Misreading the Bengal Delta: Friday, February 18th at 12:30

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Join us on Friday, February 18th at 12:30 as Dr. Camelia Dewan presents her newly published book Misreading the Bengal Delta where she combines environmental history and ethnographic fieldwork with development professionals, rural farmers, and landless women to critique development narratives of Bangladesh as a “climate change victim.” The presentation will highlight how development actors repackage colonial-era modernizing projects, which have caused severe environmental effects, as climate-adaptation solutions. Seawalls meant to mitigate against cyclones and rising sea levels instead silt up waterways and induce drainage-related flooding. Other adaption projects, from saline aquaculture to high-yield agriculture, threaten soil fertility, biodiversity, and livelihoods.