On Monday 29 August, Dr. Vandana Shiva, the world-known philosopher, environmental activist, and eco-feminist, will give a public lecture in Háskólabíó. The lecture, which begins at 17:00, is open and free of charge.

The academic and activist Vandana Shiva is known for her work on the environment, sustainable development and human rights. She promotes organic farming and is one of the most important critics of genetic modification of plants in the world. Ever since she participated in the Indian environmental group Chipko in the 1970s she has been a fierce critic of the globalization of corporate capitalism and she is one of the leaders of the International Forum on Globalization. Vandana Shiva is a strong opponent of multinational corporations overtaking food production and of the privatization of water supplies. She is considered one of the foremost ecofeminists in the world today and sees the fight for gender equality and the fight for the preservation of the environment as intrinsically connected.

Vandana Shiva was born in India in 1952. She was trained as a physicist and received her Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Western Ontario, specializing in quantum mechanics. She later went on to interdisciplinary research in science, technology and environmental policy at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. In 1982, she founded the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology (RFSTE) in her hometown of Dehra Dun in India. She is also one of the founders of Navdanya,  a non-governmental organization which promotes biodiversity, organic farming, the rights of farmers, and the process of seed saving. In 2004, Vandana Shiva started Bija Vidyapeeth, an international college for sustainable living, in collaboration with Schumacher College, U.K. She has served as an adviser to governments as well as non-governmental organisations and is currently working on a 3 year project with the Government of Bhutan, which aims to become the first country in the world fully organic in their food production.

Vandana Shiva has published over 500 academic papers and 20 books. She has been awarded numerous awards for her works, among them the so-called „Alternative Nobel Prize“, or the Right Livelihood Award.

For more information on Vandana Shiva in English, see:
Facebook: Opinber fyrirlestur Vandana Shiva / Vandana Shiva Public Lecture
http://www.ecobooks.com/authors/shiva.htm
http://www.navdanya.org/

For more information on Vandana Shiva in Icelandic, click here.