2015 Inaugural professorial Lecture - Professor Priya Kurian
8 Dec 2015 6:00 PM
Reclaiming Sustainability: Centring Justice in Narratives of Science, Society, Culture, and the Environment
Professor Priya Kurian, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Professor Priya Kurian says sustainability is too important an issue to dismiss or ignore. It might be complicated, but she says it cannot be abandoned.
“I’m talking about sustainability in its entirety, not just environmental protection, but social justice, cultural diversity, economic viability and democratic governance – a ‘total’ concept necessary for creating a good society,” she says.
When she was a journalist for the Times of India in Mumbai, Priya, fresh out of university, began to cover what was then a fledgling movement to protest against a mega-dam. “The government was proposing to build a dam that would flood a lot of villages and displace over 200,000 people. That opened my eyes to the impacts that government decisions can have in the name of development, particularly on the poor.”
From Mumbai, she went to the US and completed her Masters and PhD degrees at Purdue University in Indiana.
Her PhD thesis focused on a feminist gender analysis of the World Bank’s environmental and social policies and was published as a book. Since then her work in development studies has continued its focus on the role of women. “Women and culture are central to any conception of transformative social change,” she says.
Priya came to Waikato in 1996. “Dov Bing [Professor in Political Science] flew up to LAX, and I met him there. We had a chat, then later I did a phone interview with FASS and was subsequently offered a lecturer position.”
At the time Priya arrived in New Zealand, immigration was a hot political issue and there was a lot of media talk about a perceived “Asian Invasion”. Luckily that didn’t put her off and she’s remained at the University, climbing the ranks to professor.
Priya’s not just an academic, she’s actively involved in the community. She’s a founding member and trustee of Shama Hamilton Ethnic Women’s Centre Trust, an organisation set up to support ethnic women and their families.
Her Inaugural Professorial Lecture will weave the strands of environmental action, gender, and cultural diversity with the ideas of deliberative democracy and the governance of science to explore sustainability.
OPUS Bar open from 5pm
Tickets: Free and open to the general public