Rumi Shammin Hosts Writeshop for Forthcoming Book on Climate Change and and Resilience in South Asia

Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Rumi Shammin hosted an international writeshop via Zoom on October 8-11 with co-editors of his upcoming book Climate Change and Community Resilience: Insights from South Asia. Professor Shammin has been collaborating with Professor Enamul Haque of East West University (Bangladesh), Professor Pranab Mukhopadhyay of Goa University (India) and Dr. Mani Nepal of the South Asian Network of Development and Environmental Economics (Nepal) on this book project. The editors jointly organized the writeshop that brought together the contributing authors to present and discuss the chapters.

South Asia, where a quarter of the global population resides in 3.5 percent of world’s land area, is the most impacted region of the world to climate change—both in terms of fatalities and economic losses that have occurred in recent decades. The edited volume (to be published in 2021) documents community-level initiatives from seven countries in South Asia in 29 chapters contributed by more than 50 scholars. Readers of the book will get a glimpse of grassroots efforts at sustainable agriculture and indigenous knowledge, technology adoption, alternative livelihoods, disaster risk reduction, urban sustainability, and equity and justice. The book specifically addresses resilience building and attainment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals linked to community initiatives. The narrative style of writing is intended to make the volume accessible to a wider interdisciplinary audience.

The writeshop offered a forum for transparent, efficient, and comprehensive review of each chapter by designated discussants and other authors. Participants engaged in real-time comments, responses, and problem-solving. The event also fostered a shared ownership of the entire volume by the participating authors and offered an opportunity for them to come together as a community of researchers from diverse backgrounds working toward common goals. Oberlin alumni and environmental studies majors Maya Sosland ’19 and Amy Wang ’20 participated and presented as Professor Shammin’s coauthors at the writeshop. The event was jointly sponsored by South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, East West University (Bangladesh), Goa University (India), and Oberlin College.