Kim Beazley BA (Hons), MA, MPhil

PhD candidate

Kim works on society-nature relations, particularly on conservation, protected areas, and conservation-induced relocation/displacement in India.

Biography

Qualifications

PhD Geography, University of Cambridge, 2006-2010.
MPhil Geographical Research, University of Cambridge, 2005-6 (distinction).
MA Geography, University of Toronto, 2003-5 (distinction).
BA Geography, University of Cambridge, 2000-3 (first class honours).

Awards and scholarships

2009 Association of American Geographers-Development Areas Specialty Group Student Paper Award.
2005-9 Economic and Social Research Council 1+3 Award for PhD candidate.
2003-5 University of Toronto Connaught Scholarship for academic excellence.
2003 University of Cambridge William Vaughan Lewis Dissertation Prize.
2003 Girton College Janet Chamberlain Dissertation Prize.
2002 and 2003 Girton College Emily Davis Scholarship and Margaret Anderson Prize.
2002 Scholarships for dissertation research (Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and 4 university awards).

Research

My work engages with the politics of natural resource management, principally in the Indian context. I am particularly interested in the history and development of conservation, the discourses and narratives that shape conservation regimes, the institutional structures and ideologies that underpin such regimes, how they are implemented, contested and transformed at the local level, and the social impacts that they have.

Grounded in critical political ecology, my current doctoral research is primarily concerned with population displacement from protected areas in India.

More specifically, my work focuses on Botezari, a small village in rural Maharashtra that was displaced from a protected area in April-May 2007. I am examining how Botezari's displacement strategy was formulated, instigated and justified, and the particular knowledges, epistemologies, actors, institutions and external structures that empowered this displacement process over time. I am exploring the course of Botezari's displacement and its multiple impacts, while also trying to analyse the various discourses that surrounded this displacement process, how they were (re)produced and challenged, what purposes they served, and how particular knowers and particular constructions of reality became dominant over others.

Publications

Papers

Beazley, K. (2011). Spaces of opportunity: state-oustee relations in the context of conservation-induced displacement in central India. Pacific Affairs 84(1): 25-46.
Beazley, K. (2009). Interrogating notions of the powerless oustee. Development and Change 40(2): 219-48.
Mawdsley, E., D. Mehra and K. Beazley (2009). Nature lovers, picnickers and bourgeois environmentalism. Economic and Political Weekly 44(11): 49-59.
Ghate, R. and K. Beazley (2007). Aversion to relocation: a myth? Conservation and Society 5(3): 331-4. Reprinted in a slightly altered form as Ghate, R. and K. Beazley (2008). Aversion to relocation: a myth? Current Conservation 2(3): 10-1.
Beazley, K. (2006). Exclusion in Madhav National Park, central India: is policy change required? Economic and Political Weekly 41(45): 4684-93.

Selected presentations

'"Move us out of the forest. We are not interested in conservation!" An examination of local attitudes towards conservation and nature in rural India'. 2^nd European Congress of Conservation Biology: "Conservation Biology and Beyond: from Science to Practice", special session: "People and Protected Areas: an Interregional and Interdisciplinary Dialogue", September 2009, Prague, Czech Republic.
'Experiencing displacement in rural India: the changing dynamics of state response'. Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities Interdisciplinary Conference: "Experiencing the State: Marginalised People and the Politics of Development", March 2009, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, U.K.
'"Powerless" oustees and the tiger reserve: challenging conventional theories on displacement and socio-political change in India'. Winter Seminar Series, February 2009, Centre for Studies in Science Policy, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.
'Conservation-related displacement: interrogating notions of the powerless oustee'. International Association for the Study of Commons 12^th Biennial Conference: "Governing Shared Resources: Connecting Local Experience to Local Challenges", July 2008, Cheltenham, U.K.
'Duties and dissent, promises and personalities: displacement's evolving impacts and discourses at Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, India'. Princes Teaching Institute Summer School, July 2008, Homerton College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, U.K.
'Who directs the destinies of the displaced? Interrogating notions of the powerless oustee'. University of Delhi Political Ecology Workshop, March 2008, Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India.
'Rights, risks and relocation: evolving impacts and discourses at Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra, India'. Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, April 2007, San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
'Enclosing the pristine myth: the case of Madhav National Park, India'. Great Lakes Political Economy Graduate Student Conference: "Power, (Re)production, Representation: Reconstituting Political Economy for the 21^st Century", May 2005, Cornell University, Ithaca, U.S.A.
'Culture, history, political economy, ecology and the "production" of nature: the case of Madhav National Park, India'. Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, April 2005, Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
'Exclusion in Madhav National Park: is policy change required?' Ford Foundation - Council for Social Development Multi-Disciplinary Colloquium: "Making Conservation Work: Attempting Solutions to Biodiversity Loss in India", March 2005, India International Centre, New Delhi, India.
'Separation and exclusion in Madhav National Park: is a policy alteration required?' Canadian Regional Science Association/Canadian Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, special session: "Contemporary Work in Political Ecology: Politics, Resources, Class, and Race", May 2004, University of Moncton, Moncton, Canada.

Teaching

Lecturer: Undergraduate Geographical Tripos: Part 1B: Development (University of Cambridge); forthcoming academic year 2009-10.
Guest Teacher: Certificate Programme in International Development: Module 3: Understanding and Engaging with Stakeholders in International Development (Institute of Continuing Education, University of Cambridge); 2009.
Supervisor: Undergraduate Geographical Tripos: Part 1A: Society, Environment and Development (University of Cambridge); 2006-10.
Teaching Assistant: Undergraduate Geography Course: Environment, Food and People (University of Toronto); 2003-4.

External activities

Special session organiser, 'People and Protected Areas: an Interregional and Interdisciplinary Dialogue' at the 2^nd European Congress of Conservation Biology: "Conservation Biology and Beyond: from Science to Practice", Prague, 2009.
Referee, Development and Change (2008), Geoforum (2009).
Member, University of Cambridge South Asia reading group, 2007-present.
Part-time research assistant, University of Cambridge (SMUTS Memorial Fund) research on tourists in India's protected areas, 2007-8.
Part-time research associate, SHODH: The Institute for Research and Development, India, 2007-8.
Assistant, University of Cambridge-Sutton Trust Summer School, 2007.
Participant, University of Cambridge-Massachusetts Institute of Technology Enterprisers Programme, 2007.
Voluntary Geography teacher, Bethnal Green Technology College, London, 2006-7.
Member, University of Cambridge Political Ecology reading group, 2005-present.
Member, University of Cambridge Department of Geography Graduate-Staff Consultative Committee, 2005-6.
Research assistant, University of Toronto, 2005.
Executive committee member, University of Toronto Graduate Geography and Planning Student Society, 2004-5.
Executive committee member, University of Toronto Graduate House Council, 2003-5.
Member, the Association of American Geographers, 2003-present.
President, University of Cambridge Girton College Geography Society, 2000-3.
External consultant, Peckham Voluntary Sector Forum, London, 2001.
Research assistant, Centre for Local Environmental Policies and Strategies, London, 2000.
Voluntary teacher, Happy Days School, India, 1999-00.