Library EventClimate Change, Gender, and Biomass Cookstoves in India

Friday, March 7, 2025 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm

03/07/2025 12:00pm 03/07/2025 1:00pm Climate Change, Gender, and Biomass Cookstoves in India

Historically, industrialized countries have created our climate crisis but have yet to take responsibility for the development dilemmas associated with climate change. The solutions proposed at the international level have largely prioritized technical fixes, including new cooking technologies and carbon credit accounting. Highlighting perspectives from below – the lives and livelihoods of marginalized people – illuminates several problems with these approaches.

Using feminist and anthropological methods to study biomass stoves and efforts to improve them in India, Dr. Khandelwal identifies problems related to carbon market solutions and their associated power dynamics to shed new light on the nexus of cooking technologies, biomass-based livelihoods, gender, and climate change and to expand the kinds of solutions we imagine as possible.

About our speaker: Meena Khandelwal, PhD, is a feminist anthropologist known for her pioneering research on Hindu celibacy and monastic life that puts gender at the center.

Doors open at 11:30 a.m., join us for social connection and a meal! Please RSVP by March 3 so we know how much food to order: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/dr5uwky.

Presented in partnership with The University of Iowa Center for Asian and Pacific Studies.

This series is a cosponsorship between the Iowa City Foreign Relations Council and the Iowa City Public Library.

Iowa City Public Library Iowa City Public Library America/Chicago public

In-person event + Livestream
Meeting Room A, Meeting Room B, Meeting Room C, Livestream

Historically, industrialized countries have created our climate crisis but have yet to take responsibility for the development dilemmas associated with climate change. The solutions proposed at the international level have largely prioritized technical fixes, including new cooking technologies and carbon credit accounting. Highlighting perspectives from below – the lives and livelihoods of marginalized people – illuminates several problems with these approaches.

Using feminist and anthropological methods to study biomass stoves and efforts to improve them in India, Dr. Khandelwal identifies problems related to carbon market solutions and their associated power dynamics to shed new light on the nexus of cooking technologies, biomass-based livelihoods, gender, and climate change and to expand the kinds of solutions we imagine as possible.

About our speaker: Meena Khandelwal, PhD, is a feminist anthropologist known for her pioneering research on Hindu celibacy and monastic life that puts gender at the center.

Doors open at 11:30 a.m., join us for social connection and a meal! Please RSVP by March 3 so we know how much food to order: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/dr5uwky.

Presented in partnership with The University of Iowa Center for Asian and Pacific Studies.

This series is a cosponsorship between the Iowa City Foreign Relations Council and the Iowa City Public Library.

If you need disability-related accommodations in order to participate in this event, please contact the Library.

This event is open to the public.

Cosponsor

Cosponsor Organization: Iowa City Foreign Relations Council

Cosponsor Name: Peter Gerlach

Adults Current Issues Iowa City Foreign Relations Council