Dr. Meenal Shrivastava is Professor and coordinator of Political Economy and Global Studies. Born and raised in India, she earned her degrees in English Literature and Modern Indian History from Rajasthan University, and her M.Phil and Ph.D in International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. Prior to joining AU in 2006, Dr. Shrivastava spent nine eventful years teaching in South Africa at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (2000-2006) and the University of Transkei (1998-1999). Dr. Shrivastava teaches in the areas of Political Economy, Global Studies, and International Relations at Athabasca University. She was Chair of the Centre for Social Sciences from 2017 to 2020 and serves on several editorial and governance boards in Canada and beyond. She has been an invited speaker at various academic and literary events in Canada, India, South Africa, and the United States.
Dr. Shrivastava's research broadly examines the drivers and manifestations of ‘globalization’, and their impact on the institutions and practices of democracy. She sees ‘globalization’ as a contested description, an ideology, as well as a complex process along a historical continuum of global movement of humans, ideas, institutions, commodities and technologies. Consequently, her publications, talks, and courses cover themes as varied as aspects of democracy, public policy, development studies, global history, women/gender studies, and disciplinary building blocks, connected to the central thread of the political economy of our relentlessly globalizing world. Her academic research has so far led to the publication of three books: Write in Power: An Anthology of the Personal and the Political (The Hidden Pen Collective: Bangalore, 2021), Amma’s Daughters: A Memoir (AUP, 2018) and Alberta Oil and the Decline of Democracy in Canada (AUP, 2015). She has also published more than one hundred and fifty articles, book chapters, papers, and opinion pieces.
Research interests
Specialization: International Political Economy, International Relations, Global Studies, Development Studies
Research interest: Dimensions of Globalization, International Trade Relations, Environmental Management and Politics, Regime Theories, Critical Theory, Democracy Studies, Women & Gender Studies, Global History, Contemporary Canada, Sub Saharan Africa, and South Asia
Educational credentials
Ph.D. (Jawaharlal Nehru University)
M.Phil. (Jawaharlal Nehru University)
M.A. (Rajasthan University)
Books
Harish, Vijayalakshmi, Anushree K., Rohini Malur, Vijayashanthi Murthi, and Meenal Shrivastava (Eds.). 2021. Write in Power: An Anthology of the Personal and the Political (Bangalore: The Hidden Pen Collective)
Shrivastava, Meenal and Lorna Stefanick (Eds.). 2015. Alberta Oil and the Decline of Democracy in Canada (Edmonton: AUP) (Open source download at www.aupress.ca/index.php/books/120251)
Select journal articles
“Invisible Women in History and Global Studies: Reflections from an Archival Research Project” Globalizations, Vol. 14 (1) (2017), pp. 1-16.
“Political Economy of Higher Education: Comparing South Africa to trends in the World” with Sanjiv Shrivastava (2014) Higher Education: The International Journal of Higher Education Research (Springer), Vol. 67 (6), pp. 809-822.
“Do Oil and Democracy only clash in the Global South? Petro Politics in Alberta, Canada” with Lorna Stefanick, New Global Studies, Vol. 6 (1), Article 5, May 2012 (26 pgs.).
“India in Africa: From Political Alliance to Economic Partnership” Politikon: Special Issue on Emergent Powers in Africa, Vol. 36(1), 2009, pp. 117-143.
“Globalizing 'Global Studies': Vehicle for Disciplinary and Regional Bridges?” New Global Studies, Vol. 2 (3), Article 4, 2008 (Berkley Press) (22 pgs.).
Select chapters in books
“The International Order: From Empire to Globalization” in Janine Brodie, Malinda Smith, Sandra Rein (eds.) Critical Concepts 6/E (Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2021)
“Perils of Petroculture in a Neoliberal Resource Economy” in Brodie, Janine (ed.) Contemporary Inequalities and Social Justice in Canada (U of Toronto Press, 2018), pp. 127-141.
“Global Perspectives: What's Left Out? ChIndia and Transnational Social Movements – Challenging the Inter and the National in the International System”, in Janine Brodie, Malinda Smith, Sandra Rein (eds.) Critical Concepts: An Introduction to Politics, 5/E (Toronto: Pearson, 2013), pp. 260-273.
“Inventions and Discoveries: Why and How do they Matter to Global Studies”, in Mark Juergensmeyer, Helmut K. Anheier (eds.) Encyclopedia of Global Studies, Vol. 2 (Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2012), pp. 958-964.