Dr Souvik Lal Chakraborty (IAG Award for Dissertation Excellence) Citation

The IAG Award for Dissertation Excellence is made at Honours, Masters, or PhD level, and acknowledges the disciplinary contribution that the candidate has made to geography. Dr Souvik Lal Chakraborty submitted his PhD dissertation in January 2022, which examined the geographies of social movements and conflicts over resource management, particularly concerning Indigenous peoples. Both examiners passed the dissertation without further amendment or examination; and both noted his potential as a leading early career scholar in his field. One examiner noted that the dissertation was as a whole, exceptional, “very good and at times excellent”, original, theoretically sophisticated and empirically rich as a result of lengthy field work that led to a “fine piece of scholarship”. The other examiner commented on the candidate’s ability to challenge simplistic understandings of binarizing pro- and anti-mining advocates and the blurred dichotomies of insider-outsider actions that showed the candidate’s ability to think critically and exceptional grasp of the scholarship. The supervisor notes the significant contribution to the discipline of geography, particularly spatial strategies and processes and their influences on social movements; and the invitations to publish and speak at invited lectures that he has had as a result. We would like to congratulate Dr Chakraborty on receiving the IAG Award for Dissertation Excellence.

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