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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20250331T115359Z
DTSTART:20250521T153000Z
DTEND:20250521T170000Z
SUMMARY:GDI Lecture: The transformative-transdisciplinary imperative: Dec
 olonizing development in a transboundary delta
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DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Jenia Mukherjee\, Indian Institute of Technology Kha
 ragpur\n\nThe Sundarbans is the largest contiguous mangroves delta in th
 e world\, spanning India and Bangladesh. The delta is a volatile island 
 archipelago\, a fluid geography\, traversed by rivers\, separating landm
 asses – it is neither land\, nor water\, but a liminal-dichotomous space
 . It has encountered series of material manipulations in the form of rec
 lamation under aggressive colonial hydrological regimes targeting land/w
 ater binary to accomplish capitalist calculus of rule. The colonial lega
 cy has continued in the post-independent times\, manifested in ‘fortress
  conservation’ and embankment construction efforts with severe socio-eco
 logical repercussions for ecosystem-dependent communities such as agricu
 lturists\, forest and inland fishers\, and honey and crab collectors.\nT
 oday the delta is a climate hotspot facing sea level rise\, super cyclon
 ic storms\, embankment breaching\, land erosion\, etc. ‘Managed’ and ‘st
 rategic’ retreats involving systematic relocation of communities\, are t
 echnocratic solutions offered by international organizations like World 
 Worldlife Fund. In this presentation\, I will critically interrogate whe
 ther these prescriptions accommodate community needs\, voices\, and aspi
 rations or not\, and also discuss the efficacy of a transdisciplinary ac
 tion-research project ENGAGE4Sundarbans\, aiming to build ‘social resili
 ence’ in the Sundarbans. Shedding light on the various components of the
  project that evolved ‘at’ and ‘from’ the ground\, I will finally explor
 e ‘transformative transdisciplinarity’ as an action tool and framework i
 n decolonizing development in the delta and beyond.\n\nAbout Jenia: \n\n
 Jenia is a transdisciplinary researcher investigating several large-scal
 e global partnership projects on coastal and delta communities of South 
 and South East\, Africa\, and Europe. She is an Associate Professor at t
 he Department of Humanities and Social Sciences\, Indian Institute of Te
 chnology Kharagpur. She is the author of Blue Infrastructures\, demonstr
 ating Kolkata’s canals and wetlands systems through the historical urban
  political ecology (HUPE) perspective. She received prestigious fellowsh
 ips and awards such as the Carson Writing Fellowship\, Australian Leader
 ship Award Fellowship\, DAAD Fellowship\, Japan-India Transformative Tec
 hnology Network Award\, etc. for her work on urban deltas and coasts. Je
 nia is one of the nine Scientific Coordinators of the Global Center of S
 patial Methods for Urban Sustainability (GCSMUS)\, TU-Berlin and the Ind
 ian representative at the five-member advisory board of Asian Associatio
 n for Environmental History (AAEH). She has published in many journals i
 ncluding Environment and Planning E\, Wires WATER\, Environment and Urba
 nization\, Urban Research and Practice\, Marine Policy\, Maritime Studie
 s\, Frontiers in Water\, Hydrological Sciences Journal\, etc. She is als
 o the editor of Coastal Studies and Society (Sage). \n
STATUS:TENTATIVE
TRANSP:TRANSPARENT
CLASS:PUBLIC
LOCATION:G32\, Humanities Bridgeford Street\, Manchester
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