ICS Seminar Series - Sajal Roy

Date: Thursday, 7 October 2021
Time: 11.30 a.m.–1.00 p.m.
Venue: The seminar will be hosted online via Zoom. Please RSVP to e.blight@westernsydney.edu.au by 6 October, 5:00pm, to receive the Zoom details.

Climate change and gendered livelihood in Bangladesh

Presenter: Dr Sajal Roy

Discussant: Associate Professor Denis Byrne

Abstract 

Globally climate-induced disasters have been impacting marginalised communities’ lives, livelihood and gendered relations. This presentation is based on my recently published book titled Climate Change and Gendered Livelihoods in Bangladesh. This talk explores the effects of Cyclone Aila (as a result of climate change) in 2009 on the rural livelihoods and gendered relations of two ethnically distinct forest communities – Munda, an indigenous group, and Shora, a Muslim group – dwelling near the Sundarbans Forest in Bangladesh. Examining the cyclone’s medium- to long-term impacts on livelihoods and comparative aspects of gendered relations between these two contrasting communities, the present study adopts an ethnographic research design, and analyses the alterations to livelihood activities and reconfiguration of gender relations within the Munda and Shora communities since 2009. The study primarily contends that post-Aila, livelihoods and gendered relations have been substantially transformed in both communities, making the case that the improvement of local infrastructure, as an important part of the geographical location, has noticeably progressed the living conditions and livelihoods of some members of the Munda and Shora communities.

Biography 

Sajal Roy is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Livelihoods and Wellbeing, University of Technology Sydney, Australia. He is a scholar in critical development studies and human geography specialising in climate change social sciences, sustainable livelihoods and development, gendered relations, refugee crisis management and climate justice'. Sajal received his PhD in 2021. Dr Roy has taught several courses in social sciences and business studies at Western Sydney University, University of Wollongong, and Australian Catholic University. Funded by the DFAT, in collaboration with Griffith Asia Centre, Griffith University, Sajal has completed a collaborative research project titled Gender and Leadership Inclusion in LAOS.