Karim-Aly S. Kassam is International Professor of Environmental and Indigenous Studies in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, and the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University. In 2020, Professor Kassam was awarded the Global Public Fellowship along with Frederick MacDonald, a Cree Artist from Fort McKay First Nations. Together they are engaging in Public Scholarship through art, poetry, and writing on current issues of justice. In 2018, Professor Kassam, in collaboration with the Canadian Embassy in Kabul, senior advisors at the Presidential Palace, and the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, initiated the process that led the President of Afghanistan to create a position devoted specifically to addressing climate change adaptation in all government agencies. In 2017, he was awarded the University of Bayreuth (Germany) International Senior Fellowship for his contributions to the Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Earth Sciences. In 2013, he received the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Diversity Award for creating and fostering diversity in research and teaching. From 2008 to 2011, he was Director of Graduate Studies of the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program. Prior to joining Cornell, Dr. Kassam was Associate Professor with the Faculty of Communication and Culture at the University of Calgary, Canada. He founded the Theme School in Northern Planning and Development Studies at the University of Calgary in 1995 and was its Director until 2003. From 1998 to 2001 he was the first Murray Fraser Professor of Community Economic Development at the University of Calgary. In 2003, Venture Magazine named him one of Alberta's 50 most influential people along with business and political leaders.
Professor Kassam’s aim is to seamlessly merge research and teaching in the service of communities. His research focuses on the complex connectivity of human and environmental relations, addressing indigenous ways of knowing, food sovereignty, sustainable livelihoods, stewardship, and climate change. This research is conducted in partnership with indigenous communities in the Circumpolar Arctic, Boreal Forest, as well as the Pamir Mountains of Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Xinjiang. In 2016, he was awarded 1.35 million dollars to lead a project to develop anticipatory capacity for climate change. By investigating the relationship between biological and cultural diversity, he seeks to expand the foundations of the notion of pluralism. Through applied research and teaching, he is articulating a rigorous methodology and pedagogy of hope.
Education
Ph.D. (2005) Cornell University (USA)
Major: Natural Resource Policy and Management
Minors: Socio-Cultural Anthropology and Community and Regional Sociology
Dissertation Title: Diversity, Ways of Knowing, and Validity – A Demonstration of Relations between the Biological and the Cultural among Indigenous Peoples of the Circumpolar North
M.Sc. (1993) London School of Economics (UK)
Major: Social Policy & Planning in Developing Countries
Thesis Title: Social Implications of NGO Promotion of Small-scale Enterprises for Rural Development using Asian and African case studies
M.Phil. (1992) University of Cambridge (UK)
Major: Islamic Studies
Thesis Title: The Idea of Progress in Modern Muslim Thought
B.A. (1987) University of Calgary (Canada)
Major: Economics
Recent Research
Professor Kassam conducts participatory research that has immediate impact on community agency, adaptation, and resilience. His research group focuses on human ecological research in partnership with Indigenous peoples and local communities. They seek to innovate policy and practice in civil society by re-envisioning paradigms that are failing. Current research efforts coalesce around areas of high altitude and latitude where ecological and socio-cultural change are critically affecting food, health, energy, and water sovereignty. The research group incorporates qualitative and quantitative techniques from the social and biophysical sciences as well as the humanities. They take a pluralistic approach, recognizing that effective solutions are based on multiple epistemological paradigms and assert that Indigenous and local knowledge helps to conserve biocultural diversity in ways that are beyond the reach of any single-disciplinary approach. By supporting communities as they anticipate and respond to change, we engage complex ethical and policy challenges of the 21st century.
His research interests include:
- Biocultural diversity
- Climate change impacts and adaptation
- Ecological calendars
- Environmental Stewardship and Policy
- Ethnobiology
- Food sovereignty and security
- Indigenous and place-based ecological knowledge
- Medicinal plants (health sovereignty)
- Pluralism
Selected Publications
Please refer to Professor Kassam’s website for open access to all his latest publications, research projects, news, and more.
