Keywords

  • child health and mortality
  • culture and demographic behavior
  • culture and reproduction
  • education
  • gender and development
  • gender studies
  • health and mortality disparities
  • population studies
  • reproductive health and family planning
  • south asian studies

Basu, Alaka

Professor
Professor Basu`s area of expertise and research is predominantly in the areas of reproductive health and family planning, gender and development and child health and mortality. She also has interests in population studies and culture and demographic behavior.

research

research and scholarship focus

My research and extension activities are in two broad areas: Population Studies and South Asian Studies.Within these areas I am particularly interested in question of gender, the role of the state and disparities in access and outcomes on matters related to health in particular, but well-being in general.The general implications of globalization for all these areas are also of great interest to me.

primary investigator of

international geographic focus

affiliations

faculty appointment in

member of graduate field

other Cornell affiliations

service

outreach focus

My extension activities have been carried out primarily through my position as the Director of the South Asia Program at Cornell University. In this position, I am responsible for organizing regular seminars and conferences on themes related to South Asia, and for promoting outreach activities in the larger Ithaca community, as well as in the schools in the area. I have also co-founded a network of researchers from the colleges and universities in the Central New York region that work on South Asia and usually have very little opportunity to meet one another or think of intellectual collaborations. The memebrs of this network now meet once a semester at Cornell.

publications

selected publications (listing in progress)

  • (edited) The Social and Political Context of Abortion: Global Perspectives, Greenwood Press, 2003

  • (edited with P. Aaby), The Methods and Uses of Anthropological Demography, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1998

  • "The Emotions and Reproductive Health", forthcoming, Population and Development Review, March 2006.

  • "Ultramodern contraception: Social Class and Family Planning in India", Asian Population Studies, 2005.

  • "The Millenium Development Goals Minus Reproductive Health: An Unfortunate, but Not Disastrous, Omission", Studies in Family Planning, June 2005

  • (with R. Stephenson), "Is a little learning never a dangerous thing? Maternal education and the proximate determinants of infant and child mortality", Social Science and Medicine, 2005.

  • Entries on "Population Policy" and "Infant Mortality" in the Oxford Companion to Economics in India, New Delhi, Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2005

  • "The Squabble that Never Ends: Religion and Fertility in the 2001 Census of India", Economic and Political Weekly, Sept. 2004.

  • (with S. Amin). "Popular perceptions of Changing Health and Mortality: Evidence from a Qualitative Study", Population Studies, Nov. 2004

  • "Towards an understanding of the emotions of the population of 2300", in United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, World Population to 2300, New York, UN Population Division, 2004.

  • (with G. Koolwal), "Two notions of female autonomy and their implications for reproductive health" in ORC Macro "A Focus on Gender: Collected Papers using DHS data", Washington, D,C,. Macro International, 2004

  • "Reproductive Health Advocacy" in E. Braunstein and S. Atwood (eds), Trade Liberalization and Reproductive Health, International Center for Research on Women, Washington, D.C., forthcoming, London: Zed Press

  • Entry on "Women's Health in South Asia" for the Routledge International Encyclopaedia of Women's Studies, 2003

  • "On the Prospects for Endless Fertility Decline in South Asia", Population Bulletin of the United Nations, 2003

  • "Why does education lead to lower fertility? A critical review of some of the possibilities", World Development, 2002

  • (with S. Amin and R. Stephenson), "Spatial variations in contraceptive use in Bangladesh: Looking beyond the borders", Demography, 2002

  • (with S. Amin), "Some preconditions for reproductive change in the two Bengals: History, culture and an openness to innovations", Population and Development Review, 2000

  • "Fertility decline and worsening gender bias in India: A response to Irudaya Rajan et al", Development and Change, 2000.

  • "Gender in population research: Confusing implications for health policy", Population Studies, 2000.

  • "Women, poverty and demographic change: Some possible interrelationships over time and space", in B. Garcia (ed), Women, Poverty and Demographic Change in Developing Countries, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 2000.

  • "Fertility Decline and Increasing Gender Imbalance in India: Including a possible South Indian Turnaround", Development and Change, 1999

  • "Poverty and AIDS" in M. Livi-Bacci and G. Santis (eds), Demography and Poverty, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1999.

  • "Women's Education, Marriage and Fertility: Do men really not matter?", in C. Bledsoe and J. Casterline (eds), Women's Education

  • and Fertility in Developing Countries, Washington, D.C. National Academy Press, 1998.

  • (with Peter Aaby), "Introduction", in A.M. Basu and P. Aaby (eds), New Approaches to Anthropological Demography, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1998.

  • "Anthropological Insights into the Links Between Women's Status and Demographic Behaviour: The Notion of Hypergamy", in A. Basu and P. Aaby (eds), New Approaches to Anthropological Demography, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1998.

  • "Anthropological Demography in the understanding of the determinants of child mortality", in G.W. Jones, J.C. Caldwell, R.M. Douglas
    and R.M. D'Souza (eds), The Continuing Demographic Transition, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1997.

  • "The new International population movement: A framework for a constructive critique", Health Transition Review, 1997

  • "The `politicization' of fertility to achieve non-demographic objectives", Population Studies, 1997.

  • With D.B. Gupta and G. Krishna, "The household impact of adult mortality and morbidity" in D. Bloom and P. Godwin (eds), The Economics of HIV and AIDS, Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1997.

  • "The Demographics of Hindu Communalism", in K. Basu and S. Subramanium (eds), Unravelling the Nation: Sectarian Conflict and India's Secular Identity, New Delhi, Penguin, 1996.

  • "The International Conference on Population and Development: What about men's rights and women's responsibilities?", Health Transition Review, 1996.

  • (with R. Jeffery), "Introduction", in R. Jeffery and A.M. Basu, Girls' Education, Female Autonomy and Fertility Change in South Asia, New Delhi, Sage Publications, 1996.

  • "Female Education, Autonomy and Fertility: What do these words mean in South Asia?", in A. Basu and R. Jeffery (eds), Girls' Schooling, Female Autonomy and Fertility Change in South Asia, New Delhi, Sage Publications, 1996.
Keywords: child health and mortality, culture and demographic behavior, culture and reproduction, education, gender and development, gender studies, health and mortality disparities, population studies, reproductive health and family planning, south asian studies