Farhana Sultana
Assistant Professor, Geography
Degree
Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 2007
Specialties
Political ecology, environmental management, water resources management, natural hazards, development theories, feminist geography, South Asia
Biography
Farhana is the Chair and Organizer of the 'The Right to Water' conference, details of which can be found on the conference's webpage: www.maxwell.syr.edu/waterconference
Farhana Sultana received her BA (Honors) in Geosciences and Environmental Studies from Princeton University, graduating Cum Laude in 1996. Her Honors thesis analyzed coastal protection plans from storm surges in the Bay of Bengal. Farhana obtained her MA in Geography in 1998 from the University of Minnesota, where she was a MacArthur Scholar. She wrote two Masters Papers, one looking at the sustainability of the shrimp aquaculture industry in Bangladesh, and the other assessing tropical cyclones and disaster management. Between 1998-2001, Farhana was a Programme Officer at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) responsible for managing a large environmental management program in Bangladesh.
In 2001, Farhana returned to complete her PhD program in the Department of Geography at the University of Minnesota. As a MacArthur Scholar and International Water Management Institute (IWMI) Fellow, Farhana’s PhD dissertation research analyzed socio-ecological and development aspects of arsenic contamination of groundwater and the drinking water crisis in Bangladesh. During 2005-06, Farhana was a Visiting Fellow at the School of Environment and Development at the University of Manchester. From 2006-2008, Farhana was on the faculty in the Geography Department at King's College London. She joined the Department of Geography at Syracuse University in Fall 2008.
At Syracuse, Farhana is also a Faculty Affiliate of the following departments/programs: Women’s and Gender Studies Department, Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflicts and Collaboration (PARCC), Center for Environmental Policy and Administration (CEPA), South Asia Center, Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs, Tolley Humanities Faculty.
Publications
Many of these publications are downloadable as PDF files from Farhana's website at www.farhanasultana.com.
Peer-Reviewed Journals and Books:
2010, (Forthcoming) “Water, Culture and Gender: An Analysis from Bangladesh” In Water, Cultural Diversity & Global Environmental Change: Emerging Trends, Sustainable Futures? B. R. Johnston (Ed) UNESCO/Springer. [Invited]
2010, (Forthcoming), “Spaces of Power, Places of Hardship: Rethinking Spaces and Places in the Gendered Geographies of Water in Bangladesh” In Gendered Geographies: Interrogating Space and Place in South Asia, S. Raju (Ed.) Oxford University Press: Delhi.
2010, (In Press), “Gendered Waters, Poisoned Wells: Political Ecology of the Arsenic Crisis in Bangladesh” In Reader on Gender and Water Issues in South Asia, S. Ahmed and M. Zwarteveen (Eds.) Sage Publications: Delhi. [Reprint]
2010, “Living in Hazardous Waterscapes: Gendered Vulnerabilities and Experiences of Floods and Disasters” Special Issue on ‘Water, Risk and Vulnerability’ Environmental Hazards Vol. 9, Issue 1.
2009, “Fluid Lives: Gender, Subjectivity and Water Management” Special Issue on ‘Gender Geographies of Water’ Gender, Place, and Culture Vol. 16, Issue 4. Pp. 427-444. [Guest Editor of Special Issue]
2009, with K. O’Reilly, N. Laurie, and S. Halvorson, “Gender Geographies of Water” Special Issue on ‘Gender Geographies of Water’ Gender, Place, and Culture Vol. 16, Issue 4, Pp. 381-385 [Guest Editor of Special Issue]
2009, “Community and Participation in Water Resources Management: Gendering and Naturing Development Debates from Bangladesh” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers Vol. 34, Issue 3, Pp. 346-363.
2008, “Gendered Waters, Poisoned Wells: Political Ecology of the Arsenic Crisis in Bangladesh” In Gender and Development: Critical Concepts in Development Studies, J. Momsen (Ed.) Ch 43, Vol. III, Pp. 173-196. Routledge: London. [Reprint]
2008, Invited Book Review of ‘The New Development Management’, Edited by S. Dar and B. Cooke, 2008, Zed Books, London, for Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy Vol. 26, Issue 5, Pp. 1043-1044.
2007, with C. Cahill and R. Pain, “Participatory Ethics: Politics, Practices, and Institutions” Special Issue on ‘Participatory Ethics’ ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies Vol. 6, Issue 3, Pp. 304 – 318. [Guest Editor of Special Issue]
2007, “Reflexivity, Positionality and Participatory Ethics: Negotiating Fieldwork Dilemmas in International Research” Special Issue on ‘Participatory Ethics’ ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies Vol. 6, Issue 3, Pp. 374 – 385. [Guest Editor of Special Issue]
2007, “Water, Water Everywhere But Not a Drop to Drink: Pani Politics (water politics) in Rural Bangladesh” International Feminist Journal of Politics Vol. 9, Issue 4, Pp. 494 – 502.
2007, Four Entries: “Arsenic”, “Water Quality”, “Monsoon”, “Bangladesh” In Encyclopedia of Environment and Society, P. Robbins (Ed.) Sage: Thousand Oaks, CA.
2006, “Gendered Waters, Poisoned Wells: Political Ecology of the Arsenic Crisis in Bangladesh” In Fluid bonds: Views on Gender and Water, K. Lahiri-Dutt (Ed.) Stree Publishers: India. Pp. 362-386.
2006, “Gender Concerns in Arsenic Mitigation in Bangladesh: Trends and Challenges” In APSU Selected Papers on the Social Aspects of Arsenic and Arsenic Mitigation in Bangladesh, Arsenic Policy Support Unit, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Pp. 53-84.
2004, “Engendering a Catastrophe: A Gendered Analysis of India’s River-linking Project” In Regional Cooperation on Transboundary Rivers: Impact of the Indian River-linking Project. M.F. Ahmed, Q.K. Ahmad, and M. Khalequzzaman (Eds.), BAPA: Dhaka, Bangladesh. Pp. 288 – 305.
2002, with B. Crow, “Gender, Class and Access to Water: Three Cases in a Poor and Crowded Delta” Society and Natural Resources, Vol. 15, No. 8, Pp.709 – 724.
Editorial activities:
2010, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, Special Issue on ‘Political Ecologies of Water and Development’
2009, Gender, Place, and Culture, Special Issue on ‘Gender Geographies of Water’
2007, ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, Special Issue on ‘Participatory Ethics’
Refereed & Edited Conference Proceedings:
2000, with B. Crow, “Water Concerns in Rural Bangladesh: A Gendered Perspective” In Water, Sanitation and Hygiene: Challenges of the Millennium. Proceedings of the 26th WEDC Conference, Dhaka, Bangladesh, November 2000. J. Pickford (Ed.). Loughborough University: UK. Pp. 416 – 419.
2000, with B. Crow, “Water Resources and Gender: Unspoken Realities and Unfolding Crisis in Bangladesh” In Bangladesh Environment 2000. Proceedings of the First International Conference on Bangladesh Environment, Dhaka, Bangladesh, January 2000. M. F. Ahmed (Ed.). BAPA: Dhaka, Bangladesh. Pp. 549 – 574.
Refereed Policy Studies & Research Reports:
2005, "Gender concerns in Arsenic mitigation in Bangladesh: Trends and Challenges" Report submitted to Department for International Development (DFID), UK, and the Arsenic Policy Support Unit, Department of Public Health Engineering, Government of Bangladesh. (invited)
2002, "Irrigation Impacts: An Annotated Bibliography" Comprehensive Assessment Program on Irrigation Impacts, International Water Management Institute (IWMI): Colombo, Sri Lanka.
2000, Chapters on “Water and Sanitation” and “Healthy Physical Environment” In The Common Country Assessment of the United Nations in Bangladesh, University Press Limited: Dhaka, Bangladesh.
1995, with M. Hass, A. Marr, and M. Sze, “Academic Opportunities” In Environmental Audit of Princeton University. Princeton Environmental Reform Committee: Princeton, NJ.
Academic Theses:
2007, “Suffering for Water, Suffering from Water: Political Ecologies of Arsenic, Water and Development in Bangladesh” Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Geography, University of Minnesota.
1998, “In the Path of Nature’s Fury: Natural Hazards and Disaster Management in Bangladesh - A Case Study of Tropical Cyclones and Storm Surge Disasters” Masters Paper I, Department of Geography, University of Minnesota.
1998, “Shrimp and Sustainability: Social and Ecological Impacts of the Shrimp Aquaculture Industry in Bangladesh” Masters Paper II, Department of Geography, University of Minnesota.
1996, “Coastal Protection Plans for Chittagong, Bangladesh: Reducing Storm Surge Death and Destruction” Senior Honors Thesis, Department of Geosciences, Princeton University.
1995, “Impact of Climate Change on Floods in the Ganges-Brahmaputra Basin” Junior Research Paper II, Department of Geosciences, Princeton University.
1994, “Sea Level Rise, Tropical Cyclones and Storm Surges in the Bay of Bengal” Junior Research Paper I, Department of Geosciences, Princeton University.
Advising
Current Graduate Students:
Ingrid Butler (PhD Committee, Geography)
Sravani Biswas (PhD Committee, History)
Barbara Green (MA Committee, Geography)
John Giles (MA Committee, Geography)
Teaching Appointments
Syracuse University, Department Of Geography (2008 - onwards):
Undergraduate Courses:
Environment and Development in the Global South (Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Fall 2010)
Gendered Geographies of Development and Globalization (Spring 2010, Spring 2011)
Graduate Courses:
Development and Sustainability (Fall 2008, Fall 2009, Fall 2010)
Seminar in Political Ecology (Spring 2009, Spring 2010)
Nature, Culture, Politics (Spring 2011)
King’s College London, Department Of Geography (2006 - 2008):
Undergraduate Courses:
Global Environmental Issues (Fall 2007)
Development Geographies: Policies and Contexts (Spring 2007, Spring 2008)
Gendered Geographies of Development and Globalization (Spring 2008)
Researching Geography (Fall 2006, Spring 2007, Fall 2007, Spring 2008)
Field Methods in Human Geography (Fall 2006)
Directed Readings (Spring 2008)
Graduate Courses:
Development and Environmentalism in the South (Fall 2006, Fall 2007)
Environment, Livelihoods and Development in the South (Spring 2007, Spring 2008)
Practicing Social Research II (Fall 2007)
University of Minnesota, Department of Geography (2001 - 2004):
Undergraduate Courses (Teaching Assistant):
Introduction to Human Geography (Fall 2002, Spring 2003, Fall 2003, Spring 2004)
Senior Honors Program in Global Issues (Summer 2004)
Princeton University, Department of Geosciences (1994 - 1995):
Undergraduate Course (Lab Teaching Assistant):
Engineering and Environmental Geology (Fall 1994, Spring 1995)
Research Interests
Farhana Sultana is broadly interested in nature-society relationships, political ecology, development geography, feminist theories, water resources management, and natural hazards. Farhana's research interests are interdisciplinary and look at multi-scalar, multi-process issues, combining insights and background in the natural and social sciences. Farhana’s recent research has primarily focused on the gender, class, and policy implications of water management in Bangladesh, with an emphasis on drinking water problems from arsenic contamination of groundwater. She is interested in the ways that discourses of participation, community, and gender equity operate in water management, and in development more broadly and the implications development discourses have on the ground. She analyzes the ways that water management espouses such narratives, and the ways that complications arise from agencies of both humans and nature in such discourses and practices. A main thrust of the research is to understand the processes by which marginalization, inequalities, and power relations operate in the context of socio-ecological change and development endeavors.
Farhana has research interests more broadly in gender, environment, and development issues in the global South, and ways by which development and privatization of natural resources affect men and women of different social strata across sites and scales. She is currently researching the ways that urban water governance affects the poor, how different modalities of water management result in social inequalities and how the right to water is understood and practcised, and what such processes mean for goals of development, social justice and well-being. This research is based in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.
Farhana’s second research project focuses on climate change, socio-ecological change and social justice. This research focuses on the coastal areas of South Asia, and looks at climate change adaptation politics in the context of development politics, gender inequalities, and social practices.
Farhana’s interests also include transboundary river sharing, particularly the dispute over the Ganges River in South Asia. She is interested in the ways that socio-ecological transformation from changing river dynamics and hydrology affect not only lives and livelihoods but also international political relations and discourses of development within and between nation-states.
More generally, Farhana has long been interested in issues of political ecology of development as conceptualized and enacted by large international/multi-national entities, and the ways by which such conceptualizations interact with local understandings of ‘environmental management’ or ‘development’. In this respect, she is interested in environmental governance and the politics of knowledge production, whereby discursive and material realities co-produce and challenge projects and practices.
Methodologically, Farhana is interested in both quantitative and qualitative methods, with particular interest in issues of fieldwork, positionality and power relations, and research ethics.
Research Grants and Awards
Conference Grant, Maxwell Dean's Office, Syracuse University, 2010
Conference Grant, Syracuse Center of Excellence, 2010
Mini Grant, International Relations Program, Syracuse University, 2009
Chancellor’s Finestone Grant for Multicultural Initiatives, Syracuse University, 2009
Conference Grant, Environmental Finance Center, 2009
Conference Grant, Geography Department, Syracuse University, 2009
Co-curricular Award, College of Arts and Sciences, Syracuse University, 2009
Mini Grant, Interdisciplinary Research Group, Syracuse University, 2009
Conference Grant, South Asia Center, Syracuse University, 2009
Research Grant, Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflicts and Collaboration, Syracuse University, 2009
Research Grant, Center for Environmental Policy Analysis, Syracuse University, 2009
Summer Project Assistant Grant, Maxwell School, Syracuse University, 2009
Tolley Humanities Faculty Research Grant, Syracuse University, 2009
Appleby-Mosher Research Grant, Maxwell School, Syracuse University, 2009
Pre-proposal Grant, Geography Department, Syracuse University, 2009
Curricular Development Grant, College of Arts and Sciences, Syracuse University, 2008
Nominee for KCL's Higher Education Board’s University Teaching Award, 2008
Summer Institute in Economic Geography, University of Manchester, 2008
Chartered Institute of Waste Management (CIWM), UK, 2007
Department for International Development (DFID) Field Research Grant, UK, 2005
International Water Management Institute (IWMI) - MacArthur Collaborative Fellowship, University of Minnesota, 2004-2006
Graduate Research Partnership Project Grant, University of Minnesota, 2003
Consortium on Law and Values in Health, Environment & the Life Sciences Graduate Student Grant, University of Minnesota, 2003
Dunn Peace Research Scholarship, University of Minnesota, 2003
MacArthur Program Administrative Fellowship, University of Minnesota, 2002
Department of Geography Graduate Assistantship, University of Minnesota, 2001 – 2004
Other International Awards:
Best Student Paper Award, Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group, Association of American Geographers (2004)
Kasperson Student Paper Award, Hazards Specialty Group, Association of American Geographers (2006)
Selected Professional Activities
Graduate Committee, Department of Geography, Syracuse University (2008-present)
Faculty Affiliate of several departments/programs at Syracuse University: Center for Environmental Policy and Administration (CEPA), Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflicts and Collaboration (PARCC), South Asia Center, Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs, Tolley Humanities Faculty, Women’s and Gender Studies Department
Director, Development Geographies Specialty Group, Association of American Geographers (2009-present)
Committee Member, Participatory Geographies Working Group, Institute of British Geographers (2005-present)
Co-Founder and Co-Moderator, Water Forum (International E-discussion Group) (2006-present)
Member, Coordinating Committee, Bangladesh Environment Network (BEN) (2009-present)
Peer-Reviewer of international journals: Applied Geography, Emotion Space and Society, Environment and Planning C, Environmental Conservation, Environmental Hazards, Geoforum, Geografiska Annaler B, GeoJournal, Gender Place and Culture, International Journal of River Basin Management, Journal of Geography and Regional Planning, Journal of International Development, Oxford Development Studies, Professional Geographer, Urban Geography, Water Alternatives, Water Research.
Peer-Reviewer for organizations: NSF (USA), ESRC (UK), Leverhulme Trust (UK), International Water Management Institute (IWMI).
Member: Association of American Geographers (AAG), Royal Geographical Society with Institute of British Geographers (RGS/IBG), Bangladesh Environment Network (BEN), Development Studies Association (DSA), British Association for South Asian Studies (BASAS), International Gender and Water Alliance (GWA), Gender and Disasters Network (GDN)
Advisory roles: Climate Adaptation Working Group of Global Network of Civil Society Organizations for Disaster Reduction; Gender and Water Alliance Bangladesh; Bangladesh Environment Network.
Recent Activities
Select Conference Sessions And Workshops Organized:
2010, Organizer and Chair of two-day international conference "The Right to Water", Syracuse University, 29-30 March 2010.
2010, Co-organizing and Chair of two Paper Sessions on “Gender and Climate Change” Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Washington D.C., USA, 14-18 April 2010.
2009, Organizer and Chair of two Paper Sessions on “Water, Power and Politics in South Asia” Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Las Vegas, 22-27 March 2009.
2009, Organizer and Presenter at Film Screening and Discussion Session for “Climate change and Bangladesh: Who will pay?” Department of Geography, Syracuse University, USA, 27 January 2009.
2008, Co-organizer and Co-chair of three Paper Sessions and one Discussion Panel on “Water and Development: A Fluid Relationship” Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Boston, 15 – 19 April 2008.
2007, Co-organizer and Co-chair of two Paper sessions and one Discussion Panel on “Global Perspectives on Gender-Water Geographies” Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, San Francisco, CA, 17 – 23 April 2007.
2007, Co-organizer and Co-chair of five Paper Sessions and one Discussion Panel on “Socio-ecological Nature of Water” Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, San Francisco, CA, 17 – 23 April 2007.
2006, Organizer of Discussion Panel on “Gender and Water” Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Chicago, IL, 7 – 11 March 2006.
2006, Co-convener and Co-chair of two Paper Sessions on “Participatory Ethics for Human Geography” Annual Conference of the Royal Geographical Society & Institute of British Geographers, London, 31 August – 2 September 2006.
2005, Chair and Organizer of Paper Session on “Gendered geographies of water: Trends and challenges” Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Denver, CO, 4 – 9 April 2005.
2002, Co-organizer of Workshop Rio Plus Ten: Environment, Development, and Security Workshop at the University of Minnesota, 5 – 6 April 2002.
2002, Chair and Organizer of Panel on “Water and Security” Rio Plus Ten: Environment, Development, and Security Workshop at the University of Minnesota, 5 – 6 April 2002.
Select Conference Presentations:
2010, “Gender, climate change and the politics of adaptation” Paper presented at the session ‘Gender and climate change’ Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Washington D.C., USA, 14-18 April 2010.
2010, Invited Panelist, Session on ‘Gender and Environment: Critical Tradition and New Challenges’ Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Washington D.C., USA, 14-18 April 2010
2009, “Gendering climate change: Debates from South Asia” Paper presented at the MaGrann Conference on Climate Change in South Asia: Governance, Equity and Social Justice, Rutgers University, NJ, USA, 16-17 April 2009.
2009, “Of Purity and pollution: Negotiating socio-spatial-ecological-embodied subjectivities in contaminated waterscapes” Paper to be presented at the session ‘Water, power and politics in South Asia’ Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Las Vegas, 22-27 March 2009
2009, Invited panelist, Session on ‘Democratizing Water Technologies’ Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Las Vegas, 22-27 March 2009
2008, “Poisoning the Well of Development? Arsenic, Accountability and (Un)anticipated Development in Bangladesh” Paper presented at the Re-Engaging Development in a Post- Development Era? Developing Areas Specialty Group Conference, Clark University, 13 – 14 April 2008.
2008, Panelist, ‘Water and Development: A Fluid Relationship?’ Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Boston, 15 – 19 April 2008.
2008, “Fluid Lives: Gender, Subjectivity and Water Management” Paper presented at the session ‘Advancing Environmentality: the Materiality of the Environmental Subject’ Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Boston, 15 – 19 April 2008.
2007, Invited Plenary Speaker, “Sustainability: A Post-Mortem?” Annual Conference of the Royal Geographical Society & Institute of British Geographers, London, 31 August – 2 September 2007.
2007, “‘Sorry, I can't give you money’: Positionality, Reflexivity, and Ethics of Fieldwork in Third World Contexts.” Paper presented at the session ‘Giving Back: Ideas for mutually beneficial research’ Annual Conference of the Royal Geographical Society & Institute of British Geographers, London, 31 August – 2 September 2007.
2007, “Suffering for water, Suffering from water: Gendered and Classed Dimensions of Arsenic Poisoning in Bangladesh” Paper presented at the session ‘Arsenic in the Natural Environment: The Geography of a Global Problem’ Annual Conference of the Royal Geographical Society & Institute of British Geographers, London, 31 August – 2 September 2007.
2007, Invited Chair, Session on “Wellbeing, Relatedness, and Collective Action” Wellbeing in International Development Conference, University of Bath, 28 – 30 June 2007.
2007, Invited Panelist, “People of Color Negotiate the Academy (Part II): Women of Color Geographers and the Crisis of Under-representation” Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, San Francisco, CA, 17 – 23 April 2007.
2007, “Watery Discourses: Participation and Community in Water Resources Management” Paper presented at the session ‘Global Perspectives on Gender-Water Geographies’ Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, San Francisco, CA, 17 – 23 April 2007.
2007, Panelist, “The Matter of Water: Water, Materialities, and Development” at the session ‘Socio-ecological Nature of Water I’ Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, San Francisco, CA, 17 – 23 April 2007.
2006, Panelist, “Feminist Political Ecology of Water – Wither Geography?” at the session ‘Gender and Water’ Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Chicago, IL, 7 – 11 March 2006.
2006, “Gendering Natural Hazards Research: A Feminist Analysis of the Arsenic Contamination of Groundwater in Bangladesh” Paper presented at Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Chicago, IL, 7 – 11 March 2006. [Winner of the 2006 Kasperson Student Paper Award of the Hazards Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers]
2005, “Women, Water, Welfare: Debating Development and Water resources management in Bangladesh” Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Royal Geographical Society & Institute of British Geographers, London, 31 August – 2 September 2005.
2005, Invited Panelist, “Discourses of Participation and the Development Industry” at the session ‘Participatory Geographies’ Annual Conference of the Royal Geographical Society & Institute of British Geographers, London, 31 August – 2 September 2005.
2005, “Drops of life, Drops of death: Gendered Geographies of a Drinking Water crisis in Bangladesh” Paper presented at the session ‘Gendered geographies of water: trends and challenges’ Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Denver, CO, 4 – 9 April 2005.
2005, “Sociology of an Escalating Disaster: Gender, Water and Arsenic in Bangladesh” Paper presented at the Midwest Sociological Society Annual Conference, Minneapolis, MN, 31 March – 3 April 2005.
2004, “Gendered Waters, Poisoned Wells: Understanding the Social Geographies of the Drinking Water Crisis from Arsenic Contamination in Bangladesh” Paper presented at the MacArthur Consortium Workshop Gender in an International Context, University of Minnesota, 16 – 17 April 2004.
2004, “Water, Water Everywhere, But Not a Drop to Drink: Analyzing the Drinking Water Crisis in Bangladesh” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Philadelphia, PA, 15 – 19 March 2004. [Winner of the 2004 Best Student Paper Award of the Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers]
2003, “Managing Water for Sustainable Development: The Importance of Gender, Class and Environment in National Water Policies in Bangladesh” Paper presented at the MacArthur Consortium Workshop Gender in an International Context, University of Minnesota, 11– 12 April 2003.
2002, “Political Ecology of the Ganges River: High Modernism, River Politics, and the Farakka Barrage” Paper presented at the Annual meeting of the West Lakes Division of the Association of American Geographers, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 17– 19 October 2002.
2002, “Water Resources, Water Security and the ‘Rio Plus Ten’ Process: An Overview” Paper presented at ‘Water and Security’ Panel of the Rio Plus Ten: Environment, Development, and Security Workshop at the University of Minnesota, 5 – 6 April 2002.
2002, “The Farakka Barrage and the Ganges River Dispute: High Modernism, River Politics and Socio-ecological Implications” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Los Angeles, CA, 18 – 23 March 2002.
2000, with Ben Crow, “Water Allocation and Gender - An Analysis from Bangladesh” Paper presented at the Berkeley Water Working Group Speaker Series, University of California - Berkeley, 4 May 2000.
Recent Invited Lectures
2010, Keynote Speaker, Gender Across Borders IV: Gender and Globalisms Conference, University of Buffalo, NY, 2-3 April 2010.
2010, “Watery worlds: Power, politics and socio-ecological transformations in South Asia” Colgate University, USA, 5 March 2010.
2009,“Gender, participation and community: Rethinking development in contentious waterscapes” University of Vermont, USA, 1 December 2009.
2009, “Of purity and pollution: Watery geographies of development in the Bengal Delta” Cornell University, USA, 2 November 2009.
2009, “Dammed rivers, damned lives: Water and politics in South Asia” International Center of Syracuse, Syracuse, NY, USA, 16 October 2009.
2009, Invited speaker “Adapting to climate change: Who pays the price?” Focus the Nation Teach-in on Climate Change Solutions, Syracuse University, USA, 21 April 2009.
2009, Invited speaker for discussion on “Brick Lane” Community Folk Art Center, Syracuse, NY, USA, 14 March 2009.
2008, “Shared waters, divided peoples – Water, conflict and socio-ecological transformations in South Asia” Conversations in Conflict Studies Series, Program for the Analysis and Resolution of Conflicts (PARC), Maxwell School, Syracuse University, 5 November 2008.
2008, “Transboundary River Disputes and Implications for Sustainable Development: The Case of the Ganges River in South Asia” Seminar Series, Department of International Relations, Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey, 5 May 2008.
2008, “Water and HIV – Working for Positive Solutions” World Water Day Seminar, Action Against Hunger UK & King’s College London, 19 March 2008.
2007, “Social Dynamics of Arsenic Contamination of Drinking Water: Issues for Policymakers” Arsenic Seminar, Tropical Agriculture Association, London, 24 October 2007.
2006, “Political ecology of Water: Gender, Arsenic, and Development in Bangladesh” Research Seminar Series, Department of Geography, University of Manchester, 10 May 2006.
2006, “Watery Discourses: Community and Participation in Water Resources Management” Research Seminar Series, Oxford Centre for Water Research, University of Oxford, 26 April 2006.
2002, “Working in the Field: Perspectives from Managing the Largest Environment Program of UNDP in Bangladesh” Macarthur Brown Bag Research Seminar Series, University of Minnesota, 21 February 2002.
1998, "Shrimp and Sustainability: Social and Ecological Impacts of the Shrimp Aquaculture Industry in Bangladesh” Department of Geography Coffee Hour Research Seminar Series, University of Minnesota, 21 April 1998.
SU_Affiliations
Faculty Affiliate:
Women’s and Gender Studies Department; Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflicts and Collaboration (PARCC); Center for Environmental Policy and Administration (CEPA); South Asia Center; Moynihan Institute; Tolley Humanities Faculty.