Researching at the London School of Economics

I joined the PhD programme at the Development Studies Institute (DESTIN) of the London School of Economics and Political Science on the 10th of October 2004, after I crossed over the Atlantic from Boston where I was working with the Youth Employment Summit Campaign. There are 9 of us in my batch and all my fellow research students are really cool and committed people coming from around the world. We have build a strong community here where we can support each other. I am also really honoured to have the best and the most supportive supervisors in my department who have both been an inspiration to me. I have had a great time here in the past 10 months reflecting on what I have done in my life so far and figuring out where I am heading next. I have been learning about how the academic world operates and finding out where I fit in the whole equation. So now after completing all my core academic requirements, I am all set to take off to do my field work in my home state Meghalaya, the "Land where the clouds come home" in North East India.

My research is focused on the implications of the Supreme Court logging ban on the rural livelihood strategies of the forest dependant communities in my state. I will be gone for about 4 months starting from September 2005 through January 2006 to collect my data from the field. I will be studying how the poor people are coping to sustain their livelihoods after the logging ban through agricultural intensification, diversification and migration in two sample villages located in different districts using both qualitative and quantitative methods to answer my research question. I will then return to the LSE in London to analyse my data before writing the finding on my 100,000 words thesis. This whole process should take me about 3 years to complete and hopefully I will walk out of the great academic institution with a doctorate degree in 2007. I have got miles and miles to go, so wish me luck!