Bhoomi International Conference 2019 - Our Speakers

Conference plenary speakers and dignitaries

The conference will see thinkers, educators, activists, practitioners of sustainable living from around the world who have been offering positive action towards solving issues in economics and education for sustainability.

Anja Lyngbaek, Denmark/Mexico

Anja is an Associate Programmes Director of Local Futures and coordinator of the International Economics of Happiness Conferences Series. She has worked extensively to further sustainable local food systems. She co-founded Microcuenca del Rio Citlalapa AC – a local NGO focused on agroecology and eco-design and several learning initiatives for sustainable living. For the past decade, Anja has been advocating for a systemic shift towards healthy place-based economies.

Sonam Wangchuk, India

Sonam Wangchuk is the co-founder of Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL) and Himalayan Institute of Alternatives(HIAL), Ladakh. He is an engineer, innovator and education reformist. SECMOL was founded as a reformist movement against the alien education system that was foisted on Ladakh. His vision for the Himalayan Communities to lead sustainable lives has resulted in innovations like the Ice Stupa and passive solar heated buildings. Sonam has been awarded by various platforms notably Ramon Magsaysay award 2018 and many more.

Devinder Sharma, India

Devinder Sharma is a distinguished food and trade policy analyst, an award-winning Indian journalist, writer, thinker, and researcher. Trained as an agricultural scientist, Sharma has been with the Indian Express and then quit active journalism to research on policy issues concerning sustainable agriculture, biodiversity and intellectual property rights, environment and development, food security and poverty, biotechnology and hunger. Well known for his forthright views on the implications of the free trade paradigm for agriculture in developing countries, Sharma has been dubbed the ‘Green Chomsky’ of India.

Claude Alvares, India

Claude Alvares is a renowned environmentalist and director of the Goa Foundation, an environmental monitoring group. He has been instrumental in carrying forward the work of the great Gandhian historian of India, Dharampal. Alvares has worked extensively on natural education, creativity and organic farming and has developed a holistic philosophy of life. He is the ideator behind the mulitveristities alliance movement which seeks broadly to decolonise thinking and curricula in our universities.

Rebecca Martusewicz, USA

Rebecca is a Professor in the Department of Teacher Education at Eastern Michigan University. For over 20 years, her focus has been on EcoJustice Education and activism, providing educators with the information and classroom practices they need to help develop citizens who are prepared to support and achieve diverse, democratic, and sustainable societies. She is the author/co-author of several books on ecojustice, including , Art, EcoJustice, and Education, and EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse, Democratic and Sustainable Communitie

Dr Erach Barucha, India

Dr. Bharucha is a surgeon, wildlife photographer, biodiversity conservationist, environmental educationist, author and Director of Bharatiya Vidyapeeth Institute of Environmental Education and Research. He has written extensively on nature conservation, environmental studies and sustainable development. He is author of the environmental studies textbook for undergraduate courses. Dr. Barucha has traveled, studied and documented Indian National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries extensively over the last three decades.

Aseem Srivastava, India

Aseem Srivastava is an environmental economist, activist, thinker and philosopher. He has been an economics professor for many years in the US and India and most recently a philosophy professor in Norway. Aseem has done extensive research, written and presented studies at international forums on issues associated to globalization, its impact and the interconnections between globalization, economics and ecology. He is the co-author of Churning the Earth : The Making of Global India.

Seetha Ananthasivan, India

Seetha Ananthasivan is founder trustee of K.N.A.Foundation and Bhoomi College. Her areas of interest include Explorations in inner and outer ecology, Ecological Education, and working with management processes based on principles of Nature. She is the editor of the Bhoomi magazine and the Founder of Aastha Foundation and Prakriya Green Wisdom School.

G Gautama, India

Gautama is the Director-Secretary of the Palar Centre For Learning (Pathashaala & Outreach) of Krishnamurti Foundation India (KFI). He was Principal of The School KFI in Chennai from 1991 to 2009, where he guided several initiatives such as Active Learning, Mixed Age Group Learning in Junior and Middle school and a dynamic and wide learning programme for High School students. An engineer by education Gautama is an educationist, deep thinker and practitioner of sustainable lifestyle.

Indira Vijaysimha, India

Indira is an educationist who has worked extensively in teacher training programmes and is presently a faculty member of the Azim Premji University. Indira is the founder of Poorna Learning Centre in Bangalore, an alternative school which emerged out of Indira's experiences from home-schooling her own children and from her reflections as a teacher and teacher educator. Poorna Learning Centre promotes inclusive and ecologically sustainable education.

Alex Jensen, USA

Alex is Project Coordinator and Researcher at Local Futures, coordinating their Ladakh Project. Alex has worked with cultural affirmation, agro-biodiversity and environmental health projects in a number of countries, and is active in the environmental health/anti-waste and degrowth movements. He is a core group member of the Vikalp Sangam/Alternatives India initiative and the emerging Global Tapestry of Alternatives, initiatives aimed at facilitating collaboration amongst alternative and social/ecological justice movements around the world.

Rema Kumar, India

Rema, Director of Bhoomi College and Associate Editor of the Bhoomi Magazine, is an educationist with over 20 years experience of teaching in schools in India. She has been involved with Prakriya Green Wisdom School since it’s initial years; Co-creating the institution, partnering in the visioning and living out the dream of humanising education in tune with nature’s principle. Rema is also a trained facilitator of programmes on self-exploration and institution building. She is a keen story teller, passionate about deep ecology and education for sustainability.

Gijs Spoor, India and Netherland

An Ashoka Changemaker, Gijs Spoor is the founder of UnLtd TN, a social business incubator based in Auroville, India. With a background in organic agriculture, fair trade and cotton textiles industry, Gijs is passionate about building inclusive value chains that allow direct and meaningful relationships between the producers and consumers. Gijs has been actively researching and working towards forming alternative currencies.

Henry Coleman, Australia

Henry has been working with Local Futures in India and Australia since 2015. He is involved with the organisation from the age of 15, after questioning conventional development and the global consumer culture. Henry coordinates Local Futures’ projects in Ladakh, runs workshops on The Economics of Happiness and ‘Big Picture activism’ and gives talks about localisation. In 2017, he co-founded Wildspace – an experimental community learning space in New South Wales, Australia.

Join us for an enlivening and meaningful two days of talks, discussions and networking.

Dates of the Bhoomi Conference 2019: September 28th and 29th 2019
Venue: Sathya Sai Samskruta Sadanam, Hosur Road, Bangalore (View Map)

Conference fees**: INR 2000/- (per person) for two days including dinner for second day

**Scholarship will be provided to students on first come first basis

Write to bhoomiprogrammes@gmail.com for more details

Register here to join the conference

Please Note:

We arecommitted to making this conference a zero waste space. We would like to avoid plastics and paper cups.

Hence we request you:

  • To bring along your own cup/glass for water and tea etc.
  • Carry a bottle of water for yourself
  • Car-pool or use public transport if possible.

Please note that limited parking space is available at the venue and at the neighbouring Forum Mall.

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