Liza Grandia, Assistant Professor at Clark University’s International Development, Community, and Environment (IDCE) Department, has been granted a Fulbright Canada award to conduct research at McGill University. Grandia will focus on Dow Chemical’s NAFTA challenge of Canada’s ban of the herbicide 2,4-D, due to its alleged links to cancer causation.
Professor Grandia will join McGill’s Institute for the Study of International Development as a Fulbright Visiting Research Chair. Her project, “Dandelions or Cancer: Exploring Risk, Sovereignty, and the Rule of Law in Dow Chemical’s NAFTA Challenge of the Canadian 2,4-D Bans,” will explore the myriad perspectives on the issue among physician organizations, cancer survivor groups, consumers, environmental NGOs, lawn care businesses, and trade lobbyists.
“Dr. Grandia is extremely deserving of this award, and I have no doubt her research will offer unique and critical insight into the debates surrounding this landmark case,” said Michael Hawes, Executive Director of Fulbright Canada.
Grandia joined the Clark University faculty in 2007 as a specialist in cultural anthropology. Her early scholarship focused on multisector approaches to community-based conservation, with on-the-ground research being conducted in Guatemala and Belize. Her new research interest in exploring the cultural aspects of the global cancer epidemic follows her recently won battle with lymphoma.
An engaged member of the Clark community, Grandia has been widely published in academic and peer-reviewed journals. She holds her Ph. D in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.A. in Women’s Studies from Yale University. She has received several fellowships and awards to recognize her research and teaching, and received an “Unsung Hero” Award from the UC Berkeley’s Chancellor’s Office for having “gone beyond the call of duty to transform students’ lives.”
“Liza is an outstanding young scholar who has already accomplished a great deal in her career,” IDCE Director William Fisher noted. “I am confident that her research will shed new light on this complex and important topic.”
By engaging the brightest minds through academic exchanges, Fulbright Canada seeks to enhance mutual understanding between the people of Canada and the people of the United States. Through its bilateral academic exchanges, outstanding students, scholars and professionals strengthen Canada-U.S. relations by examining a wide range of subjects which are critical to the relationship between the two countries.
