Biography
Vinisha Singh Basnet is a PhD student in Department of Urban and Regional Planning and is also pursuing MS in Entomology here at the UIUC. She was the recipient of Global Intersections Grant organized by Center for Global Studies in 2019. The Global Intersections Grant supported her to design an undergraduate curriculum on understanding Climate Change and its socio-political tussles from global perspectives.
Research Interests
Currently, she is working in understanding the ecology and geography of bed bug infestation in the lower-income housing in the United States. Her research interests lie in examining the natural and human system as an integrated ecology.
Research Description
She holds rich experience in conducting community-oriented participatory research work in remote villages of central and eastern India. Prior to joining her PhD program in 2019 she co-anchored an action-research project funded by Ford Foundation, India towards conceptualizing and designing a germplasm/seed-repository of an economically important resin producing insect’s species Kerria lacca. In creating this seed-repository which she named Living Brood Lac Bank she collaborated with the forest-dependent indigenous communities, local Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), state government organizations/scientific institution to integrate different knowledge systems to co-create a sustainable insect rearing system.
Education
2019 (Ongoing) PhD, Urban and Regional Planning, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
2021 (Ongoing) MS, Entomology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
2016 MA, Environment & Development, School of Human Ecology, Ambedkar University Delhi
2012 BA, (Honours) English, University of Delhi
Courses Taught
Teaching Assistant for UP204 | Ecology and Environment Sustainability | Spring 2020 & 2022
Teaching Lab Instructor for UP203 | Cities: Planning & Urban Life | Fall 2021
Teaching Assistant for UP504 | Urban History and Theory | Fall 2019