Pooja Nayak, "Multispecies Relations and the Limits of Care in South India", Working Wednesdays

The Megaderma spasma bat inhabits the mixed landscape patches around the Kudremukh National Park in South India. A state-funded scientific institution has been conducting animal communication studies with bats, insects, and crickets here for over a decade. This paper draws on ethnographic work with residents, biologists and indigenous experts to examine the material and affective relations at this field station. In doing so, Pooja Nayak explore the promises and limits of ‘care’ as a grounding ethic for building equitable multispecies futures.

Pooja Nayak is a Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology and South Asia Studies at Penn, with interests in how environments are made, the social worlds of science and technology practitioners, nature writing in Kannada. She is currently completing her dissertation on the politics of biodiversity, industrial closure, and animal-human relations in South India.

PPEH offers a lunch series, Working Wednesdays, designed to showcase in-progress Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) straddling theoretical and practical environmental concerns. These sessions take place on Wednesdays, 12:30-1:30 sharp.

All sessions are open to the Penn community but require RSVP. Grab a lunch and join us on Zoom!