Karim-Aly Kassam Cornell University, USA

Dr. Karim-Aly S. Kassam is International Professor of Environmental and Indigenous Studies in the Department of Natural Resources and the American Indian Program at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University. In 2014, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the International Society of Ethnobiology. In 2013, Dr. Kassam received the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Diversity Award for creating and fostering diversity in research and teaching. From 2008 to 2011, he was Director of Graduate Studies of the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program. Prior to joining Cornell, Dr. Kassam was Associate Professor with the Faculty of Communication and Culture at the University of Calgary, Canada. In 2006, Dr. Kassam received the Teaching Excellence Award from the Students’ Union at the University of Calgary. He has also received Teaching Excellence Awards in 1999 and 2002. In 2003, he was the first Canadian to receive the Organization of American States – Fulbright Ecology Fellowship. He developed and established the Theme School in Northern Planning and Development Studies in 1995 and until 2003 was its Director. From 1998 to 2001 Dr. Kassam was the first Murray Fraser Professor of Community Economic Development at the University of Calgary. In 2003, Venture Magazine named him, one of Alberta's 50 most influential people along with business and political leaders. Currently, Dr. Kassam is a Senior Research Fellow of the University of Central Asia, Fellow of the Commonwealth Society at Cambridge University, Research Associate of the Arctic Institute of North America, Faculty Fellow of the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future at Cornell University, Associate Editor of the Journal Action Research, and Elected Member of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tajikistan.

Dr. Kassam holds a PhD in Natural Resource Policy and Management from Cornell University (USA), an MSc in Social Policy and Planning in Developing Countries from the London School of Economics (UK), an MPhil in Islamic Studies from the University of Cambridge (UK), and a BA in Economics from the University of Calgary (Canada). Dr. Kassam has been tenured twice in his career: first, in a largely social science and humanities department; and the second time, in a largely ecological sciences department.

Dr. Kassam’s objective is to seamlessly merge teaching with applied research in the service of communities. His research focuses on the complex connectivity of human and environmental relations, addressing indigenous ways of knowing, food sovereignty, sustainable livelihoods, and climate change. This research is conducted in partnership with indigenous communities in the Alaskan, Canadian, and Russian Arctic and the Northern Forest; the Pamir Mountains in Afghanistan, China, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan; and the forest in the south of India. By investigating the relationship between biological and cultural diversity, Dr. Kassam seeks to expand the foundations of the notion of pluralism.