October 26, 1998

Lecture to address history of forestry practices

By Barbara McKenna

Although there are many places on the planet, such as the rain forests, where forestry practices are driven mainly by the profit motive, in the

Ravi Rajan

last several decades social politics have begun to play a role in influencing these practices.

The politics, practices, and history of forestry during the last two centuries will be discussed by Ravi Rajan, an assistant professor of environmental studies, in a talk titled, "Modernizing Nature: Tropical Forests, Scientific Experts, and the Contested Legacy of British Colonial Eco-development, 1800-2000." Rajan's talk is part of the 1998-99 Humanities Lecture Series, sponsored jointly by UCSC's Humanities Division and the Museum of Art and History. It takes place from 7 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, November 12, at the Museum of Art and History at the McPherson Center, 705 Front St., Santa Cruz. The talk is free and open to the public. A reception follows.

Rajan has done extensive research and writing on environmental history and political ecology. His current research focuses on large technological systems and their hazards, e.g., the Bhopal disaster, which Rajan studied extensively. He is also interested in environmental justice movements, urban environmental politics, and the interface of science, technology, and society. He is the author of Modernizing Nature: British Colonial Foresters, Eco-development Agendas and Post-colonial Legacies, 1880-1960 (forthcoming, Oxford University Press) and "Bhopal and beyond: An anthropology of relief and rehabilitation efforts and prospects for a socially relevant political ecology of disaster management," in The Angry Earth: An Anthropology of Disasters (forthcoming, Routledge). Other topics he has written about include the African dust bowl and British colonial forestry in India.

For more information on the lecture, call (831) 459-5742.

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