Indian Fulbright Visiting Lecturer Program 2007 – 08 alumna, Sruti Bandopadhay has won the prestigious Commonwealth Academic Staff Fellowship. The Commonwealth Academic Fellowships aims to enhance the careers of recipients through the development of new skills and contacts, or through networking and updating knowledge and skills. Based at the Department of Dance, Film and Theatre Studies at the University of Surrey in Guildford, she will deliver lectures on Indian Dances and conduct workshops on Manipuri dance, which is one of the major Indian classical dance forms. As a part of this Fellowship, Bandopadhay will be attending Choreography and Research Methodology classes to enable her to integrate her experiences with the academia on dance in India.

During her Fulbright tenure, Bandopadhay taught Manipuri and Indian Dance at the Department of World Arts and Culture, University of California, USA. She also lectured at the University of California, San Diego, Berkeley and the State University of California, Longbeach. Post her Fulbright Fellowship, Bandopadhay was sent to South Africa by the Government of India to promote cultural relations. She is presently the Director of Centre for Studies and Research on Modern Dance at Rabindra Bharati University in Kolkata. Through this independent centre, Bandopadhay conducts workshops on dance and choreographs dance productions.

Sruti Bandopadhay during a Manipuri dance performance