Times on the impact of US trade policies on Bangladesh's garment factory workers ...Read more about NYTimes Op-Ed on Bangladesh's Garment Industry