Call For Papers: American Association of Geographers (AAG), Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA. March 29th – April 2nd, 2016.
Interrogating the Anthropocene in the Himalayan Region: Hazards, Infrastructure, and Environmental Justice.
**This session is part of the Asia Symposium: Highlighting Asian Geographies**
Organizers:
Mabel Gergan, UNC Chapel Hill
The Himalayan Region, a climate change hotspot, is witnessing a massive surge in large scale infrastructural development alongside an increase in the frequency and intensity of natural hazard events. While there is growing concern over uneven impacts of anthropogenic climate change on marginalized communities in this region, most discussion has focused on disaster management and adaptation strategies. Relatively little has been said about how this heightened experience of risk and precarity has prompted, however momentarily, a solidarity among disparate groups in the region. For many, these ecological and political anxieties provide an opening to critique the state and resist its attempt for accumulation through environmental projects. Also less theorized is the postcolonial state, which is imbricated in processes of accumulation, fast-paced neoliberalization, bureaucratic arbitrariness, and the distinct role and articulation of regional politics. Broadly drawing on theories engaging the Anthropocene, State/Nation formation, and Postcolonialism we ask what are the processes that interrupt the centralization of state authority in the Himalayan region? How do these processes shape the overall environmental governance in the Himalayan region? And, finally, we seek to understand how we can re-theorize the postcolonial state, in the context of Himalayan landscapes that are simultaneously hazardous and full of potential for radical political struggles. We invite both theoretical and grounded ethnographic work that engage with questions of hazards, infrastructure, environmental justice, and the state in the Himalayan region. While our main focus is on the Indian Himalayan region, we highly encourage papers with a focus on the broader Himalayan region including, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, and Myanmar. Possible topics include but are not limited to:
- Environmental movements against large infrastructure
- Hazardous landscapes and the postcolonial state
- State theorization in the context of disasters and the Anthropocene
- Transboundary resources and environmental conflicts
- Neoliberal natures in the Himalayan region
- Indigenous hazard knowledge and response
- Technocrats and Expertise
Participants should send their abstract (250 words max) to Mabel Gergan (mgergan@email.unc.edu) and Mitul Baruah (baruahm@syr.edu) by Oct 25, 2015.
References:
Akhter, M. (2015). Infrastructure Nation: State Space, Hegemony, and Hydraulic Regionalism in Pakistan. Antipode, 47(4), 849-870.
Clark, N. (2011). Inhuman nature: sociable life on a dynamic planet. Sage Publications.
Last, A. (2015). Fruit of the cyclone: Undoing geopolitics through geopoetics. Geoforum, 64, 56-64.
Parenti, C. (2015). The Environment Making State: Territory, Nature, and Value. Antipode, 47(4),