FACULTY
Abhineety Goel is a human-environment Geographer particularly trained as a Political Ecologist. Through Political Ecology and ethnographic methods, she studies the effects of development projects on the environment, particularly in and around the Indian National Parks (in Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh), where she has worked since 2005.
Her research addresses the effects of changing forest governance on the struggles to access forest resources by the peripheral forest communities situated around the Indian National Parks in economic, social, and political contexts.
For her doctoral dissertation, she examined how rules-in-use control spatial actions that alter economic, political, and social relationships in the proposed Omkareshwar National Park Complex in Madhya Pradesh.
For her Postdoc, she worked with Dr. Kathleen O’Reilly (Texas A&M University) on her NSF Career Award on “Human Waste and Human Welfare: A Political Ecology Approach to Sanitation in Rural India”. Recently, she concluded a two-year 3ie funded project in collaboration with the University of Oklahoma, Texas A&M University, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and SOPPECOM (Society for Promoting Participative Ecosystem Management) on women's experiences of psychosocial stress related to their access to sanitation in Paschim Champaran and Gopalganj districts in Bihar, India.
At FLAME University, she teaches courses on Planet Earth, Disasters - Natural and Man-Made, World Regional Geography, Geography of the Environment, Conservation and Society, and Environmental Ethics and Justice.
Having explored the entire Uttarakhand, currently, she enjoys trekking in Himachal Pradesh, music, watching sports, and old classic movies.
Peer-Reviewed Articles:
- 2017 O’Reilly, K., Dhanju, R., Goel, A. Exploring “the remote” and “the rural”: Open Defecation and Latrine Use in Uttarakhand, India World Development.
- 2009 Singh, R.B. and A. Goel. “Sustainable Forestry for Mitigating Carbon Sequestration” In Biogeography and Biodiversity. R.B.Singh (ed.). Jaipur: Rawat publishers.
Research Report:
- 2018 O’Reilly, K, Bhat, S, Kulkarni, S, Goel, A, Grover, E, Rao, N and Cumming, O, and Dreibelbis, R. The evaluation of a sanitation intervention on sanitation-related emotional and psychological well-being among women and girls in Bihar, 3ie Grantee Final Report. New Delhi: International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie).
Op-Ed articles:
- 2021 “Protect and Respect: Let's bring back the Roar this Global Tiger Day” Economic Times, July 29th https://travel.economictimes.indiatimes.com/speakeasy/global-tiger-day/5030
2021 “Teaching Online in a Pandemic: Do’s and Don’ts” Higher Education Digest, July 9th (with Prof Anup Tripathi, FLAME University) https://www.highereducationdigest.com/teaching-online-in-a-pandemic-dos-and-donts/
2021 “World Earth Day: Obligation to survive, restore nature and empower societies”. Financial Express, April 21st https://www.financialexpress.com/lifestyle/world-earth-day-obligation-to-survive-restore-nature-and-empower-societies/2237483
2020 “More than just people: Recognizing the role of indigenous communities in conserving the planet”. IGNITE. FLAME University Summer issue, pgs-12-13. https://www.flame.edu.in/pdfs/magazine/ignite/Ignite-Magazine-Summer-2020.pdf
Talks and Conferences:
- 2021 Goel, A. “Winner takes it all”: Examining impacts of state implemented Compensatory Conservation in Central India” in session “Forestry and Conservation” (Oct 25th) at Anthropology and Conservation Conference organized by Royal Anthropology Society, the UK from October 25th – 29th (virtual).
- 2021 “Examining impacts of Compensatory Conservation Program among forest communities in Central India”, at Joint Research Workshop and Webinar Series on China and India Studies: Bouncing back from COVID-19: Comparative Perspectives from China and India organized by Lingnan University, Hong Kong, June 30th.
- 2021 “Impact of Notification and Denotification of Proposed Omkareshwar National Park on Resource and livelihood security of local communities” at FLAME University during Faculty Seminar Series, Physical and Natural Sciences Department, March 27th.
- 2020 “Interconnectedness of Global Climate and Society: Complexities, Significance and Impacts”, Environmental Science. Azim Premji University; October 14th.
- 2018 Goel, A. “A Trade-off for whom? Labor Dynamics and Compensatory Conservation in India” in session “Forest Management 3: Local Rights and Traditional Knowledge” (April 10th). Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, New Orleans, Louisiana: April 10-15.