Prakash Kashwan (PFM 1997-99) is a social scientist with expertise in environmental and climate governance and justice, global environmental and climate change, commons, and international development. His research and teaching builds on his interdisciplinary training and a first career in international development. He is known for his work on advancing the analysis of power and inequality within theories of collective action and institutional development for which his doctoral adviser late Professor Elinor Ostrom was awarded the Economics Noble Prize in 2009.
Currently, he is an Associate Professor (with academic tenure) of Environmental Studies, and an Affiliated Faculty at the Heller School for Social Policy & Management at Brandeis University. Previously, he was a tenured Associate Professor of Political Science and Co-Director of the Research Program on Economic and Social Rights, Human Rights Institute, at the University of Connecticut, Storrs.
Twitter: @pkashwan
Website: https://kashwan.net/
FB: @kashwan
Linked-In: @prakash-kashwan-476a385/
Email: [email protected]
Q. How has been your journey from IIFM to this role?
A. After graduating from IIFM, I spent first six years (1999-2005) in international development with well-known organizations like Seva Mandir and Ford Foundation (and a few consulting assignments funded by Oxfam India and European Union while working on my PhD applications). Then I completed Ph.D. in Public Policy from the School of Public & Environmental Affairs at Indiana University, Bloomington. All along my PhD, I was also a part of the Ostrom Workshop co-founded by Vincent and Elinor Ostrom. Being part of that interdisciplinary community was a great experience, not just because I got to work with a Nobel laureate but also because it gave me an opportunity to develop my own approach to commons governance, environmental policies, and institutions. Unlike in many Indian universities where professors do not like to be questioned, we were encouraged to question the established wisdom and come up with our analytical arguments about core theoretical questions.
The University of Connecticut, which is among the top 20 public research universities in the U.S., offered me a position even before I had defended my doctoral dissertation. I was their first choice following a national search in which the other finalists were from Ivy leagues and other top U.S. Universities. At UConn and Brandeis, I have taught undergraduate and graduate courses in the areas of environmental and climate justice, global environmental politics, environmental commons, political economy of development, South Asia in World Politics, and quantitative research methods. My teaching philosophy is driven by the goal of helping students to be critical and reflective thinkers and analysts.
My first book ‘Democracy in the Woods: Environmental Conservation and Social Justice in India, Tanzania, and Mexico was published by Oxford University Press in 2017, followed by a South Asia edition in 2018. To the best of my knowledge, this is the only book that offers a deep comparative analysis of the tensions between environmental conservation and social justice in three large countries on three different continents. This book has been reviewed extensively in scholarly journals and popular media. More recently, I also organized and Edited a volume on Climate Justice in India, which has been published in South Asia by Cambridge University Press in 2022 and a North American edition will be published later this year. I am also one of the Editors of the journal Environmental Politics (Taylor & Francis), which is the top-ranked journal in my field. My next book project, on an advanced contract with Oxford University Press, develops a theory of governing for justice and illustrates these arguments in the context of the sub-national/state-level efforts to secure socially just climate action in the United States.
My teaching, research, and scholarship are structured to address some of the most pressing questions of public interest, which motivates me to take my research beyond the various bubbles of academia. To do so, I have written accessible commentaries for popular press venues, such as the Washington Post, the Guardian, Al Jazeera, the Conversation, the Hindu, and BBC Hindi, among others. An essay that I wrote for the Conversation has been republished by dozens of publications worldwide, including in Spanish, and is part of the course curriculum in many U.S. Universities. My research has also been cited in national and international media, including the New York Times, Deutsche Welle, Huffington Post, the U.S. National Public Radio (NPR), Scientific American and Down to Earth.
I have also served a number of public institutions. I have been a member of the expert group convened by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) for the Scoping of the Assessment of Transformative Change and options for achieving the 2050 vision for biodiversity. Additionally, I have been appointed as a Senior Research Fellow of the Earth System Governance Project and a member of the Academic Working Group on International Governance of Climate Engineering convened by the Forum for Climate Engineering Assessment, Washington D.C. I also serve as a member of the editorial advisory boards of journals Earth Systems Governance, Progress in Development Studies, and Sage Open. Most recently, at the 2023 Annual Convention of the International Studies Association held in Montreal, I was elected as the Chair of the Environmental Studies Section (ESS). The ESS has a membership of 550, spread across the world, but mainly in the global North. I encourage IIFM’ites interested in international and global environmental affairs to join this vibrant community of researchers and academics.
Q. What were some of the key milestones/learning in this journey that you would like to share with us?
A. Early in my academic career, winning a globally competitive Young Scientist’s Research Award from the International Foundation for Science (IFS), Stockholm for my doctoral research, and a matching grant from International Institute of Education and the Ford Foundation, in 2009 allowed me to conduct year-long field research on Forest Rights Act in India. In recent years, I have won the University of Connecticut’s Research Excellence Program award (2018), the UConn Human Rights Institute’s Faculty Fellowship (2020), an externally-adjudicated Faculty Fellowship at the UConn Humanities Institute (2021-22), and a Climate Social Science Network (CSSN) grant to develop a new research program on fossil fuel sector in the Asia Pacific.
The other important milestones include my research being published by two of the top university presses in the world – The Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press. And, then, while not many people in India know about the North American system of academic tenure, I am among a very small number of academics, who have been tenured at two top-ranking public and private universities. Only about 21% of all professors in the U.S. universities have tenured positions.
Q. What is the most satisfying part of your current role?
A. I have been incredibly fortunate to have been successful in North American academia but this is even more satisfying because I have done this by pursuing research questions that I picked from my first career in international development. Building an academic career on unpopular questions has been a challenge as it flies against the dominant approaches favored by the corporate sector, which is incredibly influential in academia, especially in the context of the ongoing poly-crises of environmental and climate change, and global inequalities. I have been able to do that because of the convictions and values I have held on to but also because I have built collaborations and long-term partnerships with like-minded academics, who see the value of the research program we have built together. To be clear, those outside academia may not fully appreciate that it is not just about researching inequality and justice. The more important aspect of this is whether a research program hits where it matters and the political economy of institutions approach that I have developed goes beyond talking about these questions as moral and ethical considerations. My work bridges the distinct traditions of research and scholarship in institutional analysis, policy studies, and critical social science research on Environmental & Climate Justice, Governing the Global Commons, Global Conservation, and Global Climate and Geoengineering Governance.
Photo Credit: Solar Radiation Management Governance Initiative.
Q. Has your learning at IIFM helped in shaping how you approach your professional roles?
A. My first college degree was in the sciences (Physics, Electronics, and Mathematics), so without IIFM, I would not have been an interdisciplinary social scientist. IIFM’s interdisciplinary curriculum and a group of peers who brought in a variety of different perspectives was incredibly important in shaping my career trajectory. A majority of IIFM’ites take pride in securing prestigious jobs in the corporate sector and I am very proud of them. At the same time, I am excited that some of us have charted a different trajectory and have contributed to the fulfilment of the public mandate that IIFM has as an institution funded with public funds.
Q. Who (or what) are the biggest influences or drivers in your careers. What would be your advice to freshers and IIFM graduates who are looking to choose similar sectors/roles?
A. My biggest influence has undoubtedly been my doctoral advisor Professor Elinor Ostrom. Even though my work falls outside what many consider to be the core of Ostrom’s work, it is founded on the analytical tools and approaches that Lin taught us. Indeed, I have been fortunate to have received great deal of love and support of many academics in U.S. and Europe – far too many to name here. I am also incredibly inspired by my ongoing collaborations with my former Indiana University professor Lauren MacLean and my graduate school friend Gustavo Garcia Lopez. Together, we co-founded the Climate Justice Network that seeks to make bridges between academia, policymakers, and activists. Among the global public figures influencing debates on the environmental and climate crisis, Amitav Ghosh’s work and public outreach is a huge inspiration. Among Indian academics, I greatly admire the kind of research and public interest work by Deepak Malghan, who is a professor at IIM Bangalore. The lifelong work of Sunita Narain, who has shaped the global debates on climate justice, and the ongoing struggles led by young environmental and climate activists, such as Disha Ravi and Hidme Markam, are also sources of motivation for me.
To the IIFM’ites thinking of a career in research or academia, please make sure to focus on specific skills that are valued in your chosen field. And, then do think about what use you want to put those skills to – think about where you want to invest your time and energies.
Q. What are your favorite memories during your IIFM days?
A. My favorite moments at IIFM were when we got to travel some of the most beautiful areas in India, including some of the best national parks. I was the first IIFM to undertake a Course of Independent Studies (CIS) with Professor Suprava Patnaik, in which I used but also critiqued Ostrom’s theories of collective action! Having an opportunity to do my organizational trainings with AKRSP and Jungle Lodges were also incredibly fun and helped me grow as a researcher and as an academic. And, there were two incidents when some of us got up and questioned our professors, though that was not appreciated as much as I now believe it should have been. Any academic or professional training is enriched by vigorous debates and deliberations, not just one-sided flow of information and knowledge.
Q. As an alumnus, what is your advice to freshers or those are joining IIFM to get best out of the 2 years there?
A. Other than acquisition of specific skills (e.g., GIS, statistical analysis, etc.), as I mentioned above, please try to get a good sense of your sector beyond the sort of information you get from corporate sector or from the mainstream press. Information that one gets through those channels is incredibly narrow, and often shaped to serve specific goals of the industry or the corporate sector. Being independently minded is not being an activist – it’s the only way you will develop your independent perspective and will have an opportunity to chart the course of your career based on your preferences and values.
Q. What is your typical day at the office?
A. I teach and have my office hours on Tue and Thu when students have an opportunity to have individualized meetings with me. During other three days of the week I mostly work from home, either preparing to teach or busy researching and writing. Other public engagements that I have mentioned above also take up sizeable chunk of my time.
Q. And how about weekends, Hobbies, Family and anything else you want to add
A. Unfortunately, the sort of responsibilities and leadership positions I have taken keeps me from pursuing my hobbies (e.g., chess, cricket, and reading books unrelated to my work). I do hope to do better and find more time for these hobbies, but more importantly for my family – they’ve been very kind to me all these years. I should change my ways before they change their mind about me.
P.C: Anup Kumar Singh
Q. Favorite Books, movies, authors.
A. I enjoy Amitav Ghosh’s work (The Hungry Tide is my favorite but also liked his recent books The Great Derangement, The Nutmeg’s Curse, and Living Mountain). I was incredibly moved by JM Cotzee’s novels (‘Life and Times of Michael K’ and Disgrace) and currently I am reading an incredibly powerful book Charleston by Susan Crawford on how historical legacies shape how we act in response to the climate crisis.
Q. IIFM is driven by alumni’s passion and commitments towards its goal. How would you like to contribute to IIFM or IIFM alumni, students?
A. I would like to contribute by opening up the horizons of possibilities that IIFM’ites see for themselves, especially those like myself who grew up in small towns and rural areas and have not had the kind of exposure that students get in some of India’s premier educational institutions in Delhi, Mumbai, or Bangalore. I want to promote debates about what our role should be in the current context. While I appreciate the corporate-facing mainstream careers, my goal is to help the IIFM’ites interested in challenging the status-quo. Please feel free to email me if this resonates with you.
Q. What do you think is different at IIFM now vs when you studied there? What do you think is a positive change and what is not?
A. I believe the new director is trying new things and the alumni association is quite more active in helping students look for and find new career paths. All this makes me hopeful.
Q. Any suggestions on who you want to get profiled/interviewed here?
A. I would like to nominate following juniors Arif Hussain, Aseem Hasnain, and Nikhil Mathur.