(Updated August 2021)
Appointments: 2021 - present: Docent (Associate Professor) & Senior Lecturer in Rural Development of the Global South. Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala. 2017 - 2021: Biträdande Universitetslektor (Assistant Professor) in Rural Development of the Global South. Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala. 2016 - 2019: New Generation Network (NGN) Fellow, Australia India Institute, University of Melbourne. 2016 - 2017: Associate Lecturer (Postdoc), Department of Social Inquiry, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. 2015 - 2016: Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Public Policy at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, India. Education: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - PhD in Geography (2010-2014) Dissertation: Reframing citizenship by decentralizing development under India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - MA in Geography (2008-2010). Thesis: Protesting Conservation by Protecting the Environment: A case study from the Indian Himalayas. Maryville University, St. Louis, Missouri - Bachelor of Fine Arts summa cum laude (painting and photography) (2002-2006) Publications: Coleman, E., Schultz, W., Ramprasad, V., Fischer, H., Rana, P., Filippi, A., Güneralp, B., Ma, A., Rodriguez Solorzano, C., Guleria, V., Rana, R., Fleischman, F. 2021. Limited effects of tree planting on forest canopy cover and rural livelihoods in Northern India. Nature Sustainability. Fischer, Harry, Ashwini Chhatre, Sripad Devalkar, and Milind Sohoni. 2021. Institutions, social networks, and self-organized adaptation to climate change. Environmental Research Letters. Fischer, Harry. 2021. Decentralization and the governance of climate adaptation: Situating community-based planning within broader trajectories of political transformation. World Development. Saxena, Alark, Anwesha Dutta, Harry Fischer, Alder Keleman, and Patrick Jantz, 2021. The Role of Forests in a “Green Recovery” from the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond. Forest Policy and Economics 131: 102550. Gupta, Divya, Harry Fischer, Suchita Shrestha, Syed Shoaib Ali, Ashwini Chhatre, Kamal Devkota, Dil Khatri, Pushpendra Rana. 2021. Dark and bright spots in the shadow of the pandemic: Rural livelihoods, state support, and local governance in India and Nepal. World Development. Dutta, A., Allen, J., Worsdell, T., Duffy, R., Kumar, K., Rai, N., Fischer, H., Shimray, G., Sherpa, P., 2021. Re-thinking the Global Safety Net: Local leadership in Global Conservation. Science Advances. Fleischman, Forrest, Basant, S., Fischer, H., Gupta, D., Garcia-Lopez, G., Kashwan, P., Powers, J., Ramprasad, V., Rana, P., Rastogi, A., Rodriguez Solorzano, C., Schmitz, M. 2021. How politics shapes the outcomes of forest carbon finance. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. Dutta, Anwesha, and Harry Fischer. 2021. The local governance of Covid-19: Disease prevention and social security in rural India. World Development. Fleischman, F., Basant, S., Chhatre, A., Coleman, E,. Fischer, H., Gupta, D., Güneralp, B., Kashwan, P., Khatri, D., Muscarella, B., Powers., J., Ramprasad, V., Rana, P., Rodriguez Solorzano, C. Veldman, J. 2020. Pitfalls of tree planting show why we need people-centered natural climate solutions. Bioscience. Nichols, Carly, Falak Jalili, Syed Shoaib Ali, Divya Gupta, Suchita Shrestha, and Harry Fischer. 2020. The gendered impacts of COVID-19 amidst agrarian distress: Opportunities for comprehensive policy response in agrarian South Asia. Politics and Gender. Fischer, Harry. 2020. Policy innovations for pro-poor climate support: Social protection, small-scale infrastructure, and active citizenship under India’s MGNREGA. Climate and Development 12(8): 689-702. Fischer, Harry, and Syed Shoaib Ali. 2019. Reshaping the public domain: Decentralization, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), and trajectories of local democracy in rural India. World Development 120: 147-158. Balls, Jonathan and Harry Fischer. 2019. Electricity-centered clientelism and the contradictions of private solar micro-grids in India. Annals of the American Association of Geographers 109(2): 465-475. Fischer, Harry. 2017. Harnessing the state: social transformation, infrastructural development, and the changing governance of water systems in Himachal Pradesh, India. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 107(2): 480-489. Fischer, Harry. 2016. Beyond participation and accountability: Theorizing representation in local democracy. World Development 86: 111–122. Fischer, Harry and Ashwini Chhatre. 2016. Assets, livelihoods, and the ‘profile approach’ for analysis of differentiated social vulnerability in the context of climate change. Environment and Planning A 48(4): 789-807. Fischer, Harry, N. L. Narasimha Reddy, and M.L Sanyasi Rao. 2016. Can more drought resistant crops promote more climate secure agriculture? Prospects and challenges of millet cultivation in Ananthapur, Andhra Pradesh. World Development Perspectives 2: 5-10. Fischer, Harry and Ashwini Chhatre. 2013. Environmental Citizenship, Gender, and the Emergence of a New Conservation Politics. Geoforum 50: 10-19. Persha, Lauren, Harry Fischer, Ashwini Chhatre, Arun Agrawal, Catherine Benson. 2010. Biodiversity conservation and livelihoods in human-dominated landscapes: Forest commons in South Asia. Biological Conservation 143(12): 2918-2925. Selected Grants and Fellowships: Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) (2019-2021): 5.6 million Swedish Kronor (€560,000) “Institutional networks and self-organized adaptation: Tracing the democratic architectures of climate response”. Lead investigator, with co-investigators Forrest Fleischman (U. of Minnesota), Dil Khatri (Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies, Kathmandu), Divya Gupta (Indian School of Business, Hyderabad). FORMAS (Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development) Urgent Grant (2020-21): 1.2 million Swedish Kronor (€120,000) “Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Forest Resource Use by Rural Communities in India” as lead investigator. FORMAS (Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development) Special call ‘Societal effects and opportunities for transition after Covid-19’ (2020-21): 1 million Swedish Kronor (€100,000) for project “Creating evidence for forest based resilience during COVID-19”. Fischer as lead investigator. FORMAS (Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development) (2021-2024): 4 million Swedish Kronor (€400,000) “How forest management, disturbance and restoration affect below-ground diversity and ecosystem functioning”. Project led by Mohammad Bahram (Department of Ecology, SLU). National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), USA (2017-20): $750,000 ‘Impacts of Afforestation on Sustainable Rural Livelihoods in India’. Collaboration with Forrest Fleischman (PI, Texas A&M), Pushpendra Rana (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), Ashwini Chhatre (Indian School of Business), Burak Güneralp (Texas A&M), Claudia Rodriguez-Solorzano (Darthmouth), and Eric Coleman (Florida State). Postdoctoral Fellowship, New Generation Network (NGN) Scholar, Australia India Institute, joint affiliation with the University of Melbourne and La Trobe University, 2016-2019. Research Fellow for the “Sentinel Landscapes” research project, a multi-collaborator effort to study joint human-environmental outcomes in several major forested landscapes around the world, led by Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), 2016. Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, India, 2014-16, to work with the Revitalizing Rainfed Agriculture Network. University of Illinois Graduate College Dissertation Completion Fellowship, 2013-2014. National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (NSF-DDRI), 2011-2013.“Democracy and Adaptation Effects of India’s Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGA)”. Fulbright-Nehru Research Fellowship, 2011-2012, for the project “Democracy and Equity in Water Access in the Indian Himalayas”. Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Grad Scholar Research Grant, 2010-2011.“Entrepreneurship and Adaptation to Climate Change: A Case Study from the Indian Himalayas”. $4,000. Fellow, Human Dimension of Environment Systems, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 2010-2011, 2009-2010. Popular Articles and Other Media: Fischer, Harry. 2017. Promoting India's panchayats as vanguards of local climate adaptation. Policy paper published as a part of the Australia India Institute’s series: A Very Short Policy Brief. Fischer, Harry. 2017. Adapting to climate change: Transforming agricultural production in the middle Himalayas. Blog for the Australia India Institute. Fischer, Harry. 2017. Common-pool water management in the Indian Himalayas. Podcast as part of La Trobe Asia’s ‘Asia Rising’ series. Fischer, Harry, Ashwini Chhatre, Sripad Devalkar, Sriharitej Kolagani, and Milind Sohoni. 2016. From apple juice to garlic pickle: Climate change adaptation in the Himalayas. ISB Insight: The Flagship Journal of the Indian School of Business. Fischer, Harry. 2007. Fear and oppression haunt the people of Myanmar. Des Moines Register, Oct. 29. Fischer, Harry. 2007. Fear and trembling in Myanmar. Iowa City Press-Citizen, October 4. |