Environment
Environmental Anthropology
In the course, we discussed the principal theories and methods environmental anthropology utilizes and the issues on which it focuses, by looking at case studies from South Asia and the Midwestern US.
Environment
Tamil Nadu
Transforming Millets: Strategies and Struggles in Changing Taste in Madurai
Drawing on ethnographic evidence collected through field research in and around the city of Madurai, Tamil Nadu, this paper explores how the particularities of Tamil history and cultural values shape the current confused status of millets there.
Food Studies
Intellectual Property Rights
This encyclopedia entry provides an overview of contentious issues related to intellectual property rights (IPRs).
Intellectual Property Rights
Biopiracy
This encyclopedic resource concisely explains the charge of biopiracy, critiques of extractive practices, and international law and policy related to the term. It also provides suggestions for further reading.
Tamil Nadu
Environmentalist Food Localization and Ethnographic Accounts of Tamil Hindu Place-Based Identities
This paper presents Hindu philosophy as the foundation for an environmentalist ethics conducive to local food systems and the host of social, personal, and environmental benefits that local food advocates associate with those systems.
Presentations
Millet Madness
> Health in Heritage or Food to Leave in the Past? Reference Chera, Madeline. 2014. “Millet Madness: Health in Heritage or Food to Leave in the Past?” Paper presented in “Less Palatable, Still Valuable: Taste, Agrobiodiversity, and Culinary Heritage,” Executive Session, at the American Anthropological Association 113th Annual Meeting, Washington,
Food Studies
Valuing Variety: Agrobiodiversity Conservation
The course focused on the topic of agricultural biodiversity conservation, and so was related to my focus areas of food and the environment.
Environment
Ecology and Society
In Fall 2011, I served as a teaching assistant/grader in this course, which was focused on foundations of social science through the lens of environmental sustainability and challenges to it.