Wazir Mohamed

Associate Professor, Sociology
Humanities and Social Sciences
Tom Raper Hall 266
(765) 973-8250 (Office)
wmohamed@indiana.edu

Education

• Ph.D., Sociology, Binghamton University, 2008
• M.A. Sociology, Binghamton University, 2003
• B.S. Communication, University of Guyana, 1997

International Scholar - From Guyana

Current Scholarly/Research Interests

• Intersections of Atlantic slavery, particularly the rise of slavery in the age of abolition, the second slavery in Cuba, Brazil, and the USA with the persistence of ethnic divisions and marginalization of the descendants of slaves in the African Diaspora of the Caribbean and the Americas. Member of the International Research Seminar on the Second Slavery -This network brings together a growing number of international researchers (approximately 36) whose academic interest and research intersects with the Second Slavery.
• Research the connection between land control, land use, and land ownership with marginalization of most of the working people in post-colonial societies.
• Currently thinking about and making sense of the factors producing large-scale change in farming patterns, especially in the Guyana Shield and the Amazon-and the environmental/ecological impact of these developments on the planet.
• Involved in transnational discourses on the importance of “brain gain,” as a means of addressing the effect of “brain drain,” on poor countries.

Research Statement

Foundation of my research

My experiences growing up in racially divided Guyana in the 1960s and 1970s shaped my research for the Ph.D. at Binghamton University (SUNY) in New York and are influencing my scholarship today. My work is an intervention in the historical-theoretical debate on the role of slavery, colonialism and capital in the formation of race and ethnic relations and offers creative opportunities on new ways to understand ethnically imbued conflicts.

Intersections – Research/Community Activism, and Most Recent Community and Professional Engagements

• 2017- participated with the World Wildlife Fund in a project that examines the impact of Mega –Large Scale Agriculture on the livelihoods of the Indigenous Communities in the North Rupunnni (on the Guyana/Brazil border), and on the environment in the Guyana Shield.
• 2017-served as Special Technical Advisor to the Minister of Education in Guyana. Scholarly Collaboration
• 2017-present-University of Guyana. Advisor and Consultant on Diaspora Engagement.

Most recent publications

• Mohamed, Wazir (Forthcoming September 2019). Local Impact of Global Change: Rice and Sugar in the memory and history of Africans and East Indians in Guyana. In Alissa Trotz & Arif Bulkan (eds.), Unmasking the State: Politics, Society and Economy in Guyana 1992-2015. Kingston: Ian Randle.
• Mohamed, Wazir (2018). Race and Class Marginalization through the Prism of Globalization of the Rice Industry. In Michaeline Crichlow & Patricia Northover (eds.), Review. Publication of Collection of Papers on the Study of Race and Rurality in the Global Economy. Albany: SUNY Press.

Recent Academic Awards/Recognitions

• 2019: Faculty Special Achievement Award-Indiana university East.