Education USA Advisor, United States-India Educational Foundation (USIEF)

Sohini Jana is the Education Advisor for The United States – India Educational Foundation (USIEF). The foundation promotes mutual understanding between the nationals of India and the nationals of the US through the educational exchange of outstanding scholars, professionals and students. Sohini is also an associate with Institute for Faith-Based Diplomacy, supporting the cause of faith based reconciliation between communities in her region. Before, she has worked as the Director of Jammu and Kashmir Policy Institute, and acting Chapter President for the India chapter of the Euphrates Institute, a US-based non-profit organization. A post-graduate in English Literature, her interest in IRD stems from books, as she took to listening to the "other" as if she was reading a novel. Jana identifies herself as a bridge-builder, and spearheaded a successful effort to bring Americans (mostly Christians) in conversation with South Asian Islamic studies scholars from the Centre of Peace and Spirituality in order to combat islamophobia and promote Islam as an ideology of peace for the post-scientific era. Furthermore, she has campaigned to promote the culture of interfaith interactions prevalent in Kolkata by interviewing members of the Youth Association of a local club in the Mohammad Ali Park region, and delivered a live training session on Interfaith Harmony to the students of the Institute of Management Sciences in Peshawar, Pakistan. Jana also hosted a concert to promote interfaith harmony through music and theatre in collaboration with the Society for Social Regeneration and Equity on the occasion of Daniel Pearl Foundation World Music days. For her work on interfaith harmony, Jana was awarded the Euphrates Institute scholarship.  As Director of the of Jammu and Kashmir Policy Institute, Sohini seeks to contribute to the focus areas of inter-community and intra-cultural peace processes in Kashmir through education, mainstreaming of inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue tools.  Moreover, Sohini is leading the development of a strategy to engage women in community spaces for peace processes while empowering them to achieve gender equality goals in the development narrative. She is also contributing to bringing about a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the role and scope of identity dynamics as they play out in grassroots democratic processes.