“Hello world! I am Devyani Aggarwal, a native of New Delhi and a final-year student at Yale College. I am a History and French major, heading to Cambridge University for an MPhil program this fall. I know a thing or two about art, culture and politics. I hope to some day be an advocate for artisanal communities in developing countries. Other things that keep me on my toes include quirky movies, cooking experiments, coffee with nutty notes and moments with my dog Milo.” This succint, yet colourful self-description are the first words on the home page of her website, which also showcases her photography and written publications for the Yale Daily News. As a high school senior, Devyani conducted an independent research project tracing the social and cultural history of India's minority Jewish community, and has used her Yale experience to deepen and broaden her limitless curiosity, illustrating answers to even the most abstract and complex of questions. Her radiant smile and true passion for the intricacies of humankind are the building blocks for her next steps at Cambridge, after which she hopes to dedicate her life to international law and diplomacy. Her senior project in history at the university– which explored the lives of British India's forgotten princesses, the Maharanis– was featured on Yale's Women's Faculty Forum (WFF). This project sought to reverse the “imperial” gaze: instead of emphasizing the well-known fascination of the Western man with exotic Asian aesthetics, Devyani chose to reveal the contrary power dynamic by studying the Indian woman's connoisseurship of Western objects and ideas. Winner of the WFF Seed Grant, she also hopes to present and develop her findings on colonial politics, currently in the midst of conceptualizing a book based on her thesis. Congratulations, Devyani! Yet another example of the incredible, inspiring, empowering #HumansOfOISS
