BINA AGARWAL is Professor of Development Economics and Environment
at the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester, UK.
Prior to this, she was Director and Professor of Economics at the
Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi University, where she continues
to be affiliated. Educated at the Universities of Cambridge and
Delhi, she has held distinguished teaching and research positions
at many universities, including Harvard, Princeton, Michigan, Minnesota
(as the Winton Chair), and the New York University School of Law.
She was Harvard’s first Daniel Ingalls Visiting Professor
and later a Research Fellow at the Ash Institute, Kennedy School
of Government. She has also been a fellow of Radcliffe’s Bunting
Institute at Harvard.
Agarwal's
research contributions cover both theory and empirical analysis,
with a particular focus on the most disadvantaged. An economist
with a keen interest in interdisciplinary and intercountry explorations,
her publications include 12 books and 84 academic papers. She writes
especially from a political economy and gender perspective on diverse
but interconnected subjects, such as property, land rights and livelihoods;
environmental governance, sustainable development and collective
action; agriculture, technology and food security; poverty and institutional
transformation; legal change; and intersecting inequalities.
Her pioneering work on gender inequality in property and land, as
well as on environmental issues, has had global impact. Among her
best known works is A Field of One's Own: Gender
and Land Rights in South Asia (Cambridge University Press, 1994)
which was awarded the A.K. Coomaraswamy Book Prize 1996; the Edgar
Graham Book Prize 1996; and the K. H. Batheja Award 1996. The
jury of the Edgar Graham prize called it ‘a superb analysis’,
‘a classic landmark work of reference’, and a ‘lasting
milestone’ that would benefit a vast segment of the world’s
disadvantaged women. Her writings placed the issue of women's land
rights centrally on the agenda of governments, civil society groups,
and international agencies, and the issue is now included in the
UN’s sustainable development goals.
In
her subsequent work, Gender
and Green Governance (Oxford University Press 2010), Agarwal
explores the impact of women's presence on forest governance and
conservation, empirically demonstrating positive outcomes on both
counts. Endorsing the book, Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom wrote:
‘Bina Agarwal has crafted a book of central importance in
today's world. … With analytical rigour and originality, Agarwal
bridges major gaps in our understanding of the difference women
can make, when they are actively involved in forest governance.’
Reviewers have praised this book as a ‘tour de force’,
‘an extraordinarily rich mine of hypotheses and a model of
careful testing’, and ‘a magisterial work of astounding
erudition’. In 2016, Oxford University Press also published
a three volume compendium of her selected papers, entitled Gender
Challenges, which has been commended for its ‘intellectual
breadth, penetrating insightfulness, methodological firmness, and
theoretical contributions’.
An
original thinker and policy advocate, Agarwal brings to her work
insights from both theory and field experience. In 2005, she spearheaded
a successful campaign for the comprehensive amendment of the Hindu
Inheritance law in India to make it gender equal. She also writes
on policy matters for India’s leading newspapers.
Agarwal
has been President
of the International Society for Ecological Economics, Vice-President
of the International Economic Association, and President of the
International Association for Feminist Economics. She has served
on the Boards of many international organisations, including the
Global Development Network, UNRISD (Geneva), the UN Committee for
Development Policy (New York), and the Future Earth Science Committee.
She is currently is a member of International Panel of Experts on
Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), and on the editorial boards
of many academic journals. In 2016 she was elected an international
member of the prestigious Accademia dei Lincei, Italy. She also
holds honorary doctorates from the Institute
of Social Studies in the Netherlands and the University
of Antwerp in Belgium.
Agarwal
has received many honours for her work. In 2002, she received the
Malcolm
Adiseshiah award for ‘Distinguished Contributions to Development
Studies’, and in 2005 the Ramesh Chandra award for ‘Outstanding
Contributions to Agricultural Economics’. In 2008, Agarwal
was honoured with a Padma
Shri by the President of India for her contributions to education;
and in 2010 she received the Leontief
Prize from Tufts University ‘for advancing the frontiers
of economic thought.’ She was also awarded the Order of agricultural
merit (officer) by the Government of France in 2016. And in 2017
she received the Agropolis
Louis Malassis International Scientific Prize for an ‘Outstanding
Career in Agricultural Development’, as well as the prestigious
International Balzan Prize, http://www.balzan.org/en/prizewinners/bina-agarwal.
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