Graduate Associate
aparna04[at]yorku.ca
Master's Student
Graduate Programme in Social Anthropology, York University
Research Keywords:
Disaster anthropology; anthropology of policy and bureaucracy; risk, Indigenous communities, and knowledge; India; environmental management; information-communication technology (ICT); cartographic mapping; Geographic Information System (GIS)
Research Region(s):
India, South Asia
Research Diaspora(s):
Aparna is a master’s student in Social Anthropology at York University. She is the recipient of SSHRC-CGS-Masters’ Award and Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) in 2021. She was also awarded two internal scholarships (William Dimma Bursary and Senior Anthropologist Graduate Bursary). Prior to joining York, she completed her MPhil in Science Policy
from Centre for Studies in Science Policy, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. She has a double Master’s in Geography from Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi and in Environmental Studies from University of Delhi, India. She was a recipient of a Gold Medal for securing the first position in her Master’s in Geography and was awarded a Jamia Merit Scholarship and Qazi Mohd. Ahmad Memorial Scholarship. She was also awarded the University Grants Commission Non-Net Fellowship for pursuing my MPhil program. Presently, she is pursuing research on articulations of risk and vulnerability in the context of expertise in flood management in Uttarakhand, India.Previously, she has been engaged in conducting research on different dimensions of disasters such as assessing the vulnerability of Tehri Dam in Uttarakhand, India, which focused on the debates between environment protection vs development. Further, her MPhil focused on enjoining policy with scientific knowledge by bringing technology such as Information-Communication Technology in the disaster preparedness programs that can enhance our understanding of disasters and lead to effective disaster management program potentially saving millions of lives, while highlighting how a lack of coordination and prejudice by the distant state mechanisms can have untoward ramifications.
In 2016, she was awarded a full fellowship to attend a two-week BIARI Program (Brown International Advanced Research Institutes) on Humanitarian Response and Post-Conflict Reconstruction: Increasing Effectiveness and Accountability in the Age of Complex Emergencies, organized by Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs,
Brown University. To obtain first-hand experience in disaster mitigation expertise, she successfully completed an internship at the Hazard Centre (NGO) in India and did consultancies for the Ministry of Environment, Govt. of NCT, Delhi.She also worked as a Research Assistant at the Centre for Study in Developing Societies, Delhi. Apart from her academic commitments, she was also a reviewer for the African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development.