Chitrangada Choudhury

Chitrangada Choudhury

PhD candidate

Economic Geography

Room number: Y25 L 50
chitrangada.choudhury@geo.uzh.ch

About

I am an environmental journalist and filmmaker and a PhD Candidate in the Economic Geography unit at the Geography Department at the University of Zürich. My research interests include environmental justice, land and forest transformations, agrarian change, agrocecology, social movements, right to information laws and public accountability.

My doctoral research explores the historical and spatial formation of transgenic seed and pesticide markets in the biodiversity and knowlegde-rich highlands of Odisha, and its implications for environmental justice and sustainability. My doctoral research draws on ethnographic and archival research, as well as practical engagements with the land and ecology via voluntary work on an in-situ conservation farm. My research outputs include peer-reviewed publications, ethnographic film, and public-facing writing and engagements.

I have published peer-reviewed research in edited volumes and journals including Capitalism Nature Socialism, Elementa Science of the Anthropocene and Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. My policy-oriented writings have appeared in Article 14, The Hindu, Economic & Political Weekly, Scientific American, The Peoples’ Archive of Rural India, The Wire, The Guardian, and BBC among others.

Through my work, I seek to highlight questions of environmental and social justice, and co-create knowledge in an accessible and engaging way. I am therefore committed to public-facing, multi-modal research conducted in collaborative and self-reflective frameworks.

Select Publications, Book Chapters

Choudhury, C. 2024. Dismantling agroecology: The coming of the genetically modified cotton-agrochemical complex in an Indian highland frontier. Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene 12 January 2024; 12:1. 00105. Link

Choudhury, C, Aga, A. 2022. The Life & Legacy of Abhay Xaxa. In Abhay Xaxa & Ganesh Devy eds. Being Adivasi: Existence, Entitlements, Exclusion. New Delhi: Penguin. Link

Choudhury, C, Aga, A. 2020. Manufacturing consent: mining, bureaucratic sabotage and the Forest Rights Act in India. Capitalism Nature Socialism, 31:2. 70–90. Link

Aga, A, Choudhury, C. 2018. A dappled sun: Bureaucratic encounters in the working of the Right to Information Act in India. Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 38:3, 540-556. Link

Choudhury, C. 2013. Adivasis & the New Land Acquisition Act. Economic & Political Weekly, Vol. 48: 41. Link

Choudhury, C. 2013. Rule of Law. Chapter in Felix Padel et al. eds. Ecology, Economy: Quest for a Socially Informed Connection. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan. Link

Choudhury, C, Dandekar A. 2012. PESA: Legislation as Myth. Chapter in Robin Jeffrey et al. eds. More Than Maoism: Politics, Policies & Insurgency in South Asia. New Delhi: Manohar Books. Link

Ethnographic Film

Seed Stories. 2024. Director. 42 min. Odiya, Kui, English.

Synopsis: In a village in the Niyamgiri mountains of Odisha's Eastern Ghats, a heroic effort is underway: barefoot ecologist Dr. Debal Deb and his 3 member-team are conserving in-situ over 1000 endangered heirloom varieties of rice. Odisha’s Eastern Ghats region is one of the world’s surviving biodiversity hotspots, with Adivasi (Indigenous) communities like the Kondhs possessing the knowledge of growing multiple crops with their folk seeds, evolved over centuries. At the same time, the village and the wider region is irreversibly changing with the coming of genetically modified cotton seeds and associated chemicals. 'Seed Stories' takes a worm’s eye view of how this is reshaping a geography and a people steeped in agro-ecological knowledge, and altering their attitudes towards farming, food and ecology. It invites audiences to reflect on the question, 'What is sustainability?'

Review in American Anthropologist:

https://www.americananthropologist.org/online-content/review-of-seed-stories-2024-directed-by-chitrangada-choudhury

Press Coverage:

https://ilmanifesto.it/le-sirene-dellagrobusiness-mettono-a-rischio-le-pratiche-dellagroecologia

https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/why-communities-should-regain-their-heirloom-seeds-and-knowledge-systems/article68553283.ece

https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/delhi/2025/Feb/04/more-clouds-less-of-silver-lining

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/festivals-of-seeds-and-the-rains-of-love/articleshow/113163910.cms?from=mdr

https://www.heraldgoa.in/goa/goa/traditional-goan-rice-varieties-have-vanished-says-claude-alvares/413016

Select Screenings:

Kolkata People's Film Festival, Link

Chennai International Documentary & Short Film Festival

Festival delle Terre, Rome, Link