UC Davis experts: South Asia and the diaspora
The following UC Davis faculty members are available to speak on topics related to South Asians and the diaspora. If you need information on a topic not listed, please contact Claudia Morain at the UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-9841, cmmorain@ucdavis.edu, or Julia Ann Easley, (530) 752-8248, jaeasley@ucdavis.edu.
The diaspora
Economics, law and politics
- Men, women and jobs
- Economics
- Globalization of high tech
- Religious dissent, Muslim women's rights
- Intellectual property
Culture and religion
THE DIASPORA
Outsourcing, changing nature of corporations
As advances in technology enable services to be outsourced -- such as the preparation of U.S. tax returns in India -- Professor Anupam Chander of the School of Law is studying the relationship of the law to this trend. In "Minorities, Shareholders and Otherwise," the expert on globalization and digitization says that as the corporation is increasingly outsourced, it becomes a nexus of contracts between suppliers. He also notes how the diaspora, with personal ties between countries, is leading the outsourcing movement. In "Diaspora Bonds," published in 2001, Chander says the diaspora's positive response to India's appeal for financial assistance through the Resurgent India Bonds demonstrates how the diaspora can exert a nation's influence beyond its own boundaries. Contact: Anupam Chander, School of Law, (530) 754-5304, achander@ucdavis.edu.
Cultural protection
Professor Madhavi Sunder of the UC Davis School of Law can discuss legal efforts to protect culture and their relationship to international trade and the diaspora. She is co-author of a forthcoming article examining the WTO's Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement. In "The Romance of the Public Domain," she and her UC Davis co-author highlight how the agreement unjustly favors Western exploitation of culture and traditional knowledge from other heritages, and they discuss efforts to address the problem. In "Intellectual Property and Identity Politics: Playing with Fire," published in 2000, Sunder identifies the need for countries to protect legally their own artistic industries without silencing those within their culture. She says protectionist laws need to accommodate the diasporic voice exemplified by such films as "Fire," "Monsoon Wedding," and "Bend It Like Beckham." Contact: Madhavi Sunder, School of Law, (530) 752-2896, msunder@ucdavis.edu.
Youth culture in America
Sunaina Maira, associate professor of Asian American studies, looks at South Asian youth culture in the United States. She can talk about musical, political, romantic and social trends among teenagers from Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds. Maira wrote "Desis in the House: Indian American Youth Culture in New York City" (2002) and co-edited "Contours of the Heart: South Asians Map North America" (1996). Contact: Sunaina Maira, Asian American Studies, (530) 752-6727, smaira@ucdavis.edu.
ECONOMICS, LAW AND POLITICS
Women, men and jobs
UC Davis economic geographer Janet Momsen has spent four decades studying the economic changes for men and women in developing countries such as Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. She can talk about how poor women's lives have improved in the past decade through changes in the global economy. Momsen has also studied the pros and cons of microcredit programs for women entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka. Momsen wrote a gender atlas, funded by USAID, that maps the Bangladeshi men and women's literacy, reproductive health, sex ratios in rural and urban areas, and other statistics. Her book, "Gender and Development," was published in 2004. Her projects have included tea tourism and micro credits in Sri Lanka. Contact: Janet Momsen, Human and Community Development, (530) 752-3558 office, (530) 758-8312 home, jdmomsen@ucdavis.edu. jdmomsen@ucdavis.edu.
Economics
Wing Thye Woo, one of the world's leading experts on Asian economies, can discuss the economic and political issues in South Asia. The UC Davis professor of economics can talk about how China's entry into the World Trade Organization is impacting South Asian economies by absorbing industries, such as electronics, from Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. Woo was the Asian economies adviser to the United National Millennium Development Reports, released in 2005, about a plan to improve the living conditions for the world's poor. Woo concentrates on international and domestic macroeconomics, economic growth and comparative economic systems. He can talk about economic geography, fiscal decentralization, restructuring of state-owned enterprises and international capital flows. Contact: Wing Thye Woo, Economics, (530) 752-3035, wtwoo@ucdavis.edu.
Globalization of high tech
The loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs to offshore countries has been under way for the last three decades and will continue for the foreseeable future, says Martin Kenney, a professor in the UC Davis Department of Human and Community Development. Kenney can talk about the increasing globalization of service jobs and implications for employment. He has studied the globalization of the electronic industry and is currently studying how service jobs are being sent to India. Kenney co-edited "Locating Global Advantage: Industry Dynamics in the International Economy" (2004) and wrote "Understanding Silicon Valley (2000). Contact: Martin Kenney, Human and Community Development, (530) 750328, mfkenney@ucdavis.edu.
Religious dissent, Muslim women's rights
Professor Madhavi Sunder of the UC Davis School of Law is an expert on women's human rights in Muslim communities and on dissent within cultural groups, including religious organizations. In "Piercing the Veil," published in the Yale Law Journal in 2003, she says law needs to accommodate internal reform movements within the Muslim religion and allow women the right to define and interpret their religion. Without a change in its approach to culture, she says, the law may become complicit in the backlash efforts of traditional leaders to silence dissent within organizations, whether over equality for women or the religious service of homosexuals. In "Cultural Dissent," published in the Stanford Law Review in 2001, she calls for the law to recognize the right of members to make internal challenges to an organization. Contact: Madhavi Sunder, School of Law, (530) 752-2896, msunder@ucdavis.edu.
Intellectual property
Professor Anupam Chander of the School of Law can comment on intellectual property issues affecting Southeast Asia. An expert in globalization and digitization, he is co-author of a forthcoming article examining the WTO's Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Right Agreement. In "The Romance of the Public Domain," the UC Davis co-authors highlight how the agreement unjustly favors Western exploitation of culture and traditional knowledge from other heritages, and they discuss efforts to address the problem. In "Dominion in Cyberspace," published in 2003, he notes that Western interests hold most of the wealth and domain names, and he argues for a more equitable distribution of the entitlements to commercially valuable sites in cyberspace. "The siren call of the public domain should not deafen us to the song of equality in privatization," he says. Contact: Anupam Chander, School of Law, (530) 754-5304, achander@ucdavis.edu.
CULTURE
Mountain cultural geography
UC Davis cultural geographer Nigel Allan has spent his life studying mountain peoples in the Hindukush-Himalaya rim land of South Asia. He received a Smithsonian Institution fellowship in 2000 to research the Himalayan areas of Pakistan, India and Nepal. His research, now in its fourth decade, deciphers the social, cultural and political patterns exhibited in mountain societies and habitat as these areas are incorporated into the nation-state. Allan has published "Mountains at Risk: Current Issues in Environmental Studies" (1995) and "Karakorum Himalaya" (1999). Another book, "North Pakistan: The Western Himalaya in Transition," will be published in 2005. Contact: Nigel Allan, Landscape Architecture, (530) 752-9933, njrallan@ucdavis.edu.
Religious movements
UC Davis anthropologist Smriti Srinivas can talk about contemporary religious movements -- Hindu, Islamic and Buddhist -- emerging out of Asia. Her research interests also include the study of cities and urban cultures, performance, the body and society, and the cultural construction of collective memory. She is the author of "The Mouths of People, the Voice of God: Buddhists and Muslims in a Frontier Community of Ladakh" (1998) and "Landscapes of Urban Memory: The Sacred and the Civic in India's High-Tech City" (2001). Contact: Smriti Srinivas, Anthropology, (530) 752-9223, ssrinivas@ucdavis.edu.
Media contact:
- Karen Nikos, News Service, (530) 752-6101, kmnikos@ucdavis.edu
Last updated June 29, 2011
