Aparna Sengupta

Aparna is a Master’s student in Social Anthropology at York University. 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 programme. Presently, she is interested in pursuing research in ‘hierarchization’ of knowledge in the field of disaster studies and its impact on policy-making.

Previously, she has been engaged in conducting research on different dimensions of disasters such as assessing the vulnerability of Tehri Dam in Uttrakhand, 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 programmes that can enhance our understanding of disasters and lead to effective disaster management programme 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 Programme (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.