Priscilla (Pris) Corbett is a Doctoral student in the Department of Geography. She holds a Master of Philosophy degree in Geography and the Environment from the University of Oxford and a Bachelor of Science (Honors) degree in Environmental Sciences from the University of Southampton. She has held positions in the non-profit sector, academia, and academic publishing.
At the broadest level, Pris is interested in how people work together: how institutions of both society and state function, and how they interact. Her previous research has focused on women’s self-help groups in rural India and what happens when women take ownership of groups organized by and ultimately intended to serve the interests of the state. Her Doctoral research explores the gender dynamics of mobilizations for forest rights among Indigenous and other forest-dwelling populations in central India. She is particularly interested in how communities use gendered norms and expectations strategically in pursuit of their aims, how campaigns for forest rights intersect with broader economic transitions and how this impacts upon youth, and the role of understandings of, and claims to ethnic identities in shaping perceptions of the legitimacy of rights claims. She is invested in employing feminist and postcolonial theory and methodologies in her research.