Meet the IRC-Zolberg Fellows for Summer & Fall 2024
The IRC and the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility at The New School are excited to announce the summer and fall 2024 cohort of fellows. Supported by the Arnhold Foundation, master’s and doctoral students at The New School have the opportunity to contribute to or lead design and research projects at the IRC.
Since 2017, fellows have worked at the IRC on a range of teams including policy, innovation, research, health, governance, and emergency response amongst others. Fellows have a wide range of experience, and come from the Parsons School of Design, the School of Social Research, the School of Nonprofit and Public Management, the School of Global Affairs, and other New School departments. Learn more about the fellowship.
Medha Dhoundiyal, Parsons School of Design, Transdisciplinary Design, MFA, 2025
Medha hails from the Himalayas of India and grew up in Bengaluru, where she pursued computer science as an undergraduate while volunteering for Guardians of Dreams, an NGO focused on children and childcare institutes. After graduating, she joined Accenture as a recruiter, hiring pan-India students from premier B-schools and working on team learning and development. As a project manager for the Association of Designers of India (ADI), she played a key role in the Protopolis project proposal, signed by World Design Organisation and ADI in July 2023. She was also a UX researcher at Curefit Healthcare where she was involved in planning and executing user studies to aid product development. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Transdisciplinary Design at Parsons School of Design, where she explores participatory action research and has collaborated with New York City Emergency Management on housing equity policies. She is also working on a service design project addressing the mental health crisis among Chinese middle-school students. Central to Medha’s diverse experiences is her commitment to creating delightful experiences and transforming systems for people.
As the Strategic Projects Fellow, Medha will work within the Airbel Impact Lab’s Strategy & Delivery team to help support departmental delivery against key priorities and identify opportunities to enhance cross-functional collaboration, coordination, and synergy among Airbel teams and across the broader IRC. The Airbel Impact Lab is IRC’s Research and Innovation unit, and Medha’s work will focus on leveraging AI to improve Airbel’s day-to-day knowledge management and workflow automation. Through this role, Medha will gain exposure to cutting-edge solutions addressing global challenges and valuable insights into the internal workings of a leading humanitarian organization, and have the opportunity to contribute to impactful initiatives in close collaboration with senior leadership.
Hermann Derwanz, New School for Social Research, Politics, Ph.D., 2025
Hermann Derwanz is a Ph.D. student at the New School for Social Research in New York City. He holds an M.A. in Politics from the same institution (2022) and was a Fulbright Scholar from Germany (2021–22). He has previously worked as a data analyst and a quantitative researcher in the higher education and public consulting sectors. Additionally, as a graduate student at the New School, Hermann has gained experience as a Research Assistant on multiple projects. His primary area of interest is the history and theory of international relations, with a particular focus on post-war institution-building, the decline of empires, and theories of decolonization.
As the Client Responsiveness Analysis Fellow, Hermann will support the Client Responsiveness team with a comprehensive analysis of qualitative and quantitative data on client feedback and client satisfaction collected by Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) teams across IRC programs in Asia, East Africa, West Africa, Central Africa, MENA, Latin America regions and Ukraine response. The Client Responsiveness team leads IRC’s commitment to supporting the right of people affected by crisis to participate in and shape the decisions that affect them. In this fellowship, Hermann will work with Client Responsiveness Technical Specialists to analyze existing data sets, identify trends, draw key findings and recommendations that can inform design and implementation of IRC programs, develop use cases for data driven decision making, and compile relevant information for internal and external communication and advocacy interventions.
Aratrika Debnath, The Milano School of Policy, Management, and Environment, Public and Urban Policy, Ph.D., 2028
Aratrika is a Ph.D. student specializing in Public and Urban Policy at The New School, New York. She holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur and a masters in Urban Ecological Planning from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim. Before joining The New School, she was involved with UN-Habitat in New Delhi and New York and served as a Research Associate at the School of Planning and Architecture in Bhopal. She has conducted fieldwork in India, the Netherlands, Norway, and China, fueling her passion for participatory urban governance and community engagement. Her current research lies at the intersection of climate migration and citizen science. She aims to craft a governance framework for climate migration and disaster mitigation that leverages citizen science to develop sustainable urban resettlement strategies. Her work delves into the complexities of post-resettlement risk creation, while focusing on preparedness and adaptive resilience, and tackling issues related to land, food security, livelihoods, and socio-political rights for vulnerable communities.
As the Protection Pathways for Climate-Related Displacement Fellow, Aratrika will support the Global Policy & Solutions’ Protection Pathways team in building upon IRC’s existing climate change agenda by researching the current policy landscape related to climate mobility. The Protection Pathways team works to develop actionable, scalable policy solutions related to pathways to protection, including resettlement, asylum, and integration, for IRC’s clients. Aratrika will scope existing policy debates and current or potential policy solutions to meet the needs of people whose displacement is related to climate change, and engage with internal and external stakeholders to better understand the policy environments in which climate displacement and mobility is being debated. She will review the breadth of current IRC programming to identify any existing programming relevant to this theme and compile an internal brief which will inform the team’s next steps in identifying policy solutions related to climate displacement and mobility
Irene Abarca, Julien J. Studley Graduate Programs in International Affairs, International Affairs, MA, 2025
Irene holds two BA degrees in Politics and Philosophy from The New School (2023) and is currently pursuing an MA in International Affairs at The New School (2025). Throughout her academic journey, Irene has delved into a wide array of research areas, engaging in both fieldwork and academic research. She has traveled to Cuba to investigate the gap between policy making and the private and social spheres, with a particular emphasis on gender and the power of social activism. Moreover, Irene has collaborated with various clients from the UN and non-profit sector, addressing her diverse research interests. Her most recent project was conducted in partnership with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), where she examined the impact of sanctions on the delivery of humanitarian aid in light of UNSC Resolution 2664. Irene’s research interests include humanitarian aid with a focus on gender, as well as advancing the rights of conflict and climate refugees.
As the Conflict and Humanitarian Fellow, Irene will support the Global Policy & Solutions’ Conflict and Humanitarian team to deliver IRC’s policy agenda on humanitarian access, with a focus on existing and emerging crises. The Conflict and Humanitarian team is a new and dynamic part of IRC’s new Global Policy and Solutions department that leverages the power of IRC’s ideas to develop policy solutions to address the biggest challenges facing IRC’s clients and our operational teams in conflict affected countries. Irene’s fellowship will also support work related to civilian protection, accountability for international humanitarian law, and food insecurity. Through this fellowship, Irene will have the opportunity to learn about the humanitarian sector via close collaboration with colleagues from across the IRC, and will also gain practical experience in applying qualitative analysis skills and developing policy solutions to global humanitarian problems.
Ahad Ali, The New School for Social Research, Sociology, Ph.D., 2025
Ahad Ali holds an MA in Sociology from The New School (TNS), New York, an MBA from the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi and a Bachelor of Sciences (BSc.) from the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Lahore. He has worked at Geo/Jang Media Group on education public policies and elections, and the Dawn Media Group in television journalism. As a doctoral candidate at The New School for Social Research, his work revolves around how expertise is enacted in the construction of AI Large Language Models. His current research interests lie in the history of science and technology, digital media, sociology of expertise, sociology of AI and Critical Algorithm Studies. During his time at TNS, he has taught classes on Statistics, Open Source Software, Video Games, and Communication as well as serving as instructor for classes on Media Studies and Internet Studies. Over the same time period, he has held various Fellowships including GIDEST (Graduate Institute for Design, Ethnography & Social Thought), Lang Social Sciences Fellowship, Global Dialogues, as well as winning the Dean’s and PhD Prize scholarships.
As the AI & Ethics Signpost Fellow, Ahad will support the launch of signpost.ai, a dynamic and innovative lab within the IRC focused on leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create universal access to information for people affected by conflict, crisis, or climate. Ahad will play an important role in documenting AI development processes, crafting insightful research write ups, and consolidating learnings so that they can be effectively disseminated to a global audience. His work will contribute to the lab’s mission of de-risking AI applications in humanitarian settings and scaling successful innovations to achieve widespread impact.
Vasudev Vashisht, Parsons School of Design, Photography, MFA, 2025
Vasudev Vashisht is a lens-based creative researcher-practitioner combining analog, digital, and alternative processes to question and understand the contemporary natural landscape. Vasudev is a graduate student in the Photography School at Parsons School of Design and is an awardee of the Parsons Student Research Award. He has worked as a software and computer programming tutor with the University Learning Center. He is currently researching a photography-based climate justice project in the mining regions of the Peruvian Andes to address environmental and social challenges.
As the Costing Analysis Design Fellow, Vasudev will design and develop a series of structured video tutorials focused on communicating the costing methodology used by the IRC. The content of the tutorials will be aimed at other NGOs who are interested in conducting activity-level cost-efficiency and cost-effectiveness analyses, and will cover topics such as: what it takes to run a cost-efficiency analysis, and how to apply learnings from cost analysis. The IRC has led the way in producing cost evidence in the humanitarian sector using a standardized methodology, however without consistent use of standardized methods, the comparability of data will remain limited. Vasudev’s work will play a crucial role in supporting the comparability of data so that humanitarian programs can evaluate which interventions are more cost-efficient and cost-effective than others, and thus provide greater impact at scale.
Manasi Sambhus, Parsons School of Design, Strategic Design and Management, MS, 2025
Manasi is currently pursuing an MS in Strategic Design and Management from Parsons School of Design and has a background in Visual and Textile Design. She has previously worked as a Creative designer at Nesterra- Sutlej Textiles, Mumbai, where she has crafted visually appealing yet functional fabric experiences for every style of the house. Along with design she was also involved in discussions with stakeholders and making key strategies and decisions regarding display and in overall marketability of the product. She has also led market research, user behavior analysis, and trend forecasting to escalate sales and create a design language for the brand. Additionally, she has worked as a Research Assistant and has a key interest in academia. Her research focuses on facilitating community workshops within the African-American beach community, visual culture, community engagement, and design solutions/negotiations for marginalized groups.
As the PlayMatters Research Fellow, Manasi will directly support the IRC’s regional Research team to design, implement, and disseminate IRC-led PlayMatters research and learning activities that are taking place in Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania. PlayMatters is an IRC-led education initiative funded by the LEGO Foundation that builds on children’s amazing resilience and a growing evidence base supporting Learning through Play methodologies to cultivate holistic learning and well-being for children ages 3–12+. Manasi will work closely with the regional team and country-based teams in support of a range of quality evidence-building and learning activities using a variety of research methods. Through this fellowship, Manasi will collaborate across teams to support the visualization and dissemination of PlayMatters evidence, and will work with Education Researchers from the Airbel Impact Lab, IRC’s Research and Innovation unit, to coordinate activities.
Nitesh Kumar, New School for Social Research, Economics, MA, 2025
Nitesh hails from India, close to the border of Nepal in the north. He has been a Young India Fellow at Ashoka University (2019) and holds an MA in Development Studies from the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati (2018). He completed his BSc in Economics from the Symbiosis School of Economics, Pune (2015). He works as a Research Assistant at The New School on the Decolonization of Global Health. He has been a Field-Research Consultant with the Inclusion Economics India Centre on a Randomized Controlled Trial project on Gender and Technology and has been a Teaching Assistant for a course on Ecological Economics at Ashoka University. Nitesh is pursuing an MA in Economics at The New School for Social Research. His research interests include price theory, political economy and ecological economics.
As the Climate and Health Toolkit Fellow, Nitesh will support the IRC’s Health Technical Unit by helping revise, finalize and disseminate a toolkit for designing climate-resilient health programs in humanitarian settings. The IRC’s Health Technical Unit is comprised of professionals from the fields of Primary Health Care, Sexual and Reproductive Health, Nutrition, Mental and Environmental Health, providing IRC’s country offices and emergency response teams with world class technical expertise, capacity building and a cross-country view of what works to achieve outcomes in terms of both evidence and practical experience. To support this team, Nitesh’s fellowship will include: developing briefs on different topics related to climate and health, writing case studies of program examples, revising program design tools to be more user friendly for country programs, and disseminating materials via webinars and learning sessions.
Angel Melgoza, Francesca Ungureanu, Julie Caracino, and Carolina Simbaña González are continuing their fall 2023 fellowships into the summer, and Mauricio Vargas Sosa, Ahmad Abbasi, Te Asia Hunter, and Benjamin Serra are continuing their spring 2024 fellowships into the summer.
