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 How
can we become more attentive to other worlds,
to communities in need, to people who have
been marginalized? How can we be relevant
in the present? What are the commitments
we honor, issues and concerns we make visible?
To whom do we lend voice, whom are we silencing?
These are the questions I ask my students.
CIIS has made an important commitment over
the years to transforming the world by creating
an environment that supports and challenges
students intellectually, and fostering understanding
and respect for difference. In the Social
and Cultural Anthropology Program, we engage
the intersections of thought and action.
Studying anthropology in the 21st century
requires that we address postcolonial, multicultural,
ecological, and social justice issues. We
have to address questions of sustainability,
and inequities of history, race, class,
nationality, gender, sexuality, religion.
We have to rethink power relations as they
operate in cultures, and institutions. The
academy cannot afford the luxury of knowledge
for the sake of knowledge. We must learn
not simply because we find something to
be exciting, but because it enables our
care of the world. Here at CIIS, Anthropology
students are connecting with diverse and
marginalized communities in San Francisco
and elsewhere to map available services,
prioritize issues, build capacities and
seek alliances in advocating social change.
My work for the past 18 years with social
and ecological justice issues and movements
in India, and with policy research organizations
such as the Asia Forest Network, has allowed
me to deeply engage local and indigenous
knowledges toward cultural survival and
ecological restoration in the Global South.
My experiences and inheritances growing
up in Calcutta have instilled in me a strong
sense of urgency. We must never forget that
there are others living in conditions of
inequity and oppression. When we have enough
to live, to eat, how do we learn to think
of others, not simply ourselves? How do
we embrace difficult commitments toward
a more just, sacred, and ethical world?
Social
and Cultural Anthropology Program
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