On Thursday 15 March 2012, the second SASNET Brown Bag lunch seminar for the spring semester 2012 will be held in collaboration with Arbetarnas Bildningsförbund (ABF) Lund, and Lunds Konsthall. Assistant Professor Kristina Myrvold from the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies will present her India related research. Her presentation is entitled ”I'm a Punjabi-speaking Swedish Sikh: Identity Constructions among Young Sikhs in Sweden”. In this seminar Kristina Myrvold presents parts of her research findings within the Nordcorp project “Sikh Identity Formation: Generational Transfer of Traditions in the Nordic Countries” that is carried out in cooperation with scholars in Denmark, Finland and Norway (more information). Venue: Konsthallen, Mårtenstorget 3, Lund.
More about previous and coming SASNET Brown Bag seminars.
On 16 February 2012, the first SASNET Brown Bag lunch seminar for the spring semester 2012 was successfully held. It was also the first seminar organised in collaboration with Arbetarnas Bildningsförbund (ABF) Lund, and Lunds Konsthall, and quite a large crowd of people, both academic and non-academic, turned up at the wonderful public art gallery (Lunds Konsthall) in central Lund, to listen to Professor Emeritus Neelambar Hatti from the 
On 8 February 2012, Lars Eklund and Julia Velkova from SASNET visited Malmö University for the second time in a short period, to again meet people involved in South Asia related activities. This time they visited the Faculty of Education and Society, and the Faculty of Odontology.
Julia and Lars then took the train for their next destination, the Faculty of Odontology (Tandläkarhögskolan), located just a stone’s throw away from Station Triangeln in central Malmö.
On Friday 10 February 2012, SASNET's deputy director Lars Eklund, and assistant webmaster Julia Velkova were on an official visit to the University of Sofia in Bulgaria. Their goal was to explore ongoing research on South Asia in the university, as well as possibilities for future collaboration. They primarily visited the Centre for Eastern Languages and Cultures, which is part of the university’s Faculty of Classical and Modern Philology. It has a number of programmes at bachelors and masters level related to Indian studies, and also some research in the areas of Indian Philosophy and Literature. Since many years, the Centre hosts an Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) professor, who is a Professor of Hindi from India on a rotating basis with a term of 3 years.
On Tuesday 14 February 2012, Sheba Saeed, PhD candidate in History, Film and Television at the University of Birmingham, UK, visited SASNET’s office in Lund to meet deputy director Lars Eklund. Sheba, a solicitor by profession, is a guest researcher at the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS) in Copenhagen, during the month of February 2012. Her PhD research project focuses on the begging phenomenon in Mumbai, India, using criminological theory. A topic quite similar to her previous MPhil thesis project on Beggars of Lahore, which resulted in a documentary film as part of an audio-visual dissertation. This film, “Beggars of Lahore” (
On Thursday, 23 February 2012, SASNET's director Anna Lindberg lectured on a seminar organised by Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi. The topic of her talk was ”Class, Caste, and Gender Relations: Female Workers in Kerala 1930 – 2010”. The seminar was organised by the 
Eskil Mattsson from the 
Dr. Dag Ilver at the Institute of Micro and Nanotechnology in Gothenburg (IMEGO) – owned by the Research Institutes of Sweden AB – coordinates one of these projects entitled ”Doctors office diagnostic instrument for detection of M. tuberculosis under ”in the field” conditions adapted for use by unskilled personnel”. The main collaboration partner on the Indian side is Dr. Vijay. K. Chaudhary (photo) working at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Delhi. 
– Dr. Ayesha de Costa (photo), Division of Global Health (IHCAR), Karolinska Institutet, receives support for a project entitled ”Reducing financial barriers to access: Providing evidence from a conditional cash transfer and a voucher based program for maternal mortality reduction in India” in collaboration with Dileep Mavalankar, Indian Institute of Public Health in Gandhinagar.
– Professor Cecilia Stålsby Lundborg (photo), also Division of Global Health (IHCAR), Karolinska Institutet, receives support for the project entitled ”Antibiotic pollutants in waters and resistance in rural India – Interventions to improve antibiotic resistance management (APRIAM 2)” in collaboration with Vishal Diwan, R.D. Gardi Medical College, Ujjain.
– Professor Mannan Mridha (photo), Division of Medical Engineering, School of Technology and Health (STH), Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), receives support for a project entitled ”To develop a model of patient safety system to improve the safety and quality of patient care at the Intensive Care Units at the hospitals in Bangladesh” in collaboration with Mohammad Saiful Islam, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka.
– Professor Rajeev Ahuja (photo), Division of Materials Theory, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, receives support for a project entitled ”Hydrogen storage materials for energy applications” in collaboration with G P Das, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata.
– Professor Ewert Bengtsson (photo), Centre for Image Analysis, Uppsala University, receives support for a project entitled ”Medical image analyser for cervical cancer prescreening” in collaboration with Rajesh Kumar, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, Thiruvananthapuram.
The Call for proposals for Swedish Research Links grants for the period 2013–15 opens on Monday 12 March 2012. The Swedish Research Links Programme offers international collaborative research grants, aiming to foster research ties between researchers in Sweden and selected countries, in South Asia: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Please note that China and India are no longer included in Swedish Research Links, whereas several other countries in Asia have been re-introduced in the programme.
Grants to support Swedish development research are provided by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida, through its Developing Country Research Council (u-landsforskningsrådet). These so-called uforsk grants belong to the most important ways of financing Swedish research projects related to developing countries, including South Asia. The aim is to establish and maintain a knowledge base of relevance to aid and development issues, plus capacity for developing country research in Sweden. Deadline for applications for 2013 is Tuesday 3 April 2012.
The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida, through its Selective Cooperation Unit (Partner Driven Cooperation) now announces a call for a programme entitled ”Collaboration Grants – Use of Research Results”. This initiative is open only for co-operations in India and Indonesia.
The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm has launched a new scholarship programme open for Indian students to apply for. A donation to KTH has made it possible to establish the KTH – India Scholarship Foundation, in order to annually appoint two scholars from India to be educated at the advanced level at KTH. The applicant must have at least four-year bachelor's degree from a technical college or equivalent in their homeland.
A vast Danish-Indian project called ”India Today – Copenhagen Tomorrow” aiming at linking the people of these two countries has received a substantial funding from mainly private donors. The project will be launched in August 2012.
Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) welcomes applications for the position of Executive Director. The prospective candidate should provide vision and strategic leadership for SIWI, facilitate the expanded international recognition of SIWIs brand and lead a committed professional staff from a broad range of backgrounds and countries.
The Maharashtra Studies Group (MSG) is a resource network of and for scholars interested in the west–central Indian state of Maharashtra and/or the Marathi language. The group exists since more than 40 years and membership is open for everyone interested in the region from an academic perspective. Members are also welcome to attend MSG meetings and the annual conference of the Association of Asian Studies. Anyone can become a member by sending an email to 
The 
The Department of Anthropology, 
For the tenth year, the Nordic Centre in India (NCI) consortium offers a 7.5 ECTS summer course on 'Contemporary India' at University of Hyderabad during the period 1–28 July 2012. The course is tailor-made for 50 Nordic students and introduces issues of politics, culture and economy. It consists of the following five parts:
For the sixth year, the Nordic Centre in India (NCI) consortium offers a 7.5 ECTS summer course on environmental issues in India, in Bangalore during the period 24 June – 21 July 2012. The course titled “Approaching the Environment in India. New theories and methods in the study of the nature-society interface”, is being organised in collaboration with the 
For the sixth year, the Nordic Centre in India (NCI) consortium offers a 7.5 ECTS summer course on demography and gender in India, in collaboration with the 
The Puducherry (Pondicherry) Institute of Linguistics and Culture holds its regular Tamil Summer School from 30 July - 8 September 2012. The summer school offers an intensive education in spoken Tamil language at basic and intermediate levels, and it combines classroom lessons with field visits so that the participants can practice at most their language skills in the course of studies. Registration is open from 1 March – 30 April 2012.
From September 2012, the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London introduces a new MA programme on the Study of Contemporary Pakistan. The masters program aims at creating an understanding of contemporary Pakistan in all of its complexities: culture, nation, politics, religion, law and economics. The programme is interdisciplinary and structured around analysis of the diversity and richness of Pakistan. Students who enrol in the program will be members of the 
Harvard University
The Swedish Development Research Network on Nature, Poverty and Power (DevNet), and the 
On Friday 9 March 2012, the Contemporary India Study Centre Aarhus (
The Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies (IFS) organises a seminar on ”Nuclear and conventional postures in South Asia” on Friday 9 March 2012, 12.00–13.30. Dr Vipin Narang (photo) from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, will examine the evolving postures and escalation dynamics in South Asia. The seminar is chaired by Professor Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema from the Pakistan National Defence University.
On Tuesday 13 March 2012, the
The Forum for South Asian Studies for the Humanities and Social Sciences at Uppsala University organises a public seminar on Monday 19 March 2012, 13.15–15.00, with Associate Professor Shouvik Mukherjee from University of Calcutta in Kolkata, India. Dr. Mukherjee will lecture on ”The Making of a Small University Town Santiniketan: Interface between Tradition and Modernity”. Venue: Hall 8, University Main Building (universitetshuset), Biskopsgatan 3, Uppsala
Abstract: Santiniketan is situated in the south-central part of Bengal, a state in the eastern corner in India. This locality became the centre of a pedagogical experiment in the early 20th century by Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore. From 1925 onwards it became an ‘university’ based on the traditions of India with the goal of showcasing the 'quintessence' of the ‘East’ to the ‘West’. In a way, it was a place where ‘minds could meet without fear’ – a nest for the microcosm of the world.
Professor Emeritus Anders Törnvall lectures ar Stockholm University on Wednesday 21 March 2012, 15.00–17.00. He will speak about ”Gudar, Förfäder och Heliga Män i Indien och Japan – om konsten att i dag leva i flera verkligheter” (Gods, Ancestors and Holy men in India and Japan – on the art of living in multiple realities today). The seminar is one of the regular Wednesday lectures arranged by the 
Professor Jagath Weerasinghe, Director for the 
SUPPORT Nepal
During the spring semester 2012, the Department of Oriental Languages, Stockholm University, organizes a lectures series on Mondays. The theme is ”Space as a theoretical starting point, and lectures focus on different regions of Asia”. On Monday 26 March 2012, 15–17, Dr. Mirja Juntunen, 
Dr. Barbara Lotz, Institute of Cultural Studies of East and South Asia Würzburg University, Germany, holds public three guest lectures on the development of the Hindi and Urdu languages, at University of Oslo 27–29 March 2012. The seminars are organised by the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages.
Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI) in Bergen, Norway, organises a conference focusing on Inclusive growth and good governance in Bangladesh on Thursday 19 April 2012, 09.15–16.30. The conference, entitled ”Bangladesh conference: New Context and New Challenges”, aims at highligting the fight against poverty, a fight that should be won. The fight against poverty howevere depends on knowledge and political will. The morning session focuses on “Corruption, Governance and Development”, and the afternoon session on “Development of Productive Capacity and Governance”.
The 2nd International Conference on Environmental Technology and Construction Engineering for Sustainable Development (ICETCESD 2012) will be held in Sylhet, Bangladesh, 10–12 March 2012. The conference is organized by the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST). It has been preceded by a successful first conference on the same issue (ICETCESD 2011) that was held in March 2011. More than 100 papers were presented and more than 120 paper were published in the conference proceedings of which more than 50 papers were authorized by the scientists, engineers and specialists coming not only from Bangladesh, but also from USA, Canada, UK, France, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Japan, Australia, Thailand, Singapore, India, Nepal, and Afghanistan (
The 2012 AAS (American Association for Asian Studies) Annual Meeting will be held 15–18 March 2012 in Toronto, Canada. Founded in 1941, AAS is a scholarly, non-political, non-profit professional association open to all persons interested in Asia. It seeks through publications, meetings, and seminars to facilitate contact and an exchange of information among scholars to increase their understanding of East, South, and Southeast Asia. It counts among its members scholars, business people, diplomats, journalists, and interested lay persons. 
A National Indian Seminar on ”The Ganga Basin: Physical and Cultural Issues” will be held in Varanasi 16–17 March 2012. The conference is organised by 
The Department of English at RKSD College, Kaithal – affiliated to Kurukshetra University in the state of Haryana, India – organises an interdisciplinary, international conference to explore humanism, postcolonialism and democracy discourses from in India from both western and Indian perspectives on 20–21 March 2012. It will focus on the following topic(s): – Postcolonialism and Indigenous Representation; – Postcolonialism and Indian humanism; – Postcolonialism and Western Aspirations; – Postcolonialism and Marxism; – Postcolonialism and Nativism, and Cultural Fundamentalism in East and West; – Postcolonialism and Indian languages. Keynote and plenary speakers include Dr. Rajender Dudrah, Head of Drama & Senior Lecturer in Screen studies, School of Arts, Histories and Cultures, University of Manchester, UK; Dr. María do Mar Castro Varela, Professor for Gender and Queer Studies at Alice Salomon University, Berlin, Germany; Dr. Nikita Dhawan, Junior Professor for Gender and Postcolonial Studies, Cluster of Excellence ‘The Formation of Normative Orders’ at Goethe-University, Germany; Dr Bhaskar Mukhopadhya, Convenor MA Postcolonial Studies, Goldsmith, University of London, UK; and Dr. Pavan Malreddy, Chemnitz University of Technology (CUT), Germany. 
An International Conference on ”Population Dynamics and Sustainable Resource Development” will be held in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, 25–27 March 2012. It is being organized by Dept. of Geography at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), and aims to form a platform to discuss and debate about population dynamism and sustainable resource development. Sub-themes include – Population Dynamics. Fertility, mortality, migration; – Modern Innovation in agriculture and Changing Land Use Pattern; – Human Resources, Health and Hygiene; and – Remote Sensing and GIS Application in Resource Development, Management and Planning. Abstracts should be submitted before 28 February.
The South Asia Center at Syracuse University (SU) has issued a call for papers for its annual SU-Cornell South Asia Consortium Conference 2012. The conference will be held at Syracuse 29–30 March 2012 and the theme of the conference is ”Health, Nutrition, and Agriculture in South Asia: Contemporary Issues and Future Directions”.
The Department of Hisotry of 
The North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) in Shillong, Meghalaya, India, invites to a two days national seminar on ”Border Haats and Economic Development Of Meghalaya: Emerging Scenarios & Assessment of Risks & Benefits”, 29 – 30 March 2012. It focuses on the Border Haats (Bazars) that India and Bangladesh have decided to set up along their border in Meghalaya, Assam and Tripura to boost local trade and business. The aim of this seminar is intended as an analytical exercise and contribution towards the ongoing debates and search for new ways of sustaining the process of opening and continuation of Border Haats in the interest of the common man who has been long denied his say in the local and regional economy and various policies being followed by various actors, both State and non State actors.
The second South Asian Governmentalities Workshop will be held at the British Academy in London on Friday 30 March 2012. This is part of a series of workshops organised through the BASAS South Asian Governmentalities Research Group. Attendance is free but limited to those who pre-register. The concept of governmentality has exerted an ever growing influence in South Asian studies, for scholars working on both colonial and post-colonial contexts. It has inspired South Asian work on “deep democracy” and urban governmentality (Appadurai, 2002), the politics of the governed (Chatterjee, 2004, 2011), the Indian public sphere and economy (Kalpagam, 2000, 2002), agrarian capital (Gidwani, 2008), cinema and the end of empire (Jaikumar, 2006), knowledge transfer and urban politics (McFarlane, 2011), colonial urbanism (Legg, 2007), health and hygiene (Heath, 2010), aesthetics and slum politics (Ghertner, 2010), gender and imperial social formations (Sinha, 2006), the colonial economy (Birla, 2009, Goswami, 2004), and race and violence (Kolsky, 2010). Such works have raised governmentality to the status of near-orthodoxy for much South Asian research. The workshop has been generously funded by the British Association of South Asian Studies and the British Academy. 
Associate Professor 
Yale University Modern South Asia Workshop 201 will be held 7–8 April 2012 at New Haven, Connecticut, USA. Abstracts are now invited for this two-day workshop that brings together the ongoing work of advanced graduate students and recent PhDs working on topics of current interest in modern South Asian Studies. Submissions of paper proposals from all disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences are invited, particularly those that will foster cross-disciplinary dialogue and exchange of ideas from across the diverse regions of South Asia. Past papers have tackled issues ranging from film and ethnomusicology to state formation and elections and have presented new theoretical and methodological alternatives in the study of South Asia. The workshop is sponsored by the South Asian Studies Council at the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale University. 
A group of academic, governmental and cultural organisations from Iran and Scotland organise an International Conference on Religion and Art to take place 10 to 11 April 2012 at the Islamic Azad University in Hamedan, Iran. The conference will explore the theoretical and philosophical estheticism of religion (Islam and Christianty), and various aspects of interaction between religion and art. Special focus will be paid on the role of religious art, as well as the role of religion in global equations. Deadline to submit papers is 6 March 2012, while registration deadline is 25 March 2012.
The American South Asian Studies Association invites individual papers and panels for presentation at its sixth annual conference to be held at the Claremont Graduate University, USA, April 13-15, 2012.
The Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies at Kansas University (KU) in Lawrence, USA, organises a conference entitled ”Afghanistan 2014 and Impacts on Global Security Identities” on Wednesday 25 April 2012. 20-minute papers are invited from experts in all world areas. Abstracts should be submitted by March 15, 2012, to Bart Redford at 
The 
The 4th annual Educators for Teaching India Conference will be held at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, on 27 April 2012. The theme for the 2012. conference, hosted by The South Asia Initiative at Harvard University, will be “Holy India: Religion in the Modern Subcontinent”. The conference will explore why India is so often defined by its spirituality and re-examine the stereotypes of a “sacred” India. What function does religion actually play in India and its individual faiths?
Keynote speaker Diana Eck, professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies at Harvard Divinity School, will address these issues, and participants will examine them through compelling workshop topics that consider pedagogy and other implications for teaching India in the middle and high school classroom. The day will close with a panel discussion of the role of religion in 21st century India and an outdoor reception. Venue: South Asia Initiative, Center for Global and International Studies (CGIS), 1730 Cambridge Street. 
The International Forum for Studies in Society and Religion (IFFSR) organizes its Third International Conference on ”Universalistic Religion & Multi-Cultural Society: Tagore's Contribution (A Tribute to Rabindranath Tagore on completion of his 150th Birth Anniversary)” at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India, 6–8 July 2012. Abstracts are now invited.
The Indus Foundation, a non-profit making educational organization dedicated to the promotion of higher education in India, organises the fourth annual Indo-Global Education Summit in Hyderabad, India, 7–11 September 2011. Indo-Global Education Summit 2012 is a unique event which is being organized in India as a sequel to the highly successful Education Summits held in 2009, 2010, and 2011.
The 41st Annual Madison Conference on South Asia will be held 11–14 October 2012. The conference, that is sponsored by the Center for South Asia at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, attracts over 650 scholars and specialists on South Asia, who travel from countries all over the world and much of the United States. It is a great venue for intellectual, professional, and social exchange. Panels, roundtables, and individual papers on all topics pertaining to South Asian studies are welcome. Registration and proposal submission forms (single papers, panels, roundtables, preconferences) are available on line. Registration as a non-presenting participant at the Conference is open to the general public. The conference features nearly 100 academic panels and roundtables, as well as association meetings and special events ranging from performances to film screenings. This year a plenary session will be organized around the theme of ”Corruption and Culture.” Panels that similarly address questions of corruption and its cultural manifestations and understandings from a variety of disciplinary and evidentiary perspectives are especially welcome. Venue: Madison Concourse Hotel, 1 West Dayton St., Madison, Wisconsin, USA. Abstracts should be submitted by 1 April 2012. 
The 3rd International Conference on Environmental Aspects of Bangladesh (ICEAB) will be held 13–14 October 2012 in Fukuoka, Japan. Researchers from all over the world are invited to participate in the conference, hosted by the University of Kitakyushu, that covers not only the environmental issues of Bangladesh but other parts of the World as well. It is a follow-up to the International Symposium on Environmental Issues of Bangladesh & Japan held in 2009, and the 2nd International Conference on Environmental Aspects of Bangladesh held in 2010. The ICEAB provides vibrant opportunities for researchers, industry practitioners, volunteers, students and fellow citizens to share their research experiences, research results, ideas, review of various aspects and practical development experiences on environmental aspects of Bangladesh, Japan and other regions. Topics of interest include: River issues and water pollution; Forest and biodiversity conservation; Fisheries and marine biology; Green energy, renewable energy; and Waste management. Abstracts should be submitted before 15 April 2012.
On 19–21 October 2012, the
The Second Students’ Conference on Bengal Related Studies will be held in Halle (Saale), Germany, on 27–28 October 2012. It is hosted by the 
The University of Sri Jayewardenepura in Nugegoda, Sri Lanka, organises its First International Research Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHS) on 8–9 November 2012. The main theme is “Honouring the Past, Treasuring the Present, Navigating the Future: Making Knowledge to Deliver”. This is intended to be a premier forum for academics and professionals to share their research on various perspectives of Humanities and Social Sciences. The conference tries to identify the multiple dimensions associated with the advancement of humanities and social science related disciplines through past to present and to the future so that a proper appreciation of the past, evaluation of the present, and envisaging the future can be readily acknowledged. The proposed tracks/themes are a doorway to establish this vital link in order to survey the related disciplines with an open mind. The conference is chaired by Professor Sunethra Thennakoon. Deadline for submitting abstracts is 30 April 2012.
PhD student Tereza Kuldova from the
Lunds Konsthall in Sweden presents an art exhibition with Indian artists 6 April – 27 May 2012. The exhibition is entitled ”Social Fabric” and consists of works by Alice Creischer, Celine Condorelli, Archana Hande, The Otolith Group, Sudhir Patwardhan, Raqs Media Collective, and Andreas Siekmann. There will also occur film programmes by visual artists Ashim Ahluwalia, Anjali Monteiro, K.P. Jayasankar, Madhusree Dutta, Tushar Joag, and Anand Patwardhan. The exhibition has been produced by the UK based Institute of International Visual Arts (Iniva), and is currently on display at its Rivington Place premises in London. The curator has been Grant Watson.
On Saturday 14 April 2012, at 14.00, an Indian Cultural Mela with art, music, dance and lecture will take place at Lunds Konsthall, Mårtenstorget 3. The event is jointly organised by Lunds Konsthall, SASNET, Kulturskolan/Lunds kommun and ABF.
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A group of interested people in Lund has revitalized The Association for Indo-Swedish Cultural Exchange, a registered cultural organisation exisiting since the early 1990s but with no activity in recent years. The Lund based organisation will henceforth actively work to organise Indian and South Asian concerts, dance performances and other cultural activities in southern Sweden, in cooperation with the Indian Music Association in Copenhagen, local theatres and concert organisers. The Association is membership based and open for all interested persons.
A new Indian Association in Malmö has been established. The organisation was launched with a grand event at Tangopalatset in Malmö on Saturday 3 March 2012. It was duly inaugurated by H.E. Mr. Ashok Sajjanhar, Indian Ambassador to Sweden; Mr. Kent Andersson, Chairman to Malmö Municipal Council; Professor Björn Kjerfve, President, World Maritime University (WMU); and SASNET’s deputy director Lars Eklund. A large part of the approximately 300 Indians living in Malmö participated in the event.
The British publishing house 
The 
The Centre for Science and Environment (
