Ananya Mukherjee-Reed Archives | Research & Innovation

Professor Ananya Mukherjee-Reed speaks to Globe and Mail about Day of Overseas Indians conference

fmaquito — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Ananya Mukherjee-Reed, professor in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies focused on South Asia and issues of human development, was interviewed by The Globe and Mail June 10, in a story about the :

The conference is the first of many large events planned for 2011, declared the Year of India in Canada.

Q: What's the conference about for you?

What I really like is that it's not totally about only diaspora issues. It's about the issues of the day: youth issues, gender issues, which are not the issues of one diaspora or another. Our country should be looked at not only as isolated communities. We should have a say in policy-making. People doing jobs they're over-qualified for is not an Indian issue, it's an issue for all of Canada. If not, we lose the sense of Canada as a whole.

Q: How would you describe the Indian diaspora in Canada?

In Canada, we have representation from all over India, with the dominant group being the Punjabi community. In the last few years I've seen more of an effort to have a pan-Indian presence. We do tend to have more engagement with the mainstream, partly because of our prominence in the professions and our facility with English. We had the right colonizers.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Professor Ananya Mukherjee-Reed's study lauds women's collective farming

fmaquito — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Groups of women taking up collective farming in the state under Kudumbasree caught the imagination of Ananya Mukherjee-Reed, professor of political science and development studies at 91��ɫ in Toronto [Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies], wrote India’s :

It is by far the best method to ensure food security, especially when women are the producers, said Mukherjee-Reed, who was here recently as part of the research project on farming activity by women's groups. The advantage is access to food in the hands of those who need it (are food insecure), she said.

Mukherjee-Reed, whose works include and series, said there is a lesson in here that the world can take to fight food crisis.

About 2.5 lakh women in the state in about 30,000 groups are engaged in collective farming. Together they cultivate over 27,000 hectares, growing paddy, tapioca, pineapple, plantain, vegetables and other items that are used to ensure that the growers get enough to eat and the surplus is sold in the open market.

“Most of the groups of women, who started with small areas for cultivation, have increased their production by taking up more fallow land, rejuvenating it and cultivating it,” said Mukherjee-Reed.

Her study involved 100 groups spread across the state. Among her major findings, Mukherjee-Reed said that land is the major constraint of the women engaged in collective farming. Women are unsure about retaining the leasing rights of the vacant, fallow land that they rejuvenate and prepare for cultivation.

About 21 per cent of women groups expressed their wish to become landowners. In fact, it is a major aim of some groups, who have managed to buy land.

In spite of the constraints, women are happy, said Prof. Mukherjee. Most of the women who have been able to leave wage labour are very happy. Organic farming is the aim of at least 45 per cent of the 100 groups she has studied. Some groups among them make organic manure for their cultivation. There are women who have had no previous exposure to go out of the house for any activity, now fully engaged in collective farming and also inspiring other women to follow an activity of economic independence, she said.

In Kudumbasree, she found a strong support system that provides a platform for women. The Mission has an elaborate structure and allows functioning as an institute.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Professor Ananya Mukherjee-Reed: Rabindranath Tagore's teachings particularly relevant

fmaquito — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 10:00:00 +0000

Although Rabindranath Tagore was a celebrated poet during his time – the first non-European to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1913 – and a prominent figure in India’s struggle for independence and social justice, he is not well known outside of India today. With the 150th anniversary of his birth coming up this year, 91��ɫ political science Professor Ananya Mukherjee-Reed hopes to bring this influential intellectual to a wider audience.

To do this, Mukherjee-Reed, director of South Asian studies at 91��ɫ, became a core member of the Tagore Anniversary Celebrations Committee Toronto (TACCT), which will organize a series of events throughout the year to celebrate Tagore. The first is a tribute to Tagore in conjunction with the ’s (ROM) 3rd annual South Asia Heritage Day tomorrow. Mukherjee-Reed will deliver an introduction to Tagore at the ROM theatre.

“Our primary objective is to bring Tagore's work and his worldview into the mainstream, particularly in North America,” says Mukherjee-Reed. “His brilliant work and his profound philosophical worldviews based on equality, humanism and justice have much to offer to us today.”

Right: A photo of Rabindranath Tagore taken during his visit to Canada. Photo by John Vanderpant, Library and Archives Canada.

In addition to poetry, Tagore wrote novels, short stories, essays and plays, and composed music and became a painter in his late sixties. He was also a leading social philosopher and fought for equality and justice for all, striving to build ties beyond borders of race, class, caste, ethnicity and culture. “He had a profound influence on the making of modern India,” says Mukherjee-Reed. His ideas of de-colonization, local self-reliance and autonomy, and a cooperative way of life deeply inspired India’s anti-colonial struggle. His views have influenced Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela and Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi.

Mukherjee-Reed says as she watches the events in Egypt and Libya, she is reminded of Tagore's words. “No matter how mighty a power is and how much artillery it has at its disposal, if there is a collective will to challenge its illegitimacy, it eventually cannot endure." These thoughts permeate the vast repertoire of poetry and music that became household chants during India’s struggle for independence. "Tagore saw colonialism as one major impediment to equality, but also feared that nationalist, elitist visions of progress would be equally problematic,” she says.

Tagore had great faith in the power of youth and those who would challenge established norms. “One of our aims is to engage the young with Tagore’s ideas,” says Mukherjee-Reed. “Unleashing the creativity inherent in people, particularly the young, was something Tagore strongly advocated.”

Left: Ananya Mukherjee-Reed

His strong belief in the power of education saw him establish two universities in India. “We have a lot to learn from Tagore’s ideas of education,” says Mukherjee-Reed. The first, he named Visva-Bharati, a Sanskrit name meaning "where the whole world forms its one single nest". It brought scholars, artists and students from every part of the world together to create a community, and even touched the lives of ordinary people.

“Tagore’s objective was to break with the traditional model of the university where the elite pursued knowledge for its own sake. It was no accident that Visva-Bharati was located in a village and not in a city, not amidst the urban, British-schooled affluent classes,” says Mukherjee-Reed.

“Very close to Visva-Bharati, Tagore established the Institute of Rural Reconstruction, yet another university designed specifically to serve the rural economy. The predicament of rural India was at the heart of Tagore’s work. His views on this remain very salient in today’s India where the benefits of ‘development’ still elude millions of its citizens.”

For more information or to hear Mukherjee-Reed’s discussion about Tagore on CBC Radio’s Fresh Air and CHRY Radio, visit the website.

For more information about the performances, live music, children’s activities and poetry readings during South Asia Heritage Day tomorrow at the ROM, visit the ’s website.

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Graduate students mobilize research to benefit communities through United Way of 91��ɫ Region

fmaquito — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 08:00:00 +0000

When you’re a charitable organization in 91��ɫ Region seeking a research partner to inform your strategic directions and priorities, whom do you turn to?

If you’re United Way of 91��ɫ Region (UWYR), you collaborate with 91��ɫ’s Knowledge Mobilization Unit.

This summer, three 91��ɫ students will gain valuable experience through internships with UWYR’s Community Engagement & Research Committee.

As part of their experience with the UWYR, the interns will review literature focusing on the impact of growth and change on human services and various responses to address its impact. They will also conduct social asset mapping within 91��ɫ Region’s identified geographies of growth. And finally, they will identify, refine and pilot potential neighbourhood assessment tools for future consultation and engagement activities with residents, community groups, service providers and other key stakeholders.

Their findings will inform the way in which UWYR plans and delivers investments in communities experiencing rapid growth to further its community impact: helping youth grow up strong, enabling individuals and families to achieve economic independence, and improving the well-being of individuals and communities.

The graduate student interns bring a variety of social science research experience to bear on this project.

Jessica Carriere, who is working with Professor Gerda Wekerle in the Faculty of Environmental Studies, is researching the social aspects of city planning within major Canadian cities as she works toward completing the Master in Environmental Studies Planning Program. She hopes to work in social planning and development at the municipal level, assisting in the creation of new policy-led strategies aimed at strengthening public involvement in decision-making processes and encouraging investment in social infrastructure.

Left: Jessica Carriere

Nausheen Quayyum, has completed a master of arts in development studies under the supervision of Professors Ananya Mukherjee Reed and Eduardo Canel and will begin doctoral studies in the fall. She has previous experience as a research intern working with (Dhaka), (Toronto) and the University of Toronto’s Health & Human Rights Program.

Right: Nausheen Quayyum

Silvia D’Addario is a doctoral student in the Graduate Program in Geography. Under Professor Valerie Preston’s supervision, D’Addario was a graduate researcher on the 91��ɫ Infrastructure Project, which assessed the supply and demand of social infrastructure for three vulnerable populations – recent immigrants, low-income residents and seniors in 91��ɫ Region. Her doctoral studies explore the gendering and racializing intersections of work and residence for immigrants in suburban Toronto.

Left: Silvia D’Addario

The Knowledge Mobilization Unit’s internship program, funded in part by a Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Knowledge Impact in Society grant, awards 12 internships each year to 91��ɫ graduate students based on an internal competition.

More than 24 students have been placed to date, including 91��ɫ alumna Tammy Lowe (née Miller) (MA ’08) who was supervised by Professor Barbara Crow while completing her master of arts in communication & culture. Through her internship placement with , Lowe used her master's class and thesis work to conduct a needs assessment to understand and inform a communications strategy and new Web site for the non-profit organization. Lowe was recently hired as a campaign manager with UWYR.

Right: Tammy Lowe

With the SSHRC grant now concluded, the internship program is jointly supported by UWYR and the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation. It is just one way in which UWYR and 91��ɫ work together to make research accessible and of benefit to 91��ɫ Region residents.

“We share with 91��ɫ a vision for a healthy and sustainable 91��ɫ Region that uses evidence-based research to inform support for public services,” says Daniele Zanotti, CEO of United Way of 91��ɫ Region. “For us, knowledge mobilization is priceless.”

Submitted by David Phipps, director of the Office of Research Services, and Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer

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Video: Professor Ananya Mukherjee-Reed Talks to the Agenda about the G20 and emerging powers

fmaquito — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Professor Ananya Mukherjee-Reed in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies' Department of Political Science took part in a panel discussion on the status and responsibilities of the leaders of G20 countries and the emerging powers of India, Brazil and China on TVO’s “The Agenda” June 22. The clip runs almost 37 minutes. You can .

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer.

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