BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//jEvents 2.0 for Joomla//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VEVENT UID:8b4f3362be09d0ae408183428f9ba126 CATEGORIES:Lecture / Reading / Talk CREATED:20211120T121118 SUMMARY:FLAME INVITED SPEAKER SERIES | At the tri-junction of fragility and vulnerability - Andaman and Nicobar story - A talk by Dr. Pankaj Sekhsaria DESCRIPTION:The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a unique and complex island chain in th e Bay of Bengal. They are extremely rich from an ecological point of view a nd are also home to a number of indigenous communities who have been here f or thousands of years but are today among the most marginalised and vulnera ble. Very importantly, the islands are located in Seismic Zone V, the most seismically active zone on the planet. Earthquakes here are a regular occur rence and the 9.3 richter scale earthquake that caused the giant tsunami of December 2004 had its epicenter not very far from the Nicobar Islands.\nTh e talk will present a range of examples of how recent developmental interve ntions in the islands - for infrastructure development, defence installatio ns and tourism promotion - are wilfully ignoring the dynamic and sensitive social, ecological and geological realities of this remote island chain and increasing manifold their vulnerability. It will also engage with the issu e of language in the policy and other documents in the islands to illustrat e how language conceals (or perhaps reveals) some of our fundamental biases and also the critical performative role played. The presentation advocates for a re-framing and re-understanding of these islands and other such syst ems as pivoted on three intersecting axes of the geological, the ecological and the socio-cultural, all of which need to be accounted for to ensure de velopment interventions do not increase vulnerability.\n Speaker bio: Dr. P ankaj Sekhsaria is the author of five books on the A&N islands includin g his debut novel The Last Wave (Harper Collins India 2014), a story embedd ed deeply in the ecology, history and people of the place, Islands in Flux – the Andaman and Nicobar Story (Harper Litmus 2019), which is a collection of 20 years of his journalism about the islands and most recenlty Waiting for Turtles (Kardi Tales 2021)- his first book for children.\nHe has a Bach elor’s degree in engineering, a master’s degree in Mass Communication and a recent PhD in Science and Technology Studies from the Maastricht Universit y in the Netherlands. He is a long-time member of the environmental action group, Kalpavriksh and currently, Associate Professor, Centre for Technolog y Alternatives for Rural Areas (CTARA), IIT Bombay. His new books in the br oad field of Sociology of Technology include Instrumental Lives - an intima te biography of an Indian laboratory (Routledge 2019) and Nanoscale - Socie ty's deep impact on science, technology and innovation in India (Authors Up front, 2020)\nZoom link: https://flameuniversity.zoom.us/j/95214253854\nMee ting ID: 952 1425 3854\n X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a unique and complex island chain in the Bay of Bengal. They are extremely rich from an ecological point of vie w and are also home to a number of indigenous communities who have been her e for thousands of years but are today among the most marginalised and vuln erable. Very importantly, the islands are located in Seismic Zone V, the mo st seismically active zone on the planet. Earthquakes here are a regular oc currence and the 9.3 richter scale earthquake that caused the giant tsunami of December 2004 had its epicenter not very far from the Nicobar Islands.< /p>

The talk will present a range of examples of how recent developmental interventions in the islands - for infrastructure development, defence ins tallations and tourism promotion - are wilfully ignoring the dynamic and se nsitive social, ecological and geological realities of this remote island c hain and increasing manifold their vulnerability. It will also engage with the issue of language in the policy and other documents in the islands to i llustrate how language conceals (or perhaps reveals) some of our fundamenta l biases and also the critical performative role played. The presentation a dvocates for a re-framing and re-understanding of these islands and other s uch systems as pivoted on three intersecting axes of the geological, the ec ological and the socio-cultural, all of which need to be accounted for to e nsure development interventions do not increase vulnerability.

 Speaker bio: Dr. Pankaj Sekhsaria is the author of five books on the A&N islands including his debut novel The Last Wave (Harper Collins India 2014), a story embedded de eply in the ecology, history and people of the place, Islands in Flux – the Andaman and Nicobar Story (Harper Litmus 2019), which is a collection of 2 0 years of his journalism about the islands and most recenlty Waiting for T urtles (Kardi Tales 2021)- his first book for children.

He has a Bach elor’s degree in engineering, a master’s degree in Mass Communication and a recent PhD in Science and Technology Studies from the Maastricht Universit y in the Netherlands. He is a long-time member of the environmental action group, Kalpavriksh and currently, Associate Professor, Centre for Technolog y Alternatives for Rural Areas (CTARA), IIT Bombay. His new books in the br oad field of Sociology of Technology include Instrumental Lives - an intima te biography of an Indian laboratory (Routledge 2019) and Nanoscale - Socie ty's deep impact on science, technology and innovation in India (Authors Up front, 2020)

Zoom link: https://flameuniversit y.zoom.us/j/95214253854

Meeting ID: 952 1425 3854

DTSTAMP:20260606T131239 DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20210313T150000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20210313T160000 SEQUENCE:0 TRANSP:OPAQUE END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR