Visiting Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Parvathy Binoy is an inspiring human geographer whose passion for environmental studies and humanitarian work has shaped a career dedicated to justice, sustainability, and human rights. Originally from Trivandrum, South India, her career has been marked by activism with a unique perspective on the intersection of the human and biophysical worlds.
Professor Binoy shared her views on fostering critical engagement and advice for those who wish to follow a similar path in building alternative futures.
What about the field of environmental studies excites you?
Environmental studies offers interdisciplinary collaboration and thinking across human and bio-physical worlds. I think, like the field of geography, environmental studies offers critical ways of engaging with pressing topics that face the planet today and how we might learn from past histories to better understand and defend our planet against crisis and perhaps even build alternative worlds.
What first drew you to work in the humanitarian and environmental fields?
My grandparents were avid gardeners and self-sufficient growers in their own ways in the city of Trivandrum, South India, where I grew up. I loved being outside in the company of beings, creatures, and life around me. It continues to ignite my imagination and my spirit toward hope, compassion, and resilience in the face of the struggles I have encountered. My undergraduate experience was deeply moving, and the activists, faculty, and other students I met taught me the power of an education, of organizing, and of activism, even if it was on a smaller scale on campus. I am part of a generation of people who were shaped deeply by the events of 9/11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with anti-immigrant policies under the Bush administration. I was very active in organizing and participating in protests against these wars and the onslaught of racist violence and Islamophobia it created. I was also deeply moved by feminism and feminist organizing and courses I took as a college student, and it inspired me toward a lot of activism around sexual assault and gendered justice on campus. These are the constellation of events, courses, and people who initially inspired me toward human rights and environmental justice-oriented work.
What advice would you give to someone looking to get involved in environmental or humanitarian work?
I think it is a deeply personal and political thing to be justice-oriented in any sort of way. You do not need to have come from abundance or resources to develop an ethic of justice. I would advise students to see the personal as political, as feminism teaches us, and start with the self, intimate spaces of your life, family, and friends toward your vision of justice, sustainability, and political awareness. Be thirsty always for knowledge, political education, and any kind of wisdom that would deepen your sense of self and orient you toward justice.
Why did you choose to work at ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½?
I am drawn toward the values of a liberal arts education, and the more I have spent time teaching at ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ and developing relationships with students here, the more I have appreciated the art of teaching, learning from my students, and together raising awareness (and maybe action) toward environmental and social justice. I have learned so much from ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ students, faculty, staff, and the shuttle drivers here, and it has made me a better scholar, person, and teacher.