Mar 04 2020
This article was published on Mar 04 2020 and was archived on Mar 01 2021. The information below may be outdated or inaccurate.
New River Community College Instructor Manisha Sharma recently published an article in the industrial design magazine “Innovation’s” winter 2019 edition. The magazine is produced quarterly by the Industrial Designers Society of America.
Sharma’s work explores the social responsibility and community impact of a Virginia Tech School of Architecture + Design course within the industrial design program. The design course teaches students how to create ceramic bowls, which are then sold at a soup dinner fundraising event to support Micah’s Backpack, a weekly non-profit effort to help alleviate food insecurity for local school students by providing them with food each week.
Sharma, who teaches both English and yoga classes at NRCC’s New River Valley Mall site in Christiansburg, has a love for design; she and her husband, a designer, share a passion for minimalism and midcentury design.
“For me, writing doesn’t have any boundaries,” said Sharma, who has been attending the Empty Bowl soup fundraising event for several years. “Students are learning to make bowls, but the impact goes well beyond the bowl, helping local students. This article is my perspective on it.”
Recently, Sharma has also published poetry in the literary magazine “The Fourth River.” Her poetry works mostly consist of feminist social issues, particularly the gender imbalance in her home country of India, where the number of males being born heavily outweighs the number of females. In 2014, Sharma spent a year in India doing field work in regards to the existing gender imbalance. Her poetry looks at a future world where no girls remain. The poem is part of a collection of works that will soon become a book.
“In India, cultural importance is given to sons; everyone wants a son,” Sharma noted. “It’s a huge global issues which we are not focusing on. What would the future look like? What is my responsibility to tell this story?”
Sharma describes her writing style as reaching across genres and collaborating across disciplines, and she writes about topics that she has a deep interest in and passion for. Among her many accolades, she recently received a poetry award from Causeway Lit poetry contest. A native of India, Sharma now lives in Blacksburg, Va., and holds a master of fine arts degree from Virginia Tech and holds bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees in the fields of English, British and Indian literature from Jai Narain Vyas University in India. More information about Sharma and her writings can be found at www.manisha-sharma.com.
Public Relations Specialist / Adjunct Instructor