Geological Surprises: Reading the Himalaya Otherwise

Drawing on research in Sikkim, India, with the Affected Citizens of Teesta movement, and with geoscientists across the Himalayan region, this talk asks: How have state powers used geological ways of seeing the Himalaya and with what consequences? What other geological imaginaries might offer an emancipatory, justice-centered approach to the earth?

Centering the 2023 Glacial Lake Outburst Flood in Sikkim and state policy on hydropower and critical minerals, Prof. Gergan traces how state geology renders Himalayan landscapes as extractable terrain and how Indigenous cosmologies and geoscientific approaches read the earth, offering a shared refusal of state logic.

Mabel Denzin Gergan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Asian Studies at Vanderbilt University. Trained as a human geographer, she is a scholar of environmental justice, Indigeneity, and race.

Her research and teaching are grounded in the Indian Himalaya and attend to the racial and colonial logics underlying Indigenous communities’ disproportionate exposure to environmental risk and vulnerability. Presented by the Center for South Asian Studies.

This event is open to all students, faculty, staff, and members of the public consistent with University policy and state and federal law.