for
the Amherst campus of the University of Massachusetts
November
15, 2002
| Environmentalist to give ISHA lecture 
nternationally renowned environmentalist Vandana
Shiva will give a talk entitled "Earth Democracy: The World Beyond
Globalization" on Nov. 21 at 7:30 p.m. in Memorial Hall. The
lecture is free and open to the public. Shiva's visit is the Second
Annual Interdisciplinary Seminar in the Humanities and Fine Arts (ISHA)
Lecture, and her topic is related to the current seminar's theme of
Stewardship and Sustainability.Shiva, known to many as the author of "Water Wars," directs the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy, a network of researchers specializing in sustainable agriculture and development. She is also ecology advisor to the Third World Network, which aims to bring about a greater voice for people in the Third World along with fair and ecologically sustainable distribution of world resources. Shiva holds a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Western Ontario. But she later shifted her focus to interdisciplinary research in science, technology and environmental policy, subjects she studied at the Indian Institute of Science and the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore. In 1982 she founded The Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, an independent institute to help further local community action and assist broader social movements. Located in Dehra Dun, the foundation is dedicated to high quality and independent research to address significant ecological and social issues. In 1991, she founded Navdanya, a national movement to protect the diversity and integrity of living resources, especially native seeds. A contributor to changing the practice and paradigms of agriculture and food, she has written "The Violence of Green Revolution" and "Monocultures of the Mind," both basic challenges to dominant paradigms of agricultural production. Her contributions to gender issues also have won national and international recognition. Her book, "Staying Alive," is credited with dramatically shifting the perception of Third World women. In 1990 she wrote a report for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations on women and agriculture entitled, "Most Farmers in India are Women." She founded the gender unit at the International Center for Mountain Development in Kathmandu. More recently, she has initiated an international movement of women working for food, agriculture, patents, and biotechnology called Diverse Women for Diversity. Shiva has been a visiting professor at the Agricultural University of Norway, the University of Oslo, also in Norway, Schumacher College in the United Kingdom, and Mt. Holyoke College. She currently lectures at York University in Canada, the University of Lulea in Sweden, the University of Victoria in Canada, and at organizations and institutions worldwide on the environment, feminism and economic development. Recently she spoke at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. Besides her academic and research contributions, Shiva also has served as an advisor to governments in India and abroad as well as NGOs such as the International Forum on Globalization, the Women's Environment and Development Organization, and the Third World Network. |
