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Dr. Rudrani Gangopadhyay successfully defended her PhD dissertation, titled, "The Spectral Urban: Visualizing the Indian Metropolis," and won the SGS Outstanding Doctoral Student Merit and Achievement Award, in April 2024.
Dr. Gangopadhyay is now joining the Office of Career Exploration and Success at Rutgers as the inaugural Sr. Assistant Director of Graduate Student Career Pathways. In her new role, Dr. Gangopadhyay will partner with others to develop programs that help graduate students clarify career goals, explore industry pathways, and connect with professionals.
The Global Asias community celebrates the spectacular achievements of Rudrani, and wishes her best for the exciting journey ahead.
Dr. Viola Lasmana is an Emerging Voices Fellow at the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) and a South and Southeast Asian American Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of American Studies at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, where she is also affiliated with Global Asias and Asian Languages and Cultures.
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Abstract
Ecological States critically examines ecological policies in the People’s Republic of China to show how campaigns of scientifically based environmental protection transform nature and society. While many point to China’s ecological civilization programs as a new paradigm for global environmental governance, Jesse Rodenbiker argues that ecological redlining extends the reach of the authoritarian state. Although Chinese urban sustainability initiatives have driven millions of citizens from their land and housing, Rodenbiker shows that these migrants are not passive subjects of state policy. Instead, they creatively navigate resettlement processes in pursuit of their own benefit. However, their resistance is limited by varied forms of state-backed infrastructural violence. Through extensive fieldwork with scientists, urban planners, and everyday citizens in southwestern China, Ecological States exposes the ways in which the scientific logics and practices fundamental to China’s green urbanization have solidified state power and contributed to dispossession and social inequality.
Read more: Jesse Rodenbiker, Ecological States: A Book Forum (Recording)