Kassam, Karim-Aly Saleh
International Professor
Karim-Aly Kassam works in partnership with Native communities in the Alaskan, Canadian and Russian Arctic and Sub-Arctic; the Pamir Mountains in Afghanistan and Tajikistan; and the rainforest in the south of India. Dr. Kassam focuses his applied research on the complex connectivity of human and environmental relations addressing issues such as indigenous ways of knowing, sustainable livelihoods, gender relations, and socio-cultural change.
research
research and scholarship focus
Applied participatory action research in the service of communities. This includes interdisciplinary areas of focus including: Ways of Knowing, Indigenous Human Ecology, Arctic Social Science, Natural Resource Policy, Social Policy, Community Economic Development and Socio-cultural History of Muslim Societies. Specific topics of research interest include: relationship between biological and cultural diversity, climate change, indigenous land and marine use, gender analysis and women's empowerment.
primary investigator of
- INDIGENOUS PEOPLE, ALPINE HUMAN ECOLOGY AND CHANGE IN THE PAMIR | Research Grant
affiliations
faculty appointment in
- Natural Resources (NTRES/DNR) | Cornell department
member of graduate field
- American Indian Studies | minor graduate field
- International Agriculture and Rural Development | graduate field
- Natural Resources | graduate field
other Cornell affiliations
- American Indian Program | academic program office
teaching
teaching focus
- Ways of Knowing: Indigenous and Local Ecological Knowledge
- Bio-Cultural Diversity Conservation
- American Indian Studies
teaches
- AIS 3330 - Ways of Knowing: Indigenous and Local Ecological Knowledge (TR 08:40:AM-09:55:AM) | fall 2009 class
- AIS 6010 - American Indian Studies Proseminar (W 10:10:AM-11:40:AM) | fall 2009 class
- AMST 3330 - Ways of Knowing: Indigenous and Local Ecological Knowledge (TR 08:40:AM-09:55:AM) | fall 2009 class
- NTRES 3330 - Ways of Knowing: Indigenous and Local Ecological Knowledge (TR 08:40:AM-09:55:AM) | fall 2009 class
- NTRES 4970 - Individual Study in Environmental Science and Resource Policy (TBA -) | fall 2009 class
- NTRES 6940 - Graduate Special Topics in Natural Resources (TR 08:40:AM-09:55:AM) | fall 2009 class
- NTRES 4970 - Individual Study in Environmental Science and Resource Policy (TBA -) | spring 2009 class
- AIS 3330 - Ways of Knowing: Indigenous and Local Ecologocal Knowledge (TR 08:40:AM-09:55:AM) | fall 2008 class
- NTRES 3330 - Ways of Knowing: Indigenous and Local Ecologocal Knowledge (TR 08:40:AM-09:55:AM) | fall 2008 class
background
educational background
- Ph.D. Cornell University, USA 2005
- M.Sc. London School of Economics, UK 1993
- M.Phil. University of Cambridge, UK 1992
- B.A. University of Calgary, Canada 1987
awards and distinctions
International Professor, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (2007 to Present)
Teaching Excellence Award (2005/2006)
Named Popular Professor by Maclean’s Guide to Universities (2004)
Named one of Alberta's 50 most influential people for 2003 by Alberta Venture Magazine along with business and political leaders
Teaching Excellence - Honourable Mention (2002)
Teaching Excellence Award (1998/1999)
First Canadian Recipient of Organization of American States - Fulbright Ecology Fellowship
First Murray Fraser Professor of Community Economic Development
Fellow of the Cambridge Commonwealth Society
publications
selected publications (listing in progress)
- Kassam, Karim-Aly. 2009. Bio-Cultural Diversity and Ways of Knowing: Re-Thinking Human Ecology in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic.
- Kassam, Karim-Aly (editor). 2008. Understanding Terror: Canadian Perspectives. University of Toronto Press. In press.
- Kassam, Karim-Aly. 2007. Fire: Effective Practices in Self-Help Institutions Journal of Arts, University of Mysore. Forthcoming.
- Kassam, Karim-Aly. 2005. Human Ecology. Encyclopeadia of the Arctic (3 Volumes). Ed. Mark Nuttal. New York: Routledge. Pp. 892-896.
- Kassam, Karim-Aly. 2005. Hunting, Subsistence. Encyclopeadia of the Arctic (3 Volumes). Ed. Mark Nuttal. New York: Routledge. Pp. 899-902.
- Kassam, Karim-Aly and Wisdom Tettey. 2003. Academics as Citizens Collaborative Interdisciplinary Research in the Service of Communities. Canadian Journal of Development Studies, 24(1): 155-174.
- Kassam, Karim-Aly, George Melnyk, and Lynne Perras (editors). 2002. Canada and September 11th: Impact and Responses. Calgary: Detselig.
- Kassam, Karim-Aly. 2001. Life North of 60?: Homeland or Frontier? In Passion for Identity: Canadian Studies for the 21st Century. Scarborough: Nelson Thompson Learning. Pp. 433-455.
- Kassam, Karim-Aly and the Soaring Eagle Friendship Centre. 2001. So That Our Voices Are Heard: Forest Use and Changing Gender Roles of Dene Women in Hay River, Northwest Territories. Calgary: CIDA-Shastri Partnership Programme.
- Kassam, Karim-Aly and the Wainwright Traditional Council. 2001. Passing on the Knowledge: Mapping Human Ecology in Wainwright, Alaska. Calgary: Arctic Institute of North America.
- Robinson, Michael and Karim-Aly Kassam. 1998. Sami Potatoes: Living with Reindeer and Perestroika. Calgary: Bayeux Arts. (Translated and published in Russian 2000).
contact
email address
ksk28@cornell.edu
Keywords: and socio-cultural history of muslim societies., arctic social science, bio-cultural diversity, biological and cultural diversity, community economic development, community service-learning, indigenous (Native american) studies, indigenous and local ways of knowing, indigenous human ecology, indigenous ways of knowing, natural resource policy, pluralism, social policy, socio-cultural dimensions of natural resources