On Tuesday, Feb. 11, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Arizona State University Raka Sen presented a lecture titled “Salty Lives and Hungry Tides.” This lecture was the first of the Spoerl lecture series. The theme for this year’s series is “Climate Justice: A Grounded Perspective.”
The series is a chance to hear about climate justice from visiting professors and academics alike who are experts in the field and working in policy, adaptation and mitigation. The series was established by Barbara Gray Spoerl and her husband, Edward Spoerl.
“Salty Lives and Hungry Tides” was centered around the research Sen conducted on climate change adaptations in the Indian and Bangladeshi Sundarbans. Sen spent 22 nonconsecutive months conducting ethnographic fieldwork in the islands from 2018 to 2023. She explained the everyday adaptations that residents in the Sundarbans have had to face as a result of climate change. One of the main focuses of her research was salinity intrusion in the islands. Salinity intrusion, as written by climatehubs.usda.gov, “occurs when storm surges or high tides overtop areas low in elevation.” They also state that it can occur “when saltwater infiltrates freshwater aquifers and raises the groundwater table below the soil surface.” Sen described how this process of salinity intrusion is worsened by human-caused climate change.
Sen had the opportunity to speak with many different families and spoke with one particular 50-year-old woman, Luna di, who lived and grew up in the Sundarban Islands. Luna di told Sen how the salt is everywhere now; in their food, clothes, water, etc. She joked that she never had to salt her food anymore, because the water she used to wash her plates left her dishes with more than enough salt on them.
Sen explored the different adaptations that Sundarban residents had had to make in order to adjust to this new environment. She said she was particularly interested in how new adaptations furthered gender roles in work. For example, because of the salinity intrusion, she noted that the residents’ access to freshwater was changed drastically and they were forced to find a new source of freshwater, a greater distance away. This resulted in many women taking on the role of walking five-to-10-kilometer round trips to access fresh water every day. Many men conduct forest work, which involves going into the forest and collecting wood, crabs and honey. Sen described how forest work is considered by many to be a last resort as there is a large threat inside the forest of tiger attacks. Throughout the lecture, Sen highlighted how the ever changing climate of the Sundarban Islands is forcing residents to make such adaptations and may one day make the islands inhabitable.
Sen is unsure whether she wants to continue her research in the Sundarbans or explore something new. For now, she is currently working on a book that will recount her research.
The second and final lecture of this year’s Spoerl lectures will be held on Monday, Feb. 24 at 4:30 p.m., featuring Dr. Aaron Eddens on “Why Climate Justice Demands Moving Beyond the Green Revolution in Africa.”