Kelly Alley
Kelly D. Alley is Alumni Professor of Anthropology and the Director of the Anthropology Program. She received her B.S. from Cornell University and her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1990.
Dr. Alley has carried out research in northern India for over fifteen years, focusing on public culture and environmental issues. Her book titled, On the Banks of the Ganga: When Wastewater Meets a Sacred River University of Michigan press 2002) explores Hindu interpretations of the sacred river Ganga in light of current environmental problems. She is the author of "Anthropology and Environmental Debate: Reflections on Science, Resource Nationalism and News Reporting India Review (2006 special edition on Public Anthropology), "The American Anthropology of India" IndiaReview (2006), "The Making of a River Linking Plan in India: Suppressed Science and Spheres of Expert Debate" India Review (2004), "Separate Domains: Hinduism, Politics and Environmental Pollution" in Hinduism and Ecology, edited by Chistopher Chapple and Mary E. Tucker (Harvard U Press 2000), "Images of Waste and Purification on the Banks of the Ganga" City and Society (1998), and "Idioms of Degeneracy: Assessing Ganga's Purity and Pollution" in Purifying the Earthly Body of God, edited by Lance Nelson (SUNY Press 1998). The "Idioms" article was reprinted in Worldviews, Religion and the Environment (Thomson Wadsworth 2002), edited by Richard Foltz. She has also published, "Gandhiji on the Central Vista: A Postcolonial Refiguring" Modern Asian Studies (1997), "Ganga and Gandagi: Interpretations of Pollution and Waste in Benaras" Ethnology (1994), and "Urban Institutions at the Crossroads: Judicial Activism and Pollution Prevention in Kanpur" Urban Anthropology (1996) among others.
Dr. Alley is now working with Julian Crandall Hollick, NPR radio producer, on the "Ganga Radio Series," a series of features and documentaries about the culture and ecology of the river Ganges in India and Bangladesh. The series is set to air on NPR starting in the fall of 2007. For more information on that project, see: http://www.ibaradio.org/India/ganga/index.htm
For three years, Dr. Alley and M C Mehta, an environmental lawyer from Delhi, directed a project to facilitate professional exchanges between environmental lawyers,scientists and NGOs to solve river pollution problems in India. Her web based instructional program on environmental public interest litigation can be read at: http://www.auburn.edu/~alleykd/envirolitigators.
Dr. Alley is currently President of the Anthropology and Environment Section (www.eanth.org) of the American Anthropological Association.
Office: 7030C Haley Center
Phone: (334) 844-5018
E-mail: alleykd@auburn.edu
Website: www.auburn.edu/~alleykd
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Last updated on August 24, 2007