Research Work
Dr. Ali's research focuses on the causes and consequences of environmental conflicts and how ecological factors can promote peace. He is also on the adjunct faculty of Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies and on the visiting faculty for the United Nations University for Peace (Costa Rica), where he teaches a course on Indigenous Environment and Development Conflicts. Much of his empirical research has focused on environmental conflicts in the mineral sector. In September 2007, he was chosen as one of eight "revolutionary minds" by Seed magazine. Dr. Ali has also been a regular commentator for Vermont Public Radio and a columnist for Pakistan's Express Tribune newspaper and the Daily Times. He has contributed op-ed pieces also for notable international newspapers such as The International Herald Tribune and the The Boston Globe and Foreign Policy.
Dr. Ali is also a member of the World Commission on Protected areas and the IUCN Taskforce on Transboundary Conservation. He has also been involved in promoting environmental education in madrasahs and using techniques from environmental planning to study the rise of these institutions in his ethnic homeland of Pakistan, under a grant from the United States Institute of Peace. In much of his research efforts, Dr. Ali involves a multi-media component, often involving his students in making video documentaries of their empirical work. From 2005 to 2008, he received two grants from the Tiffany & Co. Foundation to investigate the environmental and social impact of gemstone and gold mining. Two video documentaries were also produced through this effort and are available for viewing online. He is also completing a report on oil and gas pipelines as a source of cooperation that was researched while based at the Brookings Institution research center in Doha, Qatar in 2009. His report on "Ecological Cooperation in South Asia" was launched in Washington at an event hosted by Peter Bergen in January, 2013.
Prior to embarking on an academic career, Dr. Ali worked as an environmental health and safety professional at General Electric. He also served as a consultant for the Environmental Protection Agency, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Health Canada. Yet others of his projects included a mining impact prospectus for the Crow Nation and research assistance to Cultural Survival.
A professional mediator, he has also conducted workshops on consensus-building for private and public interests. In addition to that, he has been involved in conducting peer reviews of research publications for the World Bank, the International Institute for Sustainable Development, the Woodrow Wilson Center, Yale University Press, the Natural Resources Forum, and several scholarly journals.
Read more about this topic: Saleem Ali (academic)
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