Background

I am a human geographer with an interdisciplinary background (natural sciences, management and the social sciences). I have worked for more than seven odd years in the rural development sector in India working with different NGOs on issues of rural livelihoods, climate adaptation, community-based natural resource management, indigenous knowledge systems, medicinal plants conservation amongst others.

Broadly, my work sits at the intersection of economic geography, gender and development studies. Currently I am interested in the alternative imaginations of food and agriculture with specific interest in the role of women, smallholder holder farmers and indigenous groups in the global South. 

Education

• PhD, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, UK (2016)
• MSc. in Gender Studies (Research), London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), UK (2010)
• Post-Graduate Diploma in Forestry Management (PGDFM), Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM), Bhopal, India (2002)
• BSc. (Honours) in Industrial Microbiology, Patna Women's College, Patna University, India (1998)

Career

• Member of the Tutor Panel at the Institute of Continuing Education (ICE), University of Cambridge, UK (2017)
• Program Officer, Natural Resource Management, Winrock International India, New Delhi, India (2008-2009)
• Consultant, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Rome, Italy (2007)
• Senior Core Team Member, Pragya, Natural Resource Management, Gurgaon, India (2006-2007)
• Deputy Manager, Intellecap Advisory Services, Mumbai, India (2005-2006)
• Assistant Manager, MP MFP Federation, Bhopal, India (2002-2004)
• Research Associate, Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM), Bhopal, India (2002-2002)

Awards and Honours

• ESRC supported LSE/SOAS Adivasi Fellowship (2017-2018)
  
• Environment and Sustainability Grant (Royal Geographical Society) (2018-2019)

Area of Expertise

Gender, environment, development, food politics, feminist methodologies

Google Scholar

Publications

• Hansda R. Small-scale farming and gender-friendly agricultural technologies: the interplay between gender, labour, caste, policy and practice. Gender, Technology and Development 2018, 21(3), 189-205.
• Hansda R. Book review: Islam, S. and Hossain, I. 2016: Social Justice in the Globalisation of Production: Labor, Gender, and the Environment Nexus. Progress in Development Studies 2017, 17(2), 191–193.
• Singh P, Ghose N, Chaudhary N, Hansda R. “Life in the Shadow of Embankments: Turning Lost Lands into Assets in the Kosi Basin of Bihar, India”, in Local Responses to Too Much and Too Little Water in the Greater Himalayan Region. In: Local Responses to Too Much and Too Little Water in the Greater Himalayan Region. International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Nepal, 2009, pp.33-42.
• Singh P, Ghose N, Chaudhary N, Hansda R. Life in the Shadow of Embankments-Turning Lost Lands into Assets in the Koshi Basin of Bihar, India. ICIMOD, Nepal, 2009.
• Hansda R. The Outlook of Non-Wood Forest Products in Asia and the Pacific. FAO Outlook studies 2009, APFSOS II/WP/2009/18.
• Bhattacharya AK, Hansda R. Ex situ conservation of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants in India with special reference to Madhya Pradesh. The Indian Forester 2003, 129(1), 93-101.