Neera Singh, Associate Professor

Neera photo-fb

Home Campus:
U of T St. George

PhD:
Michigan State University

Other Degrees:
Masters Degree in Forestry Management (India);
B.Sc (Mathematical Statistics) (India).

Contact Information:

Phone:    (416) 971-2658
Fax:        (416) 946-3886
Location: Room 5025A, Sidney Smith Hall (100 St. George)
Email:     neera.singh@utoronto.ca

Research Interests:

  • Conservation and development
  • Commons and Commoning Practices
  • Community forestry, forest rights and governance
  • Environmental subjectivity; ethics of care and affective ecologies
  • Social movements and environmental justice
  • India

Teaching This Academic Year:

GGR 321: Indigenous Worlds, Worldviews and the Environment

GGR 419: Environmental Justice

SII 199: Nature, Conservation and Justice

GGR 1411: Nature and Justice in the Anthropocene

Call For Students:

I am recruiting MA and PhD students for a new research project on alternative approaches to ecological restoration. The project entitled, “Ecologies of Care: Forest Landscape Restoration in India” examines social and ecological outcomes of state-led afforestation programs in India and ongoing community-based and citizen-led approaches to ecological nurturance. While, my ideal student would be someone who is already embedded in activist-academic networks on Indigenous rights and environmental justice in India, I am equally enthusiastic about working with students who wish to explore decolonization of nature-people relations, alternatives to neoliberal conservation, revival of the commons, ecological care and affective ecologies in other parts of the world.

Selected Publications:

Refereed Articles

  • Singh, N. (2017). Becoming a commoner: The commons as sites for affective socio-nature encounters and co-becomings. ephemera: theory & politics in organization, 17(4).
  • Singh, N. M. (2015). Payments for ecosystem services and the gift paradigm: Sharing the burden and joy of environmental care. Ecological Economics, 117, 53-61.
  • Kumar, K., Singh, N. M., & Kerr, J. M. (2015). Decentralisation and democratic forest reforms in India: Moving to a rights-based approach. Forest Policy and Economics, 51, 1-8.
  • Singh, N. M. 2013. “The affective labor of growing forests and the becoming o fenvironmental subjects: Rethinking environmentality in Odisha, India.” Geoforum 47: 189– 198.
  • Thomas Sikor, Johannes Stahl, Thomas Enters, Jesse C. Ribot, Neera Singh, William D. Sunderlin, Lini Wollenberg. 2010. REDD-plus, forest people’s rights and nested climate governance, Global Environmental Change, Volume 20, Issue 3, Governance, Complexity and Resilience, August 2010, Pages  423-425 (editorial)
  • Singh, N. M. 2001. Women and Community Forests in Orissa: Rights and Management. Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 8(2), 257-270.

Book Chapters

  • Singh, Neera. 2012. “Democratic Spaces across Scales: Women’s Inclusion in Community Forestry in Orissa, India”. In Gender and Sustainability: Lessons from Asia and Latin America. Edited by María L. Cruz-Torres and Pamela McElwee. University of Arizona Press, pp. 50-70.
  • Singh, N. M. 2011. Women’s action and democratic spaces across scales in India. In Forests and People: Property, Governance and Human Rights, eds. T. Sikor and J. Stahl, 191-202. London, New York: Earthscan.
  • Singh, N. M. 2007. Transgressing Political Spaces and Claiming Citizenship: The Case of Women Kendu Leaf-Pluckers and the Community Forestry Federation, Ranpur, Orissa. In S. Krishna (Ed.), Women’s Livelihood Rights: Recasting Citizenship for Development (pp. 62- 81). New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, London: Sage Publications.
  • Singh, N. M. 2004. Women and Community Forests in Orissa: Rights and Management. InS. Krishna (Ed.), Livelihood & Gender: Equity in Community Resource Management (pp. 306-324). New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, London: Sage Publications.
  • Sarin, M., N. M. Singh, N. Sundar, & R. K. Bhogal. 2003. Devolution as a Threat to Democratic Decision-making in Forestry? Findings from three states in India. In D. Edmunds & E. Wollenberg (eds.) Local Forest Management: The Impacts of Devolution Policies, pp: 55-126. London, Sterling, VA: Earthscan.
  • Edmunds, D., E. Wollenberg, A. P Contreras, L. Dachang, G. Kelkar, D. Nathan, M. Sarin, & N. M. Singh. 2003. Introduction. In D. Edmunds & E. Wollenberg (Eds.), Local Forest Management:  The Impacts of Devolution Policies (pp. 1-19). London, Sterling, VA: Earthscan.
  • Edmunds, D., E. Wollenberg, A. P Contreras,L. Dachang, G. Kelkar, D. Nathan, M. Sarin, & N. M. Singh. 2003. Conclusion. In D. Edmunds & E. Wollenberg (Eds.), Local Forest Management (pp.  166-181). London, Sterling, VA: Earthscan.

Books

  • Singh, N, S. Kulkarni and N. P. Broome (2018). (ed.) Ecologies of Hope and Transformation: Post-Development Alternatives from India. Pune: Kalpavriksh and SOPPECOM, India.
  • Singh, N. M., & Nayak, P. K. 2003. Adaptive Community Forest Management: A case ofDhani Panch Mouza Jungle Surakhya Samiti, Orissa. New Delhi: Winrock International India.
  • Kant, S., Singh, N. M., & Singh, K. K. 1991. Community based Forest Management Systems: Case studies from Orissa. New Delhi, Bhopal: SIDA, ISO/Swedforest, Indian Institute of Forest Management

Special Issue

  • Singh, N. M. (2018). Introduction: Affective Ecologies and Conservation. Conservation and Society, 16(1), 1-7.
  • Co-edited special issue on Affective Ecologies and Conservation. Conservation and Society, 16(1).

 

Research Clusters:
Nature, Society and Environmental Change, Political Ecology