National Parks in a Comparative Perspective

Vintage illustrated poster promoting Grand Canyon National Park

"Grand Canyon National Park, a free government service" (1938) poster by Chester Don Powell is public domain

Resource Description

This module invites a comparative and global emphasis in a study of national parks in USA and India. The universal quest for conservation and preservation varies in its motivation and is inevitably influenced by local histories and culture. The two sections of the module focused on the United States and India respectively bring the separate trajectories in view. In bringing a critical perspective on analyzing national parks, the module will not only look at aspirations for preserving heritage, but also see the parks as geographical and social spaces with conflicts. Conflicts between communities and flora and fauna will be a primary theme of analysis.

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Gillian G. Russell

Photograph of author Gillian G. Russell

Gillian Russell is an undergraduate student and Paterno Fellow at Penn State University who is double majoring in Anthropological Sciences and Global and International Studies. Her interests are very broad, but they center on topics such as history, culture, conservation, environmental advocacy, and public outreach. She is currently working on her honors thesis which will be about human-environmental interactions in National Parks around the world, with a focus on indigenous land rights. In Gillian’s free time, she enjoys running, knitting, kayaking, reading, hiking, and listening to music.

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Prakash Kumar

Photograph of author Prakash Kumar

Prakash Kumar is Associate Professor of History at Pennsylvania State University. He is a specialist of South Asian history with interest in science and technology, colonial history, development, and agrarian and rural modernization. His first book, Indigo Plantations and Science in Colonial India (Cambridge University Press, 2012), complicates the history of colonial “improvement” by examining global knowledge flows and colonial science on the indigo plantations established by European planters in colonial India. It examines the claims of the planters that “natural” indigo made on plantations was superior to the cheaper and purer synthetic indigo launched on the international markets in 1899.

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