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MANISHA ANANTHARAMAN

About

​I apply critical theories to study the cultural and democratic politics of sustainability at multiple scales, from the household, to the urban and the transnational milieu. I pay attention to how economic and political ideologies, social identities, and power relations impact how sustainability is conceptualized and enacted. I have written about the dynamics of social distinction in urban cycling movements, examined inclusion and exclusion in community-based sustainability initiatives, and edited a book on The Circular Economy in the Global South. Beyond research, I collaborate with organizations looking to transform consumption practices in cities through advocacy and institutional change.

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I am an Associate Professor in Justice, Community and Leadership at Saint Mary's College of California in the Bay Area, where I also teach in the Global and Regional Studies and the Earth and Environmental Science programs.  My research and teaching interests connect sustainability and social justice, applying participatory and ethnographic methodologies. I produce community-engaged scholarship that seeks to contribute towards a systemic transition to a more ecologically-safe and equitable world for more people. 

I received my PhD from the Department of Environmental Science Policy and Management at the University of California Berkeley (2015) and have a Masters in Integrative Bio-sciences from the University of Oxford (2008), where I was an Inlaks Scholar. I serve on the executive board of the 
Sustainable Consumption Research and Action Initiative, an international knowledge network of researchers and practitioners committed to building a flourishing and ecologically-sound society by changing the way we consume.
In Spring 2019, I was invited to the Alba Viotto Visiting Professorship in Sociology at the University of Geneva, where I taught a graduate class on Sociology from Below. 
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