My Interviewees as Professional Writers

Douglas Fernandes, "Mapo do Chile- mapa de Chile- map of Chile" via flickr.com, 01/19/2008
Attribution 2.0 Generic

My interviewees are on both ends of the publication spectrum. One of them, Professor Doshi, is very experienced in not only the field but also in publishing in various types of genres. My other interview subject is a graduate student who has just begun to navigate the world of publishing in the environmental field.

Dr. Sapana Doshi

• Professor Doshi is a very experienced writer, evidenced by her large amount of publications, ranging from journal articles to websites to entire book chapters. Most of her work is focused on issues, both social and environmental, in the Indian continent. 

• In 2013, Doshi co authored a journal article about geopolitics in relation to feminism, 
  "Domesticated Dispossessions: Towards a Transnational Feminist Geopolitics of Development". This article is a discussion on the gender/social movements in both rural Guatamala and Urban India, with a specific emphasis on dispossesion by the female gender. A book chapter that she wrote, titled “Rethinking Gentrification in India: Displacement, Dispossession and the Specter of Development", is focused on the displacement of the Indian poor within the urban communities.

• There have been issues with gender inequality in this area, dating very far back into history, leading to a general lower societal status for anyone of the female gender. Arranged marriages and female circumcsion are only two of the current issues in India and South Eastern Asia. Environmental issues also have a large affect on the current policies in the country, especially with industrial waste and drought. 

• The issues in this and other countries are not going to simply go away, and geopolitcal issues and social movements are not mutually exclusive. This is only expounded upon in her book chapter, from the coauthored novel, Gentrification, Globalization and the Post-colonial Challenge;"Over the last decade, a surge in scholarship on the displacement of the urban poor in Indian cities has highlighted the need for post-colonial engagement." 
• Professor Doshi's work is to emphasis the issues in these areas that have been ignored for too long. The article and the book chapter depend on her personal research as well as other previous projects performed by fellow professors and researchers.

Sofia Borgias

• Borgias is new to the field, with a undergraduate degree in International Studies, received in 2013 from the University of Oregon. For her degree she had to publish her undergraduate thesis paper, which is now under the process of peer review to be published in a highly regarded academic journal.

• Her undergraduate thesis paper, Patagonia Without Dams: Framing, Democracy and Social Transformation in Chile, was published in 2013 by the Clarks Honors College at the University of Oregon. This paper, much like her two other papers which are currently undergoing the process of publishing. However, she did collaborate with a few colleagues here at the UofA to publish in a journal, which required them to write under a specific theme. The research paper requires the author to explain and provide data on a specific issue, a journal simply requires it to follow a certain theme.

• Like Dr. Bauer's paper's, Sophia chose to write about the water policy situation in Chile. However, unlike his research, she chose to focus on the current situation of daming in the Maipo River basin and the effect it has on the native population in the area. The current water policy, which has been in place since 1981, has allowed for unequal distribution if water, and this dam would prevent the native peoples from getting even the little amount the receive.

• In the paper, Borgias use data and narrative in order to explain the current situation in the South American country. She feels, like Bauer, that the policy needs to be changed in order to create more water equity. She often references her own experiences during her stay in the country, and also when she studied the Patagonia Sin Represa group. The group is dedicated to preventing the dam from being built, which Borgias agrees with. 

• The purpose of the paper is to not only inform, but also to change minds, especially about water policy. This is evident by her specific points and strong voice, especially during her narrative sections.