Dr. Aparajita Sengupta will present “From Teaching Literature to Planting Rice: An Academic Eats Her Way Back to the Land” at 11:10 a.m. on Thursday, April 14, in the Marano Campus Center auditorium (Room 132)
Sengupta lives and works on a two-acre natural farm near Santiniketan, West Bengal, India, and is a certified permaculture designer and consultant. She began by running a community supported agriculture operation on leased land near Kolkata, India, establishing one of the first organic farmers' markets in Kolkata; she now grows almost all the food for her family without using any chemicals, and without the help of permanent employees or external funding.
Her livelihood and agricultural models draw heavily both from age-old practices from the Indian subcontinent, and agri-models that she witnessed firsthand in the United States. She also teaches a course in natural farming at Smell of the Earth, the farm on which she and her husband work.
Sengupta went to Presidency College, Kolkata, and has a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Kentucky. She is currently on a Fulbright Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship at the University of Kentucky, working on a book project on small farm-based businesses run by women. Sengupta also writes and speaks regularly about natural farming and the politics of food.
The invited talk is co-sponsored by the Department of English and Creative Writing; Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences; The Institute for Global Engagement; and International Student and Scholar Services Office.
For more information, contact Neelika Jayawardane, neelika.jayawardane@oswego.edu.