Followed by a discussion with Amita Bhaviskar (Professor, Environmental Studies & Sociology & Anthropology, Ashoka University)

On

Monday, 14 September 2026, from 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm IST

At

Centre de Sciences Humaines

IFI-CSH conference room (ground floor)

2 Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Road, New Delhi – 110011

Register to attend at CSH Delhi
Register to attend online via Zoom

Abstract:

The ecological crisis at a planetary scale has heightened our awareness of the geological impact of human activities and the possibility of human species extinction. Within the heightened consciousness of hubris and vulnerability encoded in the Anthropocene discourse, how do we comprehend the human place in nature and analyse the multiple scales of time, space, and capital movements that characterize specific socio-natures? Addressing the methodological challenge of studying metabolic relations, flows, and processes across these multiple scales, Environmental Studies from India brings together distinguished scholars who explore such questions from diverse disciplinary perspectives. Empirical studies grounded in specific contexts are employed to develop a perspective suited to a society saturated with Anthropocene discourses. The volume is structured around five interwoven themes: Reframing Space, Rethinking the Region; Commons and Commodification; Environmental Subjectivities and Socio-natures; Metabolic Social Ecologies and Infrastructural Labour; and the Anthropocene as Everyday Experience. Each section comprises chapters that approach the theme from different angles, encouraging conversations rather than coherence across disciplinary boundaries. From rivers and marshes to forests, grasslands, orchards, fields, cities, and industries, contributors draw from diverse landscapes in India to develop pathways for Environmental Studies that can effectively engage with the contemporary planetary crisis.

Speaker:  

Sudha Vasan is a Professor at the Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, India. She received her doctorate from Yale University in 2000, with a dissertation on state-society relations over forests in the Western Himalaya. She taught at Yale University and IIT Bombay before joining University of Delhi in 2006. She was a Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study in Shimla, which published her first book, Living with Diversity: Forestry Institutions in the Western Himalaya.

She teaches and writes on political ecology examining how social stratification and inequality intersect with ecology and environmentalism. Her publications span topics such as ethnography of forest guards, political economy of sacred groves, tiger tourism, youth culture, environment as a meta narrative and, the ecological crisis & the logic of capital.

Her edited book – Environmental Studies from India: Engaging with the Planetary Ecological Crisis has been published by Oxford University Press, Global in October 2025.

For more info contact:

co[dot]lefevre[at]csh-delhi[dot]com

david[dot]singh[at]csh-delhi[dot]com

CSH Seminars are in hybrid mode. Please pre-register for offline and online registration before Monday, 14 September, 2:00 p.m. IST.

To attend at the venue: Please note the room capacity is limited. Seats will be reserved on a first-come first-served basis. Kindly bring ID proof to be granted access to the venue.