Passing it On: Inclusion from the Roots Up

The Department of Anthropology presents an exciting colloquium talk by Drs. Ann Kingsolver and Sasikumar Balasundaram who will be discussing their connected careers in anthropology, focused on engaged intergenerational listening and helping students develop relationships with other students globally and with the earth itself.

Event Details

ann, sasi

Date: Thursday, March 18, 2027
Time: 3:00 p.m.
Location: Gambrell Hall 429
Reception: Reception to follow the lecture
Cost: Free Event
Registration: Requested

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About the Event

Drs. Kingsolver and Balasundaram will reflect on their long-standing collaboration in anthropology, highlighting the role of engaged, intergenerational listening in fostering meaningful connections among students, communities, and the more-than-human world. Their partnership began in Sri Lanka in 2004, when Dr. Kingsolver, then a faculty member in Anthropology at the University of South Carolina, met Dr. Balasundaram, an undergraduate at the University of Peradeniya who later completed his Ph.D. at USC. Drawing on over two decades of shared teaching, research, and mentorship, they will discuss strategies for connecting classrooms across national boundaries, integrating social, economic, and environmental justice into anthropology curricula, and cultivating reciprocal relationships that encourage students to learn from one another and from beings of all ages. Their conversation demonstrates how collaborative, globally engaged anthropology can nurture both cross-cultural understanding and deeper connections with the living world.

Speaker Bios

Ann E. Kingsolver is a cultural anthropologist whose research examines the impacts of capitalist globalization and transnational policies on rural communities worldwide. She taught in the University of South Carolina's Anthropology Department in 1991 and again from 1996–2011, during which she served as department chair before joining the University of Kentucky, where she is Professor of Anthropology and Arts & Sciences Endowed Professor. She is the author or co-editor of several books, including NAFTA Stories (2001), Tobacco Town Futures (2011), The Routledge Companion to Contemporary Anthropology (2017), Appalachia in Context (2018), and Global Mountain Regions (co-ed., with Sasikumar Balasundaram, 2018).

Sasikumar Balasundaram is a cultural anthropologist by training and an interdisciplinary scholar by practice. He was born and raised in a postcolonial tea plantation in the up-country of Sri Lanka. He received his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina and has previously taught in various higher educational institutions. Currently, he resides on an organic farm in New Kent, Virginia. He is the Executive President of Harvest Earth, a non-profit focused on racial justice, food justice, and climate justice. His teaching and research interests include globalization, refugees, state violence/terrorism, humanitarian aid, climate activism, social media, and engaged research with children and youth in plantation communities. His work includes Global Mountain Regions: Conversations toward the Future (2018).

Department of Anthropology