Senior Scholars at Queens

Field Trip: Carolina Raptor Center
2025-04-15 10:00 - 12:00 (America/New_York) | Carolina Raptor Center, 6000 Sample Rd, Charlotte, NC, 28078, United States
DATE: April 15, 2025
TIME: 10 am
COST: $14/person
ADDRESS: 6000 Sample Rd., Huntersville, NC 28078
CARPOOLING: Because parking is limited, carpooling is encouraged. Meet in the lower lot of Providence United Methodist Church at 9:40. Please let us know if you will be carpooling in the registration form.
The ¾ mile Raptor Zoo Trail is a self-guided tour highlighting raptors. There are 30 different types of birds located along the trail with educational placards and docents available to answer questions. There is also a new Quest Nature Center and picnic area located on the grounds. Take advantage of the of the spring weather and the opportunity to visit with fellow Senior Scholars, so bring a lunch and enjoy the day!
The $14 per person fee must be paid to Senior Scholars by end of business April 10.
Contact Pam Nemecek with questions.
Use the RSVP button to access a form to sign up and purchase your ticket.

Fluid Geopolitics of South Asia with Parag Jyoti Saikia
2025-04-18 10:00 - 11:00 | Zoom Only
GREAT DECISIONS TOPIC: Fluid Geopolitics of South Asia: Challenges and Opportunities
SPEAKER: Parag Jyoti Saikia, Doctoral Candidate, Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
India is at a volatile crossroads in South Asia. In summer 2024, India lost one of its close allies as student uprising deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Towards the end of 2024, China announced to build new dams on rivers originating from Tibet, threatening India’s efforts to build similar dams downstream. Such tensions are not new in international relations, India’s reaction to China’s growing financial and infrastructural influence in South Asia has been closely observed. Drawing from scholarship on Indo-China relations and personal experience of growing up in a frontier area, my talk will discuss India’s challenges and opportunities to becomes a regional and global leader.

BIOGRAPHY
Parag Jyoti Saikia is studying the construction of a hydropower dam in India to understand how infrastructures in-the-making shape everyday life, the environment, and geopolitics. He is a doctoral candidate in anthropology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNC). His research is supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, Social Science Research Council and UNC’s Graduate School. He is a public-engaged scholar who has also been awarded to Public Scholar’s Training Fellowship from SAPIENS magazine. For nearly a decade, he has been associated with grassroots organizations working on dams, rivers, and the environment, and been writing about these issues both in English and Assamese, his mother tongue. His writings have appeared on The Conversation, SAPIENS, South Asia blog of London School of Economics, The Wire, and Asia Times.

NOTE: This meeting will be Zoom only. There will be no in-person meeting due to Good Friday and PUMC being closed.
