Cynthia Caron
Associate Professor, Sustainability and Social Justice
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As a development sociologist and practitioner in international development and humanitarian assistance, Cindy Caron's research focuses on gender relations in a variety of contexts: agricultural production, access to land and natural resources, land and natural resource governance, displacement, and reconstruction programming. She also researches adolescent girls empowerment programming and problematizes girlhood. Her research employs qualitative and interpretative methodologies.
She worked and conducted research in South Asia for over 25 years primarily in India, Bhutan, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. More recently she started working with development partners in Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda and Ethiopia. Living in Sri Lanka at the time of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, she spent five years managing and implementing a variety of post-tsunami relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction projects. For the United Nations, she managed a joint monitoring system that kept track of living conditions in over 400 transitional shelter sites housing tsunami-displaced families. She was Rehabilitation and Resettlement Program Manager for Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund (Germany) providing financial support, construction training, and engineering oversight to displaced communities so that they could construct new homes.She has worked with World Wildlife Fund-Bhutan, UNICEF, UNDP, the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions, CARE International, FAO, and the International Labor Organization (ILO). She also served as Land Tenure and Property Rights Specialist and Senior Research and Evaluation Manager on land rights programming with the Seattle-based non-profit, Landesa.
She speaks, to varying degrees, both Sinhala and Tamil and has published a Sinhala-to-English translation of a children's novel. Her publications can be found in the Journal of Extreme Events, Development in Practice, Contemporary South Asia, Forced Migration Review, Progress in Development Studies and the Journal of International Humanitarian Action.
She provides consulting services as a sub-contractor on USAID task orders, first with the Cloudburst Consulting Group on STARR ERC and now with TetraTech on CASA. She serves as a co-PI working with group of faculty and students updating USAID Climate Risk Profiles.
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vMUYbv8AAAAJ&hl=en
https://orcid.org/my-orcid?orcid=0000-0002-1990-6529Degrees
- Ph.D. in Development Sociology, Cornell University, 2003
- Master of Forest Science in Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, 1993
- B.A. in International Development and Social Change / Government, Clark University, 1990
Affiliated Department(s)
- Sustainability and Social Justice
- Marsh Institute, Center for Gender, Race, and Area Studies (CGRAS)
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Scholarly and Creative Works
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Madhanagopal, D. and Salim Momtaz (Eds.), Emerging socio-political perspectives of climate change: Focus on South and Southeast Asia.
Chapter: Relocation as a disaster risk reduction strategy: Socio-political insights from Sri LankaPublished by Routledge/Taylor and Francis
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2022
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Showing up “as More of My True Self”: Gender and Mushing in the United States.”
Published in Journal of Outdoor Recreation, Education and Leadership
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2022
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Land Governance and Gender: The Tenure-Gender Nexus in Land Management and Land Policy.
Chapter: “Women’s insights on bargaining for land in customary tenure systems: An individual or collective issue?”Published by CAB International
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2022
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“Understanding gender preferences in banana traits may improve design and adoption of new cultivars”
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2021
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South Sudan
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2021
International Organization for Migration
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Juba
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The Power of the Seasonal Calendar Method.
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2021
Bioversity International
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Kampala
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The Gender Division of Agricultural Labour in Uganda and Tanzania.
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2021
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Gender-Disaggregated Seasonal and Daily Calendars of Farmers in Uganda and Tanzania
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2021
Bioversity International
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Kampala
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Participatory community wealth ranking in banana-producing regions of Uganda and Tanzania
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2021
Bioversity International
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Kampala
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A Theory of Change for Improving Women’s Access to Housing, Land and Property (HLP).
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2021
International Organization for Migration.
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Juba
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Customary law, norms and practices and other factors that enable and constrain women’s access to housing, land and property (HLP) in South Sudan: A Desk Review
February
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2021
International Organization for Migration
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Juba
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“Who’s Governing Community Forests? Gendered Participation in Liberian Forest Management.”
July
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2020
World Resources Institute
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Washington, DC
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The Handbook of Gender in Asia.
Chapter: Gendering Work and Labor in the Agriculture Sector, a focus on South Asia”Published by Edward Elgar Publishing
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2020
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“Gender and Trait preferences for banana cultivation and use in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Literature Review.”
Published in Economic Botany
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2020
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Making relocation villages: Social networks, leadership and kin relations in the aftermath war and natural disaster.
48th Annual Conference on South Asia
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Madison, Wisconsin
October 2019
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2019
Sponsored by South Asian Studies Association
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Creating the ‘Girl Effect’: including boys and men to promote girls’ land and asset ownership
Published in Progress in Development Studies
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2018
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Vol. 18
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Issue #4
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Forest Access and Polycentric Governance in Zambia’s Eastern Province: insights for REDD+
Published in International Forestry Review
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2017
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Vol. 19
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Issue #3
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The Subject of Return: Land and Livelihood Struggles for Place and Citizenship
Published in Contemporary South Asia
Fall
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2016
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Vol. 24
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Issue #4
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Rescuing girls, investing in girls: A critique of development fantasies
Published in Journal of International Development
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2015
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Vol. 27
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Issue #7
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Carbon Offsets and Inequality: Social Costs and Co-Benefits in Guatemala and Sri Lanka
Published in Society and Natural Resources
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2009
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Vol. 22
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Issue #8
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Published in Journal of Asian and African Studies
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2007
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Vol. 42
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Issue #5
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Awards & Grants
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USAID Climate Risk Profiles
United States Agency for International Development
Jan. 2, 2024 - Sep. 30, 2024
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Development of Contextual Gender-Responsive Housing, Land and Property Approach & Materials in South Sudan
International Organization for Migration [IOM]
Oct. 26, 2020 - May. 31, 2021
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Linking Gendered Based Violence, Gendered Forest Governance and Forest Outcomes
World Resources Institute
Mar. 1, 2016 - Oct. 20, 2019
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Preparation of Land Sector Policy Papers (Sri Lanka)
Global Land Alliance and the Millennium Challenge Corporation [MCC]
Oct. 10, 2018 - Oct. 4, 2019
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Integrating Gender Equity into Small-Scale Coffee Farming and Livelihood Recovery in Post Irma & Maria Puerto Rico
Jun. 1, 2018 - May. 31, 2019
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After relocation: Place making, mobility and the conjunctures of resettlement programming following displacement
American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies
Aug. 10, 2016 - Dec. 31, 2018
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Documenting Women’s Leadership, Agency and Voice: Promoting Gender Justice within Customary-Based Tenure Systems
The Rights and Resources Initiative
Jun. 1, 2016 - Mar. 31, 2017
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Co-creating Research and Education Capacities to Understand, Visualize and Mitigate Climate Change Impacts, Cascades and Inequities in Central Mexico
National Science Foundation
Apr. 1, 2023
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Dean's Leadership Fellowship
Clark University
2020
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