Dr Annu Jalais is an environmental anthropologist working on the human–animal interface, environmental justice, religious identity, caste and migration, particularly in Bangladesh and India. She authored Forest of Tigers: People, Politics and Environment in the Sundarbans (Routledge, 2010) and co-authored, with Joya Chatterji (History, Trinity College, Cambridge) and Claire Alexander (Sociology, Manchester), The Bengal Diaspora: Rethinking Muslim Migration (Routledge, 2016). She has taught at the National University of Singapore (NUS), London School of Economics (LSE) and Goldsmiths College, and has been affiliated with the Agrarian Studies Program at Yale University, the International Institute of Asian Studies (IIAS), Leiden, and the Centre d’Études de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud (CEIAS) at the EHESS, Paris, amongst others.

Dr Jalais engages in interdisciplinary research that brings together anthropological, environmental and historical methods and materials. She recently completed work on two grants – Non-humans and zoonoses: what do they tell us about ourselves? (awarded by UParis and NUS), which brings together Asian artists, academics and young scholars to collaborate and teach environmental humanities today; and The Southern Collective (awarded by the Social Science Research Council [SSRC]), to build a Transdisciplinary Collaboratory in the Northern Indian Ocean, in partnership with the Dakshin Foundation, where she is also an Adjunct Fellow.

Research

Human–animal Interface

Environmental Justice

Religious Pluralism

Caste Discrimination

Bengal Delta Migration

Publications

1. 2022 Commentary in Current Anthropology on a forum paper by Alpa Shah entitled “Why I Write? In a Climate Against Intellectual Dissidence”, Issue 5, Vol. 63, pp.https://www.academia.edu/87355107/Annu_Jalais_Commentary_ on_Why_I_Write_In_a_Climate_against_Intellectual_Dissidence_by_Alpa_Shah]

2. Jalais, Annu. 2022. ‘Historicizing Indic collectives’ ‘solidarities’ in the age of the Anthropocene’, special issue on ‘Alterglobal Politics: Postcolonial Theory in the Era of the Anthropocene’ in Postcolonial Studies, 25(3).  https://www.academia.edu/80130231/Historicizing_Indic_collectives_solidarities_in_the_age_of_the_Anthropocene

3. 2022. ‘The Indian Ocean Southern Collective: Collaboratory for Postnormal Coastal Knowledge Production’, co-authored with Aarthi Sridhar, Rapti Siriwardane, Sridhar Anantha. Items: Insights from the Social Sciences, “Crisis & Collaboration across the Indian Ocean”, Social Science Research Council, USA, April 12.

4. Jalais, Annu. 2021. ‘Bangladesh in 2020: Debating Social Distancing, Digital Money, and Climate Change Migration’, Asian Survey 61, no. 1: 194–201. https://www.academia.edu/45240236/Bangladesh_in_2020_Debating_Social_Distancing_Digital_Money_and_Climate_Change_Migration

5. Jalais, Annu. 2021. ‘The Singapore “Garden City”: the death and life of nature in an Asian City’. Pp 82–101, in Death and Life of Nature in Asian Cities, eds. K Sivaramakrishnan & A Rademacher. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. https://www.academia.edu/53265613/The_Singapore_Garden_City_The_Death_and_Life_of_Nature_in_an_Asian_City 

6. Jalais, Annu. 2021. ‘Rethinking the Asian Nonhuman’ contributing article for ASEAN Development Outlook: Inclusive and Sustainable Development (2021). Jakarta: ASEAN Secretariat.
7. Jalais, Annu. 2021. ‘Introduction: A Collaboratory of Indian Ocean Ethnographies.’ Co-author with Aarthi Sridhar of this essay and co-editor of the entire series (13 essays, 26 authors). Member Voices. Fieldsights. September 23. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/introduction-a-collaboratory-of-indian-ocean-ethnographies
8. Jalais, Annu. 2021. ‘Truant teachers, “barefoot” tutors, and the breakdown of schooling in pandemic affected Sundarban.’ Co-authored with Uttam Guru and Jyotirindranarayan Lahiri. Member Voices. Fieldsights. September 23. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/truant-teachers-barefoot-tutors-and-the-breakdown-of-schooling-in-pandemic-affected-sundarban

9. Jalais, Annu. 2021. Co-curated the ‘Asian Bestiary’. The project includes (a) an online exhibition ‘Imagining “Asian” Nonhumans’ where 20 artists from across Asia contributed artwork on Asian nonhumans, (b) bringing Ho Tzu Nyen, Naiza Khan and other artists in conversation with each other on questions around Asian nonhumans; (c) students’ contributions on ‘Asian and Indian Ocean Beasts and Cures’ including individual animals and how their body parts or propensity of “bless” might be used in traditional medicines and healing sites across Asia.

11. 2020. ‘The Human and the Nonhuman: Bengali “environmental” ecotones and their contradictions’, in Borders and Ecotones in the Indian Ocean: Cultural and Literary Perspectives, ed. by Markus Arnold, Corinne Duboin and Judith Misrahi-Barak. Collection ‘Horizons anglophones: PoCoPages’, 127–150 ; Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée (PULM). https://www.academia.edu/44584237/_The_Human_and_the_Nonhuman_Bengali_environmental_ecotones_and_their_contradictions_Jalais_2020

12. 2020. ‘Do human-wildlife “interactions” affect mental health in the Sundarbans?’ In The Tides of Life: Surviving between the margins, ed. Aditya Ghosh, 31–41. New Delhi: IGNCA. [https://www.academia.edu/43678324/Do_human_wildlife_interactions_affect_mental _health_in_the_Sundarbans_pp_39_49_]. ‘Of Pandemics and Storms in the Sundarbans.’ Co-authored with Amites Mukhopadhyay. In ‘Intersecting Crises,’ Calynn Dowler, editor, American Ethnologist website (Sept).

13. ‘Amidst the wreckage of Amphan, a heartwarming reminder from Sundarbans of what it means to be human’ Scroll.in (June).

14. 2018. ‘Reworlding the ancient Chinese tiger in the realm of the Asian Anthropocene’. International Communication of Chinese Culture 5(1–2): 121–144. [https://www.academia.edu/36607551/Reworlding_the_ancient_Chinese_tiger _in_the_realm_of_the_Asian_Anthropocene]

Teaching Modules

Religion and Its Publics: South Asia