ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS
 
Ph.D in Economics Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS), University of Madras, 2001.

Thesis: State, Communities and the 'Forest Question' in the Kolli Hills, Tamil Nadu: A Study of the Political Economy of Decentralisation
 
M.A. Rural Development, University of Sussex, U.K.,1990

B.A. History and Political Science, Williams College, U.S.A., 1988
 

AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS

L.M. Singhvi Fellow, Centre for South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge, October –December, 2012.

Visiting Fellow, Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, October – December, 2012.

Visiting Fellow, Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'homme (FMSH), Paris, France under the Indo-France Cultural Exchange Programme of the Indian Council of Social Science Research, June-July 2008.

Indian Council of Social Science Research Doctoral Fellowship for undertaking Ph.D Research, January 1993-January 1997.

University Grants Commission - UGC NET/Eligibility for Lectureship and Ph.D Research Fellowship in Rural Development, 1991.

Highest Honours in B.A. Political Science for Thesis on Ujamaa Socialism in Tanzania, 1988, Williams College, Massachusettes, U.S.A.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

I am primarily interested in the political economy of natural resource conflict/political ecology. Environmental discourses and environment policy I believe are social and political constructs that have differential impacts across social groups and economic classes. My research is primarily aimed at understanding how and when the environment becomes important and the contestations both material and ontological that underlie conflicts over the environment in general and the commons in particular. Forested landscapes in south India have provided the site for most of my research but I am increasingly interested in the political ecology of fisheries as well. The practice of interdisciplinarity is central to the study of the environment hence my interest in collaborative research across disciplines and the epistemological challenges of such research.

WORK EXPERIENCE
 
Associate Professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS), Chennai (November 2006 - To present
 
Fellow at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Environment and Development (CISED), Bangalore (June 2002 - October 2006)
 
Project Associate at the Madras School of Economics (December 2000 - May 2002).
 
Project Associate at Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS), January 1997 - November 2000
 
Editorial Assistant for the journal Review of Development and Change, (M.I.D.S publication), January-September 1996.
 
Research Assistant at Madras Institute of Development Studies, October-December 1992.
 
Research Associate, Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi, February 1991-September 1992.

PUBLICATIONS

BOOKS

Menon, A.; Singh, P; Shah, E; Lele, S; Paranjape S. and Joy, K J (2007). Community-based Natural Resource Management: Issues and Cases from South Asia, Sage, New Delhi.

JOURNAL ARTICLES/BOOK CHAPTERS
 

Guillerme, S., B.M. Kumar, A. Menon, C. Hinnewinkel, E. Maire and A.V. Santhoshkumar (2011). ‘Impacts of Public Policies and Farmer Preferences on Agroforestry Practices in Kerala, India, Environmental Management, 48, pp. 351-64.

Roth, D, A. Menon and M. Le Tissier (2011). ‘Social Analysis of the Coast: Introducing Human Dimensions’, in M. Le Tissier, D. Roth, M. Bavinck and L. Visser (eds.), Integrated Coastal Management: From Post-Graduate to Professional Coastal Manager, Eburon Academic Publishers, The Netherlands.

Lélé, S., I. Patil, S. Badiger, A. Menon and R. Kumar (2011). ‘Forests, Hydrological Services, and Agricultural Income: A Case Study from Mysore District of the Western Ghats of India", in M. N. Murty, P. Shyamsundar and E. Haq (eds.), Environmental Valuation in South Asia, Cambridge University Press, New Delhi, India.

Taghioff, D. and A. Menon, (2010). ‘On Mudumalai Tiger Reserve’, Economic and Political Weekly, 45(52), pp. 83-84.

Taghioff, D. and A. Menon, (2010). ‘Can A Tiger Change Its Stripes’: The Politics of Conservation as Translated in Mudumalai’, Economic and Political Weekly, 45(28), pp. 69-76.

Menon, A., C. Hinnewinkel, C. Garcia, S. Guillerme, N. Rai and S. Krishnan (2009). ‘Competing Visions: Domestic Forests, Politics and Forest Policy in the Central Western Ghats of South India’, Small-scale Forestry, 8, pp. 515-527.

Menon, A; S. Karuppiah and J. Stephen (2008). ‘Reconfiguring the Coast’, Economic and Political Weekly, 43(16), pp. 35-38.

Menon, A (2008). ‘Situating Law: The Political Economy of Environment and Development in India’, in Christoph Eberhard (ed.), Law, Land Use and the Environment: Afro-Indian Dialogues, IFP, Pondicherry, pp. 363-386.

Menon, A and I. Patil (2007). ‘Kudregundi Halla Tank: Conflict Over Seepage Water and Competing Needs’, in K.J. Joy, Suhas Paranjape, Biksham Gujja, Vinod Goud and Shruti Vispute (eds.), Water Conflicts in India: A Million Revolts in the Making, Routledge, New Delhi, pp. 276-280.

Menon, A (2007). ‘Engaging with the Law on Adivasi Rights’, Economic and Political Weekly, 42 (24), pp. 2239-2242.

Kiran Kumar, A K; A. Menon and I. Patil (2006). 'Methodological Challenges of Social Science Research on Land Use Change and Watershed Services: Insights from the Western Ghats', in Jagdish Krishnaswamy, Sharachchandra Lele and R. Jayakumar (eds.), Hydrology and Watershed Services of the Western Ghats, India: Effects of Land Cover Change, Tata McGraw-Hill, Bangalore, pp. 249-264.

Menon, A and A. Vadivelu,  (2006). ‘Common Property Resources in Different Agro-climatic Landscapes in India’, Conservation and Society, 4(1), pp. 132-154.

Menon, A (2006). ‘The Making of Environmental Policy and Legislation in India and the Construction of Social Nature’, Economic and Political Weekly, 41(3), pp. 188-193.

Lele, S. and A. Menon (2005). ‘Draft NEP: A Flawed Vision’, Seminar, 547.

Menon, A (2005). 'Where are the Forests? Legal Pluralism and Land Use Change in the Kolli Hills', Indian Socio-Legal Journal, 31 (special issue on legal pluralism), pp. 11-26.

Menon, A (2004). 'Colonial Constructions of "Agrarian Fields" and "Forests" in the Kolli Hills', Indian Economic and Social History Review, 41(3), pp. 317-337.

Menon, A (2003). 'Forests, Law and Land Use in the Kolli Hills, India' in R. Pradhan (ed.), Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law in Social, Economic and Political Development, ICNEC, Kathmandu, pp. 211-226.

Menon, A (1999). 'Common Property Studies and the Limits to Equity: Some Conceptual Concerns and Possibilities', Review of Development and Change, 4(1), pp. 51-70.

Menon, A and V. Saravanan (1996). 'Displacement and Rehabilitation Policies:  The Case of the Kolli Hills Hydro-Electric Project', Economic and Political  Weekly, 31(43), pp. 2854-55.

Menon, A (1995). 'Constructing the Local: Decentralising Forest Management', Economic and Political Weekly, 30(35), pp. 2110-2111.

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Menon, A (2005) ‘NEP 2004: Market Fundamentalism’ (editorial), Economic and Political Weekly, 40(2), January 8.

Lele, S and Menon, A (2005). ‘Neo-liberal Verbiage’, Down to Earth, 13(16), January 15.

Menon, A and Lele, S (2003). ‘Critiquing the Commons: Missing the Woods for the Trees?’, The Common Property Resource Digest, No. 64, March.

Menon, A (1995). 'American Scholars and South Asian Studies', Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 30, No. 49, December 2.

Menon, A (1994). 'Institutions and Economic Analysis:  Theoretical Considerations for Natural Resource Management', M.I.D.S. Working Paper, No. 119.

Menon, A (1993). 'Decentralising the Provision of Public Services:  Exnora's Efforts at Garbage Collection in Madras', M.I.D.S. Bulletin, January.

Membership In Academic Societies
 
International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC)
Commission on Folk Law and Legal Pluralism
International Association for Ecological Economics