Banting Fellowship Award to Ranjan Datta

University of Saskatchewan College of Education research facilitator Dr. Ranjan Datta has been awarded the prestigious Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship.

By Nicole Betker, Education Communications

Banting Fellowship Award to Ranjan Datta

University of Saskatchewan College of Education research facilitator Dr. Ranjan Datta has been awarded the prestigious Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship for his research project that focuses on working with Indigenous communities to learn how best to mitigate the negative impact that pipeline leaks have on their communities.
Datta will work out of the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy (JSGS).

Working with Indigenous communities, Datta will generate and share knowledge about the impacts of energy, exploration, extraction and pipeline leaks on Indigenous people and their resiliency. The project, entitled Indigenous energy philosophy–creating a collaborative resilient energy transition, will also focus on creating better energy management strategies and policies.

Datta said pipeline leaks have affected several Indigenous communities and have been costly to human life and infrastructure.

“While pipeline projects bring income to some, and wealth to a few, their impact on the environment and on the lives of many Indigenous groups is profoundly concerning,” said Datta. “Indigenous communities are particularly vulnerable to pipeline leaks, yet have limited capacity to mitigate them as compared to larger urban centres. Indigenous people’s meaningful engagement and their perspectives are crucial in their energy management.”

But, he continued, the problem is attention to pipeline leaks management mainly focuses on engineering solutions versus more strategic approaches that focus on enhancing community resiliency.

“This project will start with Indigenous ways of knowing about the relationships of Indigenous peoples with land, water and energy. Then, in conjunction with the impacts of the entire supply chain of energy pipelines, including pipeline leaks, we will use what we learn about resiliency from Indigenous communities and incorporate them into policies,” said Datta.

Datta’s Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship application ranked 13 out of 178.  Only 23 fellowships were awarded across the country. To find out more about Banting Fellowships, visit the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships website.