Policy & Engagement

My policy work includes public scholarship, keynotes, and policy reports for international organizations such as UNESCO, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization.

In addition, I have several editorship responsibilities:

I began writing on arts and political economy in college. An avid writer, I trained to be a journalist and film critic at Mumbai’s Xavier Institute of Communications (XIC) and Pune’s Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). My first article appeared in The Evening New of India in 1982 – an essay on two Mumbai artists: the celebrated poet Eunice De Souza, and pianist Olga Craen, a child prodigy from India & a prize winner at Long-Thibaud-Crespin competition in Paris in the 1940s. [Full disclosure: I studied literature with Eunice & piano with Olga.] From, 1982-84, I edited a magazine called “Apparel” for the Clothing Manufacturers Association of India.  Textiles and garments were India’s biggest manufactured exports (after processed diamonds). 

My own expert interviews to media include those for African Eye Report, Al-Jazeera, BBC, CCTV, Christian Science Monitor, Kojo Namdi Show, Korea Broadcast Service Radio, NPR, and Voice of America.

A recent interview with NPR here

Panel at Les Rencontres économiques d’Aix-en-Provence:
My presentation at 6:40″ (Q&A: 1:00:25″)

POLICY REPORTS

Singh, J.P., Amarda Shehu, Caroline Wesson, and Manpriya Dua. The 2023 Global Artificial Intelligence Infrastructures Report. With a Foreword from David Bray. AI Strategies Team and the Institute for Digital Innovation, George Mason University, and the Stimson Center, Washington DC. August 2023.

Soft Power and Cultural Relations Approaches in International Heritage Protection. (With Neslihan Kaptanoglu, Ming-Hao Li, and Eric Childress).  A Study Commissioned from the British Council.  March 2022.

The Cultural Relations of Negotiating Development: Developing Inclusive and Creative Economies at the British Council.  A Study Commissioned from the British Council, 2022.

Introductory Essay: Cultural Relations and Relationship to Foreign Policy Goals” and “On the Cultural Turn in International DevelopmentBritish Council Cultural Relations Series.

How Do Cultural Differences Affect Trade Reciprocity between Developed and Developing Countries? (English). Research & Policy Briefs No. 25 Washington, DC: World Bank Group.

An Interview with the World Bank: Looking at Development through a Cultural Lens

The Cultural Relations Approach and Value of the Cultural Protection Fund. (With Neslihan Kaptanoglu, Ming-Hao Li, and Eric Childress).  A Study Commissioned from the British Council.  2019.

Culture and International Development: Toward an Interdisciplinary Methodology.  A Study Commissioned from the British Council.  2019.

Soft Power: Measuring the Influence and Effects.  A Study Commissioned from the British Council.  2017 (with Stuart MacDonald and Byunghwan Son).

A 21st Century UNESCO:  Ideals and Politics in an Era of (interrupted) U.S. Re-engagement.”  Briefing No. 23.  Future United Nations Development System.  November 2014.  

Communication Technologies and Development:  Five Myths and Five Lessons from History.” Issues in Technology Innovation. No. 16. Brookings Institution. April 2013. 

“Measurement and Definition of Intangible Cultural heritage:  Recommendations from the Existing Literature.”  Report commissioned by UNESCO Institute for Statistics. August 2009. 

A People Looking Forward: Action for Access and Partnerships in the 21st Century. 300 page report prepared for White House Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Submitted to the President of the United States, January 2001.  Co-Principal Investigator (with Ignatius Bau).

“The Future of Telecommunications Services at the Local Level” (with Jagdish Sheth) in Georgia Center for Advanced Telecommunications Technology. Telecommunications Policy in Georgia. Georgia Institute of Technology.  October 1994. (Study helped change Georgia legislation.)

Pacific Technopolis: Southern California in the Coming Century.  The Asia Society. 1993.

KEYNOTES

The Future of Multilateralism and Global Governance.” (Virtual) Keynote Given at Global Solutions: World Policy Forum. June 2020.

“Fundamental and Disputed Concepts of Cultural Relations.” Keynote given at International Cultural Relations Research Alliance, London, UK, 18 November 2019.

“Culture and International Development: Managing Participatory Voices and Value Chain in the Arts.”  Keynote given at the Annual Gathering of the Brokering Intercultural Exchange Network, Kunsthalle Würth Museum, Schwabish Hall, Germany.  May 23, 2019.

“Overcoming Cultural Distances in International Development: Top-Down and Bottom-Up North-South Perspectives.”  Keynote address given at 23rd Annual Karlsruhe Dialogue on “The Responsible Society: Between Change and Overload”, Karlsruhe Institute for Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany, March 23, 2019.

Global-Local Cultural Distances and Development Practices at the UNESCO, World Bank and World Trade Organization.”  Keynote address given at the conference on “Globalization: Content and Discontents.”  The World Bank. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  January 15, 2019.

What global cultural flows tell us about our interests and values? And, what can we do about them?”  Keynote given at the International Conference on Cultural Policy Research, Tallinn, Estonia, 21 August 2018.

“The Internet and the Museum,” Keynote give at the 2nd European Multidisciplinary Conference on Global Internet Governance: Actors, Regulations, Transactions & Strategies. Cardiff, Wales. 26 April 2018.

“The Art of Negotiating Markets and Development.” Inaugural lecture as Professorial Chair in Culture and Political Economy at the University of Edinburgh.  1 November 2017.

“Negotiating Cultural Borders in an Anxious World.”  Keynote to be given at the Association of Art Administrators and Educators Annual Convention, Edinburgh.  31 May 2017

“From the Inside and Outside: Cultures of Diplomacy and Negotiation.” Inside/Outside, European Conference for the Humanities, 6 April 2017 , Edinburgh

“How to Imagine Cultural Relations Through Evolving Borders.” Brokering Interultural Exchange Network. AHRC Funded Network on Exploring the Role of Arts and Cultural Management, Heilbronn University, 16 January 2017.

“UNESCO: Creating Norms for a Complex World”  ScotMUN – Scotland’s premier Model United Nations Conference, University of Edinburgh, 15 October 2016

“A Global India and Its Cultural Voices.” India Day Keynote.  The University of Edinburgh.  26 October 2016

 “Cultural Networks & Economic Development: Heritage Preservation at UNESCO Betwixt Idealism and Participation.”  Conference on Past for Sale:  Economic Entanglements of Cultural Heritage. Center for Heritage and Society, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.  May 16, 2013

“Conference on Shifting Identities and Globalization in India,” Colonial Academic Alliance (CAA) and The Center for Global Studies at George Mason University, February 26, 2009.

“India’s Prospects in the Global Information Economy,” Keynote address at Plenary Session on Economic Globalization and Digital Divide in India. 36th Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin, Madison, October 12- 14, 2007.

“Services and Information Networks:  Making Credible Commitments to Resolving Poverty at Local and Global Levels.” Keynote speech given at the III World Services Congress, Bogota, Colombia, June 21, 2007.

“Information Technology and Development: ‘Evaluating Performance Through Time’.” Keynote address given at the International Telecommunications Society (ITS) Regional Conference, July 2, 2001, Perth, Australia.

“From Gandhi to MLK.”  Keynote speech given at University of Southern California’s Martin Luther King Day Celebration.  January 16, 1991.

SELECT COMMENTARIES

👆🏾British Council. July 2023: Trust and International Cultural Relations. 👆🏾

Deutschland kann Krise – aber auch KI?”  Tagesspiegel. September 6, 2021.

Digital India Or Not, the Babu’s Love for Frustrating Rules and Procedures Continues.” 21 August 2021. The Wire.

Can Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala revitalise the WTO?”  March 2021. African Business

Renewing Multilateralism with Cultural Values.” Robert Bosch Academy Perspectives. October 2020.

‘The soul’ versus ‘law and order’.” 2 September 2020. The Hill.

Time to unite behind an African candidate to lead WTO.”  August 2020. African Business Magazine.

Two Women from Africa are Among the Leading Candidates to Head the WTO.” The Monkey Cage. Washington Post. 20 July 2020.

In WTO’s Search for its Next Director-General, a Tale of Proxy Wars and Regional Rivalries.” The Wire. 12 July 2020.

Race, Racism, and International Relations.” Duck of Minerva.  25 June 2020.

How Technology, Culture, and Trade Intersect in International Commerce and Policy.” Blog Entry. Schar School of Policy and Government.  2019.

Time to defend liberal world order from the threat of fragmentation.” Op. ed. The Herald. 27 January 2017.

Understanding the Orlando Tragedy Through Contexts of Culture, Religion and Rejection.”  The Wire. June 20, 2016.

Controversial TPP is as Much About Trade as About Foreign Policy Goals,” The Wire.  Available at: October 12, 2015

The Loss of a Paradise Overtaken by Vandals.” The Wire. July 24, 2015.

Plaint of a gay husband: We long for the day when Rashtrapati Bhavan will bathe in a rangoli of rainbows.”  The Times of India. June 30, 2015.

The Land of Milk and Cotton: How U.S. Protectionism Distorts Global TradeForeign Affairs.  October 23, 2014. 

India’s multi-faceted WTO Refusal.”  The Monkey Cage.  The Washington Post.  August 5, 2014.

“The Dynamics Between Intercultural Communication and Development.”  Intercultural Management Quarterly.  Winter 2004.

Interviewing Roopal Shah as Guest Host for Darshan TV on her development work in India.