On Oct. 10, Dr. Sandra J.T.M. Evers will discuss the effects of state-enforced land registration policies on local communities in Madagascar, and how these conservation and development policies collide with customary forms of law, governance, and land ownership. This Mini-Beatty lecture presents the findings of joint research project, of which Dr. Evers is acting director, between the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology (VU University Amsterdam) and the Institut de Civilisations/Musée d’Art et Archéologie (Université d’Antananarivo), that was launched in January 2005. During the first three years of this project, fourteen Dutch master students and fourteen Malagasy students jointly carried out fieldwork and research on natural resource management and poverty. This unique project allowed Malagasy and Dutch researchers to exchange viewpoints and combine synergies to better approach this important societal and academic thematic in a comprehensive manner.
Dr. Sandra J.T.M. Evers, the most recent recipient of the McGill Mini-Beatty Lecture award, is an eminent anthropologist, associate professor and senior researcher at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, VU University Amsterdam. She specialises in South West Indian Ocean studies, with a particular focus on Madagascar, Mauritius and the Seychelles. Dr Evers’ principal areas of research cover migration, slavery, memory and cognition, identity construction, frontier societies within the context of globalisation, natural resource management, poverty and sustainable development.
Mini-Beatty Lecture; Lex Loci meets Lex Fori: Merging Customary Law and National Land Legislation in Madagascar; Oct. 10; 5 p.m.—7 p.m.; Leacock Building, Rm 232; 855 Sherbrooke St. West. Reception to follow. Admission free. For more information got to www.indianoceanworldcentre.com, email iowc@mcgill.ca or call 514-398-6204 or 514-398-3102.