A Talk on ‘Environmental studies for a planet in crisis: Time, space and capital’

About the Talk

The planetary crisis has heightened our awareness of the geological impact of human activities and the possibility of human species extinction. Both the heightened consciousness of human hubris in causing planetary change and the vulnerability of extinction is encoded in the Anthropocene discourse at this moment. How do we comprehend the human place in nature? What constitutes environmental studies that can stitch together different scales of time, space and capital that constitute socio-natures? I will characterise the challenges of understanding a dynamic multi-scalar socio-ecological system. and discuss some methodological frameworks that can help us address
them.

About the Speaker

Professor Sudha Vasan teaches and writes on political ecology, focusing on gender, caste, class, and Adivasi issues as they intersect with development and environmental governance. She served as Head of the Sociology Department at Delhi School of Economics from April 2021 to March 2024.
Her recent scholarship includes the edited volume Environmental Studies from India: Engaging with the Planetary Ecological Crisis (Oxford University Press, 2025) and the article “Diversity, Scale, and Context in Environmental Governance” in Ecology, Economy and Society—the INSEE Journal.