What does your research address?

My research interests reside primarily in the area of environmental politics and policy, with a particular emphasis on the politics of access to and control over natural resources. I investigate and explain environmental outcomes as a function of institutions (such as property rights) and power asymmetries within a society. In addition to considering the effect of environmental policies and programs in shaping environmental outcomes, I investigate their effects on different social groups. It is worth mentioning that for large sections of populations within developing countries, environmental resources such as land, water, and forests, are the primary sites of struggles for citizenship. Beyond this broad portrayal of my research, I would like to mention one key project on which I am working.

As part of a book manuscript (with a provisional title of Democracy in the Woods: Negotiations over Forest Property Rights in India), I am analyzing the fascinating dynamic unleashed by India’s Forest Rights Act of 2006. It is a statute which seeks to recognize and restitute to forest dependent people the property rights that were written off by the Imperial Forest Department in colonial India. The burden of policies and institutions put in place by colonial governments was shouldered disproportionately by forest-dependent people who have been historically marginalized. It does not come as a surprise then that the post-colonial governments in Asia, Africa, and Latin America happily carried on with the institutions and policies inherited from colonial governments. Now, more than half a century after India’s independence the parliament seeks to undo some of these excesses. I employ a combination of cross-sectional statistical analysis and rigorous qualitative inquiry to understand these political processes and to explain the outcomes of these attempted reforms.

What about teaching?

The research that I describe above provides me with some of the most exciting teaching materials. In teaching courses such as ‘politics of environment and development’, and ‘non-western politics’, I transport students to the societies and part of the world they have not experienced personally. Going by the response so far, I would say students are very excited about these journeys and what they can learn in the process. As you can imagine, negotiating the spatial and the intellectual distances does get difficult at times. But we work together to find the best possible route to having fun while grappling with some of the most tedious questions of our times.

What brought you to Senegal recently?

I have been associated with the ‘Responsive Forest Governance Initiative’ (RFGI), which is a joint program of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa. I reviewed theories of representation and accountability with the aim of exploring how existing research and scholarship might be employed for this research on forest governance. The RFGI hosted a research methods workshop in Dakar, Senegal between January 7-13, 2012 to help RFGI researchers to think through their research questions and research methods. The meeting was organized at the island of Goree, which used to be a key point in the slave trade and is now a UNESCO heritage site. I was invited to the meeting as a resource person to assist the teams on research methods and to make presentations on basic concepts in conceptualization and conduct of research project on such complex questions. Many of the RFGI researchers are PhD students, or are considering taking up graduate education, and all of us had a great time together. I believe these kinds of research initiatives provide wonderful opportunities for a very constructive engagement between academics, policymakers, and young researchers. And, I learned a great deal by being there and interacting with representatives from different sectors.

Students may receive credit for summer internships as well as those completed during the Fall and Spring semesters. For questions regarding POLS credit for such internships, please go to our website. You may also contact the internship coordinator for Political Science at: kimberly.bergendahl at uconn.edu.

Schusterman Israel Scholar Awards (deadline: March 1, 2012)

Global Supplementary Grant Program (GSGP 2012 -2013)
The Open Society Foundations Scholarship Programs is pleased to announce the Global Supplementary Grant Program (GSGP) for the 2012 – 2013 academic year. GSGP offers supplementary grants of up to $10,000 USD to students from select countries in Southeastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Mongolia, the Middle/Near East, and South Asia. The purpose of the program is to enable qualified students to pursue doctoral studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences at accredited universities throughout Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle/Near East, and North America.

The Political Science Graduate Student Association will host the 4th Annual Conference on Democracy and Governance on March 2-3, 2012 in the Student Union. The keynote speaker this year will be Frances Fox Piven. She will speak at 4:30 PM on Friday, March 2 in the Student Union Theater. All students, faculty, and the greater University of Connecticut community are welcome to attend.

For more information, please contact Allyson Yankle
allyson.yankle at uconn.edu

The SHARE program supports undergraduate research projects in the social sciences, humanities, and arts.

How did you first get interested in Pakistan?

I first became interested in Pakistan when I was studying military politics early in grad school. India and Pakistan present some fascinating differences on that score: despite a shared colonial heritage, the two armies have taken fundamentally different directions since 1947. That led me into a deeper study of conflict in South Asia more broadly. My interests in Kashmir, Indian foreign policy, and insurgency all centrally involve Pakistan. My fieldwork has focused on India and Sri Lanka but Pakistan presents a set of central puzzles for political scientists. For a country its size and importance, it is remarkable how few people study it in political science.

What is your central argument?

My central (if nascent) argument is that the creation and deployment of state coercive capacities – military, police, paramilitaries – is driven by the political interests of state elites. These interests are often in tension with what we often think states should naturally seek to do – monopolize the legitimate use of violence. Instead, we often see political and military leaders legitimizing, supporting, and protecting non-state violent actors on their own soil as part of sophisticated political strategies of regime survival, coalition-building, and foreign policy. Rather than thinking of the state as a bundle of raw coercive capacities, we should conceptualize it as a supple and strategic deployer (and withholder) of violence and protection. I’d like to better understand how states make their decisions – especially in a context of both international and domestic threats – about the best ways to control social violence. This emerging project looks at these dynamics of violence management throughout post-colonial Asia (this is an early paper in this project).

Will the US and Pakistan remain allies?

As I argued early last year, I think Pakistan and the US are in for a long period of chilly relations, recurrent crises, and barely-contained hostility. I don’t foresee a clean break; neither side will gain much from open repudiation. The US will draw down in Afghanistan while maintaining support to its local allies as the Pakistan-backed Taliban rise. A crucial question will be the extent to which the Afghan Taliban can outmaneuver Pakistani manipulation and control. I think the US should lower expectations about its ability to control dynamics within Pakistan, and so it should adopt a limited-commitment/limited-liability strategy that seeks to avoid a few worst-case outcomes but otherwise becomes more restrained in the region. Americans get understandably frustrated with Pakistani policies, especially that of the Army, but those policies reflect a set of clear cost-benefit calculations that are difficult to shift.

Staniland’s upcoming talk is co-sponsored by the Alan R. Bennett Professor and India Studies.

The American Institute of Afghanistan Studies (AIAS) invites applications for support of short-term research or other scholarly projects that will advance the knowledge of Afghanistan. The Institute will be accepting applications for proposed projects along two tiers of the John F. Richards Fellowship Program. The program includes two different types of fellowships. Applicants must be individual members of AIAS to apply. For more information on membership, please see the AIAS web site.

Deadline: March 15, 2012
Announcements: Approximately April 15, 2012

Research Fellowship
Eligible: U.S. Citizens (only)
Designed for: Pre-doctoral, Post-doctoral, Junior and Senior Scholars*
Restrictions: Cannot be used for travel to, from or within Afghanistan
Average Award: $6,000

Afghanistan Travel Fellowship
Eligible: U.S. Citizens, U.S. Permanent Residents, Non-U.S. Citizens with a U.S. Institutional Appointment
Designed for: Senior Scholars*
Restrictions: None
Average Award: $3,000

Applicants may apply for one or both of the fellowships when submitting his or her application** Interested applicants should submit the following material.

Online Application Form (click here to access the form)

1. Name, Address, and Citizenship Information.
2. Project Title.
3. Indication of which fellowship you will apply for.
4. Total amount requested.
5. Current position and academic affiliation
6. Degrees granted with dates and granting institution
7. Brief abstract of the project of approximately 250 words for potential use on the AIAS web site.
8. Names of three individuals from whom you have requested letters of reference. Each such referee should be instructed to mail or fax the letter directly to AIAS at address below.

Additional Items by E-Mail or Mail

1. Full CV, containing the following information: Full name, Preferred address, Current position or academic affiliation, Degrees granted with dates and granting institution, Significant publications list, previous publications and Afghan related works in progress.
2. Statement describing the nature of the proposed research or project, including the contribution it will make to Afghan studies. This should be double-spaced and not to exceed 1,500 words.
3. Full budget narrative.
4. Three letters of recommendation.
5. Project timetable with research locations.

Additional Items may be sent to:

E-mail: mailto:aias.boston at gmail.com

Mail:

Michael Carroll
AIAS US Administrative Director
Boston University
232 Bay State Road, Room 426
Boston, MA 02215 USA
Fax: 617 358-4650 Phone: 617 358-4649

* Senior scholar denotes a scholar or practitioner who holds a tenure-track or tenure-equivalent position at a higher education institution, or an individual or independent scholar who can demonstrate significant experience in research or academic activity. For questions of eligibility, please contact AIAS.

**Individuals may apply for both fellowships, provided that they meet all restrictions and can demonstrate significant distinction between projects. Individuals must be able to effectively demonstrate within their proposal that no funds will be used to travel to or in support of traveling to Afghanistan under the research fellowship. (Example: Research funds cannot be used for a flight to Europe to defer the cost of travel to Afghanistan.) For additional information, please contact the AIAS office.