Dissertations on South Asia: 2012


Anne Stenersen, Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI)

Anne Stenersen at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI) defended her doctoral dissertation entitled ”Explaining the Relationship between al-Qaida and the Taliban, 1996-2001” on Friday 11 May 2012, at 09.00. The first opponent was Antonio Giustozzi (London School of Economics) and the second opponent Magnus Ranstorp (Försvarshögskolan, Stockholm). Venue: Arne Næss Auditorium, George Morgenstiernes hus, University of Oslo, Blindern.
Ms. Stenersen has a B.A. in Cultural and Social Sciences from the University of Bergen, and an M.Phil in Asian and African Studies from the University of Oslo, but is now connected to FFI, the prime institution responsible for defence-related research in Norway, and its Terrorism Research Group. With an academic background in Middle Eastern studies, Arabic and Russian, she has conducted research on militant Islamism, with a focus on CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear) terrorism, al-Qaeda’s use of the Internet, and the Taliban insurgency. Among her recent publications could be mentioned ”Are the Afghan Taliban Involved in International Terrorism?” (September 2009); and ”The Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan: organization, leadership and worldview” (2010).


Syeda Shahanara Begum, Department of Social Work, University of Gothenburg

Syeda Shahanara Begum from the Department of Social Work, University of Gothenburg will defend her doctoral dissertation entitled ”About Child Poverty – A Bangladesh’s Perspective” on Friday 1 June 2012, at 09.15. The faculty opponent is Professor Tapio Salonen, Malmö University. Venue: Hörsal Sappören, Dept. of Social Work, Sprängkullsgatan 25, Gothenburg. 
Taking child poverty into account as an enormous concern on the pathway to human development, the thesis aims to examine child poverty’s extent and characteristics in Bangladesh, poor children’s views on this issue and their policy recommendation to reduce it. It also discusses how child poverty differ between Bangladesh and China, what are the reasons for the differences in child poverty over time between the two countries, and which measures are needed to reduce child poverty in Bangladesh according to its principal victims.
The results show that Bangladesh’s children make up the greater share of the population, where almost half of the poor are children. Child poverty plays a vital role in the prolongation of developing, expanding, extending and transmitting poverty on to successive generations. Participants recommended a combination of policies to enhance the capability of poor children and their caregivers. Policy interventions need to give further attention to a reduction of parental poverty and income inequality, sustained economic growth, ensured access to education and health care, exposure of corruption and hidden costs of these services, and an elimination of mistrust of the recipients to speed up the extent of child poverty’s reduction in Bangladesh.
More information.


Per-Olof Fjällsby, Department of History and Political Science, Karlstad University

Per-Olof Fjällsby, Department of History and Political Science, Karlstad University, will defend his doctoral dissertation entitled ”Indien som utopi och verklighet. Om den teosofiska rörelsens bidrag till indisk utbildning och politik 1879-1930” (India as Utopia and Reality. On the Contributions by the Theosophical Society to Indian Education and Politics, 1879–1930) on Friday 1 June 2012, at 14.00. The faculty opponent will be Dr. Henrik Chetan Aspengren, Department of History, Uppsala University. In the study P-O Fjällsby tries to explore the various ways in which the past was used by the Theosophist in order to construct a national identity in India. Three subjects are in focus; their national political ambitions, efforts in the field of a national education and in the women's movement.
More information about the thesis.
 


Sirajul Islam, Örebro University School of Business

SirajulSirajul Islam, Örebro University School of Business, defended his doctoral dissertation entitled ”Creating opportunity by connecting the unconnected : mobile phone based agriculture market information service for farmers in Bangladesh” on Thursday 10 November 2011. The faculty opponent was Professor Rahul De from Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Bangalore, India. The thesis is framed within the research area of Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D), which is concerned with how ICT can make a difference to the lives of the poor. This study focuses primarily on mobile phones and how they can be used as part of an Agriculture Market Information Service (AMIS) in order to provide crucial information to farmers in Bangladesh. More information about Sirajul Islam and his research.
More information about the thesis, incl. link to full-text thesis.  


Eskil Mattsson, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Gothenburg

EskilEskil Mattsson, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Gothenburg, will defend his PhD thesis in Physical Geography entitled “Forest and land use mitigation and adaptation in Sri Lanka – aspects in the light of international climate change policies" on Friday 30 March 2012, at 10.00. The faculty opponent is Dr. Sandra Brown, Ecosystem Services Unit, Winrock International, Virginia, USA. Venue: Stora Hörsalen, Department of Earth Sciences, Guldhedsgatan 5 C, Gothenburg.
Eskil Mattsson’s research focuses primarily on the role of land-use change and forestry in a future climate regime with emphasis on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (REDD+). The aim of the dissertation project has been to investigate monitoring aspects to deforestation and degradation in developing countries, with a focus on Sri Lanka. The findings presented in the thesis can contribute to a better understanding of potential options and approaches that Sri Lanka can use to realize its climate change mitigation and adaptation potential in the land use and forestry sector. 
More information about Eskil Mattsson and his research.
Abstract and link to the full-text thesis.


Kerstin Andersson, Division of Social Anthropology, School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg

Kerstin Andersson

Kerstin Andersson, Division of Social Anthropology, School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg, defended her PhD thesis in Social Anthropology entitled ”The Kolkata Intellectuals and Bengali Modernity” at the School of Global Studies, on Thursday 2 February 2012. The aim with the thesis is to explore and enhance the understanding of methodological questions in anthropological analysis. Kerstin focuses her main argument on topics taken up in antiorientalist and postcolonial approaches. Analysis is closely related to political issues and an analysis include a critical reflection and deconstruction. The discussion is elaborated through the Kolkata intellectuals and Bengali Modernity. The Kolkata intellectuals are vehicles of change, transmitters of ideas and they have had a key function in social, political, cultural and intellectual movements in Bengal during the last centuries. The faculty opponent was Professor Jonathan Friedman, EHESS – École des hautes études en sciences sociales (School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences), Paris, France. More information. 


Mattias von Brömssen, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)

MattiasMattias von Brömssen, Department of Land and Water Resources Engineering, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, defended his doctoral dissertation entitled ”Hydrogeological and geochemical assessment of aquifer systems with geogenic arsenic in Southeastern Bangladesh – Targeting low arsenic aquifers for safe drinking water supplies in Matlab” on Friday 20 January 2012. The faculty opponent was Professor David Polya, University of Manchester, United Kingdom.
The thesis covers a crucial period of the work on the arsenic problems in groundwater in Bangladesh. Especially it includes the discovery of the local drillers ́ strategy to find low iron groundwater by assessing the colour of the sediments. With the link between mobilisation of arsenic along with iron which was published by a KTH team in 1997 this gave an immediate hint on means of predicting arsenic low groundwater during well construction. The strategy was discovered by the author of the thesis when he was advising a M.Sc. thesis project. More information.
Read the full dissertation (as a pdf-file)