Moynihan Institute News, Research and Commentary

“India did consider the U.S. an ally,” says Devashish Mitra, Gerald B. and Daphna Cramer Professor of Global Affairs. “It was a country that the U.S. was relying on as a counter to China in that region. So it had a huge geopolitical importance, but it doesn’t seem like Trump values any of that.”

A diverse audience gathered in the U.S. Capitol for a series of remarks and panel discussions on the future of Bangladesh and its people.  

“The seductive rhetoric of Trump tariffs hides a combination of contradictions, wishful thinking, and superficial understanding of economics, which sells America a mirage and threatens to weaken the stability of the global trading system,” writes Devashish Mitra, professor of economics and Gerald B. and Daphna Cramer Professor of Global Affairs.

“It is always a bad idea to burden someone with multiple jobs, especially when at least one of those jobs is extremely important,” says Devashish Mitra, professor of economics.

“One year after the July Revolution, the memory of brave young lives lost continues to light the path toward a just, democratic, and united Bangladesh,” says Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment.

“I see them [India's projects] as symbols of Indian prescence or public proclamation of their capacity to now settle Kashmiri land, to occupy it when they can,” says Mona Bhan, Ford-Maxwell Professor of South Asian Studies.

“In a region where democratic backsliding has often been normalized, Bangladesh is attempting a rare and ambitious path forward. But reforms – no matter how visionary – face real resistance from entrenched interests and are fraught with obstacles, both internal and external, that threaten to derail Bangladesh’s progress,” writes Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment.

“I don't think either the Indian or Pakistani governments actually want a war,” says Mona Bhan, Ford-Maxwell Professor of South Asian Studies. “But neither of them wants to appear weak under any circumstances.”

India's move to use the Indus Waters Treaty as geopolitical leverage “undermines the legal integrity of such treaties,” says Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment. ”These treaty violations and suspensions can have ripple-on deleterious (harmful) effects across and beyond the region for the examples they set,” she says.

Shannon Novak, professor of anthropology, has contributed to “The Routledge Handbook of Feminist Anthropology” (Routledge, 2025). Her chapter, “Blood, mud, and mucking around with waste,” examines the materiality and logic of separation practices involved in the gendering of landscapes, bodies and subjectivities at a mother goddess (Mariamma) temple in the industrial outskirts of Toronto, Canada. 

Prema Kurien, professor of sociology, examines the political mobilization strategies of people of South Asian and Indian descent in the United States. She also traces how immigrants reshape the host society, both conforming to aspects of that society while also transforming it to meet their unique needs. (Oxford University Press, 2025)

Co-authored by Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment, this study's framework generates storylines with the potential to advance transformative policies and new pathways towards climate-just futures. Published in Nature Cities.

Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment, and co-authors argue that recognizing and acknowledging historical foundations, academic and grassroots contributions for climate justice is the first step towards achieving justice in mitigation and adaptation. Published in Nature Climate Change.

“What happens to U.S. trade policy in the end might not finally matter so much for India’s exports. India’s own policies and institutions might be the real binding constraints,” says Devashish Mitra, Gerald B. and Daphna Cramer Professor of Global Affairs.

Shannon Novak, professor of anthropology, has contributed to “Embodying Biodiversity: Sensory Conservation as Refuge and Sovereignty” (University of Arizona Press, 2024). The book was edited by Terese Gagnon ’18 M.A. (Anth)/’21 Ph.D. (Anth), a postdoctoral researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“I don't think COP29 delivered the way many developing countries wanted. It was called the finance COP but you could call it a cop out in terms of how well the countries pledged a fraction of the needed finance. That goal of $1.3 trillion a year becoming only $300 billion a year now,” says Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment.

Co-authored by Professor of Economics Devashish Mitra, the paper was published in Economics Bulletin.

“The type of damage that you'll see is to property, to infrastructure, to roads and highways, but also to critical infrastructure like hospitals and power stations. And this will be devastating. It will be in the many billions of dollars,” says Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment. 

Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment, has edited and contributed to this collection, which exposes how legacies of colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism co-produce and exacerbate the climate crisis, create disproportionate impacts on those who contributed the least to climate change, and influence global and local responses. (Routledge, 2024).

The Maxwell School’s 100th anniversary celebration will be held on Oct. 18 in Goldstein Auditorium.