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 plant conservation amongst others.

Broadly, my work sits at the intersection of development geography, gender, and social justice. Currently, I am interested in the alternative imaginations of food and agriculture with a 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 (2017-2020)
• 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)

Google Scholar

Research

Research interests and competence

• Gender, environment, and development
  
• Political ecology 
• Small-scale sustainable food and farming systems 
• Community-based approaches to rural development
• Indigenous geographies of food and ecological justice
• Indigenous epistemologies

Current research project

• Indigenous/adivasi food festivals in India: resisting, claiming and (re)making an alternative history of food sovereignty? (PI) funded by the Royal Geographical Society
• SOILCARE (Horizon 2020) Promoting sustainable soil-improving cropping systems

Completed research projects

• Social barriers and opportunities for the implementation of the England Peat Strategy funded by Natural England (NE) and DEFRA
  
• 'Resilient Dairy Landscapes' - A project funded by the Global Food Security's Resilience of the UK Food System Programme' with support from the BBSRC, ESRC, NERC, and the Scottish Government.

Teaching

• SOC3098 – Rural Sociology - Community and Conflict in the Countryside (Undergraduates)
• ACE2078 - Qualitative Research Methods - Ethnography and Participant Observation (Undergraduates)

• ACE8195 – MSc. Agriculture, Food and Rural Development
• 5237F - MSc in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security
• Committee Member for 1 PhD Student (2019 -)

Areas of teaching interests and competence

• Gender, environment, and development
• Political ecology
• International development 
• Small-scale sustainable food and farming systems
• Community-based approaches to rural development
• Indigenous geographies of food and ecological justice
• Qualitative research methods

Publications

• Hansda R. Gender, Poverty and Livelihood in the Eastern Himalayas. Edited by Sanjoy Hazarika and Reshmi Banerjee. Mountain Research and Development 2020, 39(3), M6-M7.
• Coyne L, Kendall H, Hansda R, Reed MS, Williams DJL. Identifying economic and societal drivers of engagement in agri-environmental schemes for English dairy producers. Land Use Policy 2020, 105174.
• Coyne L, Kendall H, Hansda R, Reed MS, Williams DJL. Identifying economic and societal drivers of engagement in agri-environmental schemes for English dairy producers. Land Use Policy 2021, 101, 105174.
• Reed MS, Kenter JO, Hansda R, Martin J, Curtis T, Saxby H, Mills L, Post J, Garrod G, Proctor A, Collins O, Guy JA, Stewart G, Whittingham M. Social barriers and opportunities to the implementation of the England Peat Strategy. Newcastle upon Tyne: Newcastle University, Natural England and DEFRA, 2020. In Preparation.
• 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.
• Hansda R. Sustainable agriculture for all? The complex cases of the system of rice intensification (SRI) and conservation agriculture (CA). In: Radl, A. and Rycroft, J. (eds.) 'Our common dream': A secure food future for all. Cambridge: The Humanitarian Centre, 2014. Cambridge International Development Report.
• 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.