Dr. Meenal Shrivastava

Biography

After spending nine eventful years in South Africa, Meenal Shrivastava joined Athabasca University in April 2006, where she coordinates the Political Economy program and is developing a Global Studies program. She and Lorna Stefanick recently completed an edited volume entitled Alberta Oil and the Decline of Democracy in Canada, which examines the impact of Alberta oil on the practice of democracy in the province and its spillover effects for the country. Dr. Shrivastava is also working on a second book-length manuscript, which is a narrative historical biography based on multi archival research related to the participation of women in the Indian national movement. Meenal’s life provides many examples of her field of research - agents and processes of globalization. Born and brought up in Jaipur, a 500 years old city of forts, palaces and colours on the edge of the Great Indian Desert, she studied at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, for her MPhil and PhD in International Studies. Marriage took her to balmy South Africa where she briefly taught at the University of Transkei in the Eastern Cape, home to Nelson Mandela. Subsequently, she lived with her physicist husband in one of Africa's most vibrant cities, Johannesburg, where they both taught at the University of the Witwatersrand, or Wits University, from 2000-2006. During her exciting six years at Wits University, she taught graduate and postgraduate courses in the fields of International Political Economy and International Relations, supervised more than twenty research projects, and periodically conducted guest modules for trainee diplomats at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Pretoria.

Research Interest

Defining the complex concept of `globalization’ as a description, a process, as well as an ideology, Dr. Shrivastava’s research interests includes various aspects and agents of globalization as seen through the lenses of International Political Economy and the emerging field of Global Studies. Her research has led to many academic publications, paper presentations, media opinion pieces, interviews, and guest lectures in South Africa, India, Canada, and the US.