Threatening Dystopias: Development Politics and the Anticipation of Climate Crisis in Bangladesh
My current book project examines the political ecology of climate change in Bangladesh, and the contested landscape of development and agrarian change in the country's southwestern coastal region. I take the expansion of commercial shrimp aquaculture as a climate change adaptation strategy as a lens through which to understand the complex political ecologies of development and intervention in the rapidly transforming landscape. To that end, I explore the politics of knowledge and uncertainty about ecological change, as well as the strategies employed by local communities to navigate competing visions of the future.
My research is broadly concerned with political economies and ecologies of development, and the social movements that address them. I employ a variety of qualitative research tools in my work, including critical ethnography, archival, and participatory methods. Since 2006, I have worked with Nijera Kori, Bangladesh's largest landless social movement, an engagement that motivates many of my research questions.
My work has benefited from collaborations and affiliations with a range of different institutions. I have been a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Public Knowledge at NYU, a Visiting Researcher at the International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Dhaka, and affiliated with the Global Change Program at Jadavpur University in Kolkata.
My research has been supported by the following grants and fellowships:
My current book project examines the political ecology of climate change in Bangladesh, and the contested landscape of development and agrarian change in the country's southwestern coastal region. I take the expansion of commercial shrimp aquaculture as a climate change adaptation strategy as a lens through which to understand the complex political ecologies of development and intervention in the rapidly transforming landscape. To that end, I explore the politics of knowledge and uncertainty about ecological change, as well as the strategies employed by local communities to navigate competing visions of the future.
My research is broadly concerned with political economies and ecologies of development, and the social movements that address them. I employ a variety of qualitative research tools in my work, including critical ethnography, archival, and participatory methods. Since 2006, I have worked with Nijera Kori, Bangladesh's largest landless social movement, an engagement that motivates many of my research questions.
My work has benefited from collaborations and affiliations with a range of different institutions. I have been a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Public Knowledge at NYU, a Visiting Researcher at the International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Dhaka, and affiliated with the Global Change Program at Jadavpur University in Kolkata.
My research has been supported by the following grants and fellowships:
- National Science Foundation, Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant, Geography and Spatial Sciences Program (2015).
- Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship, Bangladesh and India (2014).
- Social Science Research Council, International Dissertation Research Fellowship (2013).
- Richard Bradfield Research Award, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Cornell University (2013).
- Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future Rural Resilience Research Fellowship, Oxfam America and Cornell University (2013).
- National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (2012).
