Thesis Title

Food insecurity, socio-political factors, and environmental change in Global Majority Countries.

Thesis Outline

My PhD thesis explores the relationship between economic and socio-political factors, the natural and physical environment, and food insecurity, especially in Global Majority countries. I will focus mainly on Bangladesh.

In my thesis, I will explore which people, communities, and geographical regions are more vulnerable or resilient to food insecurity (FI) in the study locations and whether/how this has changed over time. I will also identify which socioeconomic, political, and environmental factors increase food insecurity risks and see if there is any correlation between FI and other sociodemographic, political, economic, and environmental factors.

I am a part of the 'Food Security for Equitable Futures' project as a Doctoral Researcher. You can follow Food Security for Equitable Futures on Twitter at @Food_Equity and keep up with project updates through our project website.

Supervised By

Dr Jasmine Fledderjohann (Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Social Work, Department of Sociology) and Dr Luke Parry (Reader in Environmental Social Science, Lancaster Environment Centre (LEC))

Profile

I am currently working on my PhD thesis after acquiring the Lancaster University PGR Scholarship 2021 to work on Dr. Jasmine Fledderjohann's Future Leaders Fellowship in the Sociology Department at Lancaster University, UK.

My PhD work explores the connections between physical, sociodemographic, and political environmental factors and food insecurity, especially in Global Majority countries. I will focus mainly on Bangladesh.

The study will try to answer research questions on different criteria of food insecurity issues in Bangladesh, such as determining which people or communities and geographical regions are more vulnerable or parallelly resilient to food insecurity. This study will also answer any changes in food insecurity levels over time. Finally, I will also explore which socioeconomic, political, and environmental factors increase threats against food insecurity.

After my Bachelor's in Environmental Sciences from Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka, Bangladesh, I completed a master’s degree from the same Department.

I have recently worked as the principal investigator at the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder, USA, under two projects: 'Homelessness, Housing Precarity and Disaster Network (HHDN)' and 'COVID-19 and Healthcare Workers in Bangladesh'.

I have also worked as a Research and Development Professional at the Centre for People & Environ (CPE), the Network on Climate Change in Bangladesh (NCC,B), the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU), the Department of Environmental Sciences (JU), Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS), Bangladesh Institute of ICT in Development (BIID), and Grameen Communications in their several developments and research projects.

I am also a general member of the American Sociological Association (ASA), Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), UN Environment Programme Major Group for Children and Youth (UNEP MGCY), IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy (CEESP), Population-Environment Research Network (PERN) and a Lifetime Member of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (BAPA).

I worked as the Country Coordinator for Bangladesh at the Global Affairs Unit (GAU) of the 16th UN Climate Change Conference of Youth (COY16). I am also a Global Coordination Team member at YOUNGO, the Children and Youth Constituency at United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). I also serve as the Communication Focal Point and Core Team Member of YPARD Bangladesh.

I also served as an Expert Reviewer at the Global Development Network (GDN) for Global Development Award Competition (2020 and 2021); at Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6): Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability and at SLOCAT Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport for the Transport and Climate Change Global Status Report (TCC-GSR) 2020. He has also served as the academic reviewer for the Frontiers in Psychiatry, The Asian Fisheries Science (AFS), and Springer Nature Publisher.

I have presented my research at national and international conferences, including the USA, Germany, China, Egypt, and the Philippines. I have also published several articles and book chapters in peer-reviewed international journals and publishers. I was selected as a fellow of GOBESHONA Young Researchers Program-2017, arranged by the International Centre for Climate Change & Development (ICCCAD). I was also awarded the SAYRID-Social Research Excellence Award in 2017; Best Paper Award at the 7th Climate Change Online Conference (CLIMATE2020) in 2020. I have also received research and project grants in the last few years.

Research Overview

My research concentrates principally on how global climate change influences human well-being, socioeconomic factors, and the environment and how people respond to adaptation and mitigation measures to tackle sustainability challenges at the local, national, and global levels. My current research interests include climate change, agriculture and food security, climate change-induced displacement and migration, environmental policy and governance, and social and interdisciplinary research.

Qualifications

EDUCATION

• 2021-Present PhD in Sociology, Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom
• 2013-2014 MS in Environmental Sciences, Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
• 2010-2013 BSc in Environmental Sciences, Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

TRAINING

• 14-16 Sept Sep 2022: ACCESS Summer School 2022: Championing Climate and Environmental Social Science, University of Surrey, UK & University of Exeter, UK
• 18-22 Jul 2022: Methods@Manchester Summer School: A Comprehensive System of Data Analysis Using R and the Rcommander-online, University of Manchester, UK
• 11-24 Jul 2022: “Mobility and Humanities” PhD Summer School, MoHu (Centre for Advanced Studies in Mobility & Humanities), University of Padua, Italy & CeMoRe (Centre for Mobilities Research), Lancaster University, Italy
• 27-30 Jun 2022: Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence for Environmental Science (TAI4ES) Summer School- online, National Science Foundation AI Institute for Research on Trustworthy AI in Weather, Climate, and Coastal Oceanography (AI2ES) in conjunction with NCAR.
• 08 Jun 2022: Writing winning grant proposals: get your research successfully funded- online, Research4Life in collaboration with Hinari, AGORA, OARE, ARDI and GOALI.
• 26 Apr 2022 – 24 May 2022: Reproducibility Bootcamp – online, The University of Manchester in collaboration with National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM)
• 06 May 2022: Webinar on Career Development in Science Policy- online, Journal of Science Policy & Governance (JSPG) in collaboration with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
• 23-24 Apr 2022: Science Policy Writing Workshop- online, Journal of Science Policy & Governance (JSPG) in collaboration with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
• 05 Apr 2022: Seminar on scientific publishing- online, World PhD Students Sustainability Network, Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme (IUSDRP), The Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany
• 25 Mar 2022 – 26 Mar 2022: Regression Modelling using Stata- online, Timberlake Consultants Limited, UK
• 13-17 Jul 2020: Introduction to Spatial Agent-Based Modelling, The National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC), University of Maryland, USA
• 5-9 Sep 2019: Methods and Models for Spatial Analysis on Population and Climate Change (2019), Asian Demographic Research Institute (ADRI), Shanghai University, China
• 19-22 Dec 2018: Training and Exchange Visit on Local Adaptation Planning Process (2018), Network on Climate Change in Bangladesh (NCC,B), ICIMOD Knowledge Park, Satdobato-Godavari Rd, Godawari 44709, Nepal

Research Interests

Climate change, agriculture and food insecurity, global majority countries, climate change-induced displacement and migration, sustainable development, environmental policy and governance, loss and damage, climate change adaptation, disaster management & mitigation, urban resilience, interdisciplinary social research, quantitative research, remote sensing & GIS.

Research Grants

RESEARCH GRANTS

• Homelessness, Housing Precarity and Disaster Network (HHDN) Student Research Award (2021)
• CONVERGE COVID-19 Working Group Award for Public Health and Social Sciences Research (2020), University of Colorado Boulder, USA

PROJECT GRANTS

• Global Youth Solutions Grants 2021: Empowering Women & Youth through Homestead Farming in Saline Prone Areas

TRAVEL GRANTS

• GCA Travel Grant- GCA Youth Dialogue on Adaptation Action: Delivering on the Glasgow Climate Pact, Rotterdam, Netherlands
• Graduate College Travel Grant (2022), Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
• Travel Grant- The Second International Forum on Migration Statistics (IFMS) (2020), Cairo, Egypt
• Travel Grant- International Conference on Integrated Natural Resources and Environment Management (2019), Manila, Philippines
• Travel Grant-Global Environmental Justice Conference (2019), Yale University, USA
• Travel Grant- Asian Population Forum (2019), Shanghai University, China

SCHOLARSHIPS, RECOGNITIONS AND AWARDS

• Lancaster University PGR Scholarship 2021
• Paper Presenter- 7th Climate Change Online Conference (CLIMATE2020), 2020
• Best Paper Award-7th Climate Change Online Conference (CLIMATE2020), 2020
• Invited Paper Presenter- The Second International Forum on Migration Statistics (IFMS) 2020, Cairo, Egypt
• Invited Speaker - International Conference on Integrated Natural Resources and Environment Management 2019, Manila, Philippines
• Invited Speaker and Panellist-Global Environmental Justice Conference 2019, Yale University, USA
• Invited Speaker- Asian Population Forum 2019, Shanghai University, China
• Fellow -GOBESHONA Young Researchers Program-2017
• Catalyst-MIT Climate CoLab-2017
• SAYRID Social Research Excellence Award-2017

TRAINING GRANTS

• Grant for attending ACCESS Summer School 2022 at Cumberland Lodge, Berkshire, UK
• Turing Scheme Grant to attend Mobility and Humanities PhD Summer School at University of Padua, Italy
• The University of Manchester Full Bursary for methods@manchester Summer School 2022
• Lancaster University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) Research Skills Training Fund (RSTF)

Web Links

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