Rachel Carson College Faculty Fellows
Sikina Jinnah is Rachel Carson College's new faculty chair!
The Chair of the Faculty is an Academic Senate member, other than the Provost, who is elected by the college Faculty to serve a two year term, and will serve as a member of the Executive Committee.
Dr. Jinnah is an Associate Professor in the Politics Department, an affiliated faculty member in the Environmental Studies Department, and a 2017 Andrew Carnegie Fellow. Her research focuses on the shifting locations of power and influence in global environmental governance, and in particular the role of transnational actors in environmental decision-making. Her most recent projects examine how key norms in global climate politics shape power relations, the role of U.S. preferential trade agreements in shaping environmental policy in trading partner nations, and the politics of climate engineering governance.
- Pronouns she, her, her, hers, herself
- Title
- Professor
- Division Social Sciences Division
- Department
- Anthropology Department
- Phone 831-459-3856
- Office Location
- Social Sciences 1, 353
- Mail Stop Social Sciences 1 Faculty Services
- Mailing Address
- Department of Anthropology, 353 Social Sciences 1
- Santa Cruz CA 95064
- Faculty Areas of Expertise Russia, Ethnography, Poverty, Social Justice, Socialism, African Diaspora, Food/Nutrition, European Studies, Communism
Summary of Expertise
Russia, Eastern Europe, Former Soviet Union; poverty and welfare; charity and philanthropy; social welfare and humanitarianism; religious charity; food politics; gardening and summer cottages; socialism and postsocialism.
Research Interests
Daily life in postsocialist Europe; Ethnography of Russia; changing social welfare systems, care work, ethics and practices of compassion; interfaith collaborations and faith-based assistance; changing food practices in late and postsocialist societies; nature, leisure, and the world of summer cottages and gardening; new modes of human rights and anti-discrimination practices in Russia; Russian-African relations.
Biography, Education and Training
Harvard University, Social Anthropology, Ph.D., A.M.
Indiana University, Russian and East European Studies, M.A.
University of Tennessee, Russian and East European Studies, B.A.
Selected Publications
- Why Food Matters: Critical Debates in Food Studies (Bloomsbury, 2021)
- Living Faithfully in an Unjust World: Compassionate Care in Russia (University of California Press, 2017)
- Dacha Idylls: Living Organically in Russia's Countryside (University of California Press, 2011)
- Food and Everyday Life in the Postsocialist World (Indiana University Press, 2009)
- Not by Bread Alone: Social Support in the New Russia (University of California Press, 2004)
Selected Presentations
- http://wpr.org/hereonearth/archive_110801k.cfm "The Dacha Days of Summer," Radio Interview on "Here on Earth," Wisconsin Public Radio, August 1, 2011
- http://english.ruvr.ru/radio_broadcast/28742746/52103899.html "Going Green for Summer," Radio Interview on Voice of Russia, June 19, 2011
Teaching Interests
Poverty and Inequality; Social Justice; International Development; Anthropology of Food; Consumption; Memory and Trauma.
