Shibaji Bose, Upasona Ghosh, Debojyoti Das describe the impact of the dual crises of Covid-19 and accelerating climatic change for Sundarbans residents, as well as their experience in shifting to participatory visual research methods to document the crises and residents’ responses, while respecting travel restrictions. The results put documentation in the hands of the affected community and offered a chance to tell their stories from a firsthand perspective. The researchers also reflect on how to make this type of work rigorous, while centering the questions and perspectives of the focus community.
Debojyoti Das
Debojyoti Das is an anthropologist of South Asia focusing on the borderlands of eastern India and the Indian Ocean world. His work is deeply interdisciplinary, bridging his training as an ethnographer with extensive use of visual media and oral sources. Das’s current research focuses on natural disasters, migration, and sustainable development issues among marginalized communities in the Indian Ocean region and East Africa. He is interested in transdisciplinary and community focused work, which feeds into the use of different qualitative methods and tools for action research. Besides academic peer-reviewed publications, Das has contributed to newspapers, blogs, photo exhibitions, seminars, and stakeholder’s workshops. He has collaborated with colleagues and institutions working in the Indian Ocean region thanks to a 2020 SSRC Transregional Planning Grant. Das has established a pulsating research network with scholars working on climate change and environmental disasters through an environmental refugee webinar series.
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From Our Fellows
Picturing the Lowland: A Photo Essay of the Bay of Bengal
Debojyoti Das, a 2015-16 Transregional Research Junior Scholar Fellowship recipient, uses powerful visuals to tell an ethnographic story of the Sundarban delta region in the Bay of Bengal. His photos tell the…
July 20, 2017