Please join us for this Thesis Proposal Review (TPR) hybrid seminar by RE&D PhD candidate Kunal Kishore Hansdah.

Zoom details:

Meeting ID: 813 4286 2649

Password: 943702

https://anu.zoom.us/j/81342862649?pwd=UnRGajNSQWhPTlRpWUR2SE9TNDhTdz09

The global energy transition in the wake of climate change compels us to aspire not only to lower emissions but also to reduce our extraction and consumption of material commodities. Attention to energy transition minerals and metals (ETMs) encourages a rethinking of conventional justice challenges, particularly for the natural resource-dependent Indigenous communities. My research explores how old and new challenges are emerging in the context of ETMs within the broader debates on climate in/justice and energy transition, as I adopt a non-coal approach to explore the microscopic impacts of iron ore and bauxite extraction on the Indigenous communities. The seminar will outline different demand scenarios of mining and their impacts on the Indigenous communities living in parts of Odisha state in Eastern India. India is an exceptionally interesting case because of the co-occurrence of minerals, forests and Indigenous people’s lands. It is also a country where large-scale extractive industries sharing the common landscape have created lasting legacies of displacement, dispossession and marginalization in the lives of Indigenous people. The research adopts critical ethnographic tools in a multi-sited mixed-method study to discuss, debate and analyze perspectives of activists, civil society organizations and mining affected Indigenous communities on the question of justice in transition. The research will inform the current and future policies for building a just transition framework to humanize the immediate and future concerns of energy, climate and social justice entangled in the energy-mineral/metal extractive nexus.   

Bio Kunal Kishore Hansdah is a PhD candidate in the Resources, Environment and Development Group at the Crawford School of Public Policy. Kunal worked as a Consultant/Young Professional in the Mineral Exploration Research and Innovation Trust (MERIT) division of the Department of Mines and Geology in the Government of Andhra Pradesh state in India. He also worked as a Social Development Expert in the City Level Technical Cell (CLTC) in Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana, Housing for All (Urban) under the Housing and Urban Development Department, Government of India. His PhD examines the present and the emerging challenges of Indigenous communities in India in the energy transition and climate in/justice debate and explores varied narratives from mining affected Indigenous communities, activists and civil society organizations.   

Thesis supervisory panel: Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt (chair), Sarah Milne, Saleem H. Ali, Nick Bainton.

This seminar will be hosted by Dr Rini Astuti.