Seminar in Critical Development Studies co-hosted by the Graduate Field of Development Studies, Department of Global Development, the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, the South Asia Program, and the Department of Anthropology

Abstract:

Even in north India cities, with their centuries-old practices of living in a hot, dry climate, global warming poses a new challenge. My talk focuses on the shifts brought about by climate change and how they interact with patterns of accelerated urban growth since the 1990s. In particular, I will examine how living conditions are shaped by inequalities in access to decent work and housing, exacerbated by economic liberalization policies. In this context, how does climate change affect the social experience of urban life? From individual households to neighborhoods to wider public spaces, how do people understand and deal with heat? I hope to suggest some avenues for future research by reflecting on my work in Delhi, India.

About the speaker:

Amita Baviskar is a Professor of Environmental Studies and Sociology and Anthropology at Ashoka University (India). Her research and teaching address the cultural politics of environment and development in rural and urban India. She focuses on the role of social inequality and identities in natural resource conflicts. Currently, she is working on the politics of food and changing agrarian environments in Madhya Pradesh and studying the social experience of air pollution in Delhi.

After studying Economics and Sociology at the University of Delhi, she received a PhD in Development Sociology from Cornell University. Besides working at the Department of Sociology, University of Delhi, and at the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi, she has been a visiting scholar at several universities including Stanford, Cornell, Yale, SciencesPo, University of California at Berkeley and the University of Cape Town.

Her first book In the Belly of the River: Tribal Conflicts over Development in the Narmada Valley and other writings explore the themes of resource rights, popular resistance and discourses of environmentalism. Her recent publications include the edited books Elite and Everyman: The Cultural Politics of the Indian Middle Classes (with Raka Ray) and First Garden of the Republic: Nature on the President’s Estate. In January 2020, she published Uncivil City: Ecology, Equity and the Commons in Delhi.

Her contributions to developing the field of environmental sociology in India and to the study of social movements have been recognised by her peers. She was awarded the 2005 Malcolm Adiseshiah Award for Distinguished Contributions to Development Studies, the 2008 VKRV Rao Prize for Social Science Research, and the 2010 Infosys Prize for Social Sciences.

Are you interested in the intersection of mental health and culture, global health, and community engagement? Do you want to gain field research skills and learn about indigenous communities in South India’s beautiful and fragile Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve? If so, the Cornell-Keystone Nilgiris Field Learning Program might be for you!

Laidlaw Scholars at Cornell will share their summer research and leadership-in-action experiences at this annual symposium.

Beginning in the Klarman Hall Auditorium, a panel of scholars will share their work and experiences. The presentation will be followed by poster presentations throughout the Groos Family Atrium.

The Laidlaw Undergraduate Leadership and Research Scholarship Program provides generous funding to first- and second-year undergraduates over two years as they pursue internationally focused research, engage in leadership training and a leadership-in-action experience, and join a global network of like-minded peers.

Learn more about the program, which is administered by the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies with leadership training support from the David M. Einhorn Center for Community Engagement.

A conversation between Muzaffar Chishti, senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, and Stephen Yale-Loehr, Professor of Immigration Law Practice, Cornell Law School.

Join Mr. Chishti and Professor Yale-Loehr as they discuss the history of migration to the United States, the current migrant surge at the border, the impact on cities and states beyond the border, and possible impacts on federal immigration policy.

Are you interested in the intersection of mental health and culture, global health, and community engagement? Do you want to gain field research skills and learn about indigenous communities in South India’s beautiful and fragile Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve? If so, the Cornell-Keystone Nilgiris Field Learning Program might be for you!

Part of Cornell’s yearlong exploration of freedom of expression, this event from Global Cornell brings together the campus community to discuss how Cornell can protect academic freedom while collaborating with institutions and scholars in places with different political realities and views on free speech.

Allan Goodman, chief executive officer of the Institute of International Education, joins Vice Provost for International Affairs Wendy Wolford to discuss:

How can universities like Cornell provide a safe haven for scholars whose right to free expression is threatened?How can universities act to promote scholarship, free expression, and global collaboration?Cornell has worked with the Institute of International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund (IIE-SRF) for over a decade to provide yearlong fellowships for displaced academics and human rights defenders. IIE also supports the Humphrey Fellows Program in the Department of Global Development and Fulbright fellowships for undergraduate students from across the university.

Goodman and Wolford will be joined by these panelists:

Sharif Hozoori (Afghanistan) | IIE-SRF fellow in the Einaudi Center’s South Asia ProgramPeidong Sun (China) | Einaudi Center’s East Asia Program and Associate Professor of History, A&SAzat Gündoğan (Turkey) | Florida State University, former IIE-SRF fellow in the Einaudi Center’s Institute for European Studies***

If you can't attend in person, register for a Zoom link to join the livestream here.

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About Allan Goodman

IIE’s CEO Allan E. Goodman is a Council on Foreign Relations member and serves on the selection committees for the Rhodes and Schwarzman Scholars and the Yidan Prize. He also serves on the Council for Higher Education Accreditation International Quality Group advisory council and the Education Above All Foundation board of trustees. Goodman has a PhD in government from Harvard, MPA from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and BS from Northwestern University.

About the Institute of International Education

For more than 100 years, the Institute of International Education has promoted the exchange of scholars and researchers and rescued scholars, students, and artists from persecution, displacement, and crises. IIE conducts research on international academic mobility and administers the U.S. Department of State’s Fulbright Program.

Supporting Scholars Under Threat

Learn more about how Global Cornell supports Scholars Under Threat.