Category: Communications

  • Raise and Rise – Funding sources for your startup in the era of digital transformation & blockchain – Victoria Silchenko, Ph.D. (Book Review)

    Raise and Rise is a book that promises to “change your perspective on venture financing and possibly life,” as Victoria Silchenko promises. For those who don’t have the time to read through this review, and want a TLDR version of this review: Yes, she lives up to the promise. She offers a critical view of…

  • Top 6 things you should do, if you travel for adventure

     Ever wondered what you should do, if you travel to an off- the path destination? I had similar thoughts as I planned my trip to Ecuador, a country that actually has pretty good travel infrastructure. However, given that we were going to be hiking and part of the trip was going to be in rural…

  • How does tourism promote development? – Part 2

    Two models of eco-tourism The past ten days have been extremely educational for many reasons, one of them being in increasing my understanding of eco-tourism. I traveled to Ecuador and witnessed first-hand two models of eco-tourism that are markedly different, but offer incredible insights into how this form of tourism can aid in development as…

  • How does tourism promote human development?

    As someone who is new to understanding tourism and its impact on human development, I came across an academic article that asks the question which is quite literally the chicken and egg situation: which comes first, tourism or development and does one lead to the other, even though they may be correlated, at times?    …

  • How to help the people of Syria and Turkey – without breaking rules around U.S. Sanctions?

    By now, it is increasingly becoming clear that the earthquake that impacted Syria and Turkey on 6 February, is a massive humanitarian disaster. This crisis like others in war-torn and conflict zones is unique in that American aid cannot reach the potential beneficiaries, with ease.  For those Americans who want to donate to NGOs, or…

  • Why more grad students should study/ travel abroad in 2023

    I took a small group of students to Tijuana, Mexico in December 2022. We visited the “most dangerous city in the world,” and a city that is often associated with crime, violence and all negative stereotypes, to learn about migration and the “migrant crisis.”

  • Five reasons you should join a professional association

    Students and colleagues who know me know that I am an advocate for joining professional associations. I am a member of several of them, ARNOVA, ASPA, SAJA, among others. As a grad student, I initially was reluctant and during my master’s program didn’t really see the value of joining one. But once I started my…

  • Why bother with Direct Trade?

    Is Direct trade – a model for fairer trade? What does direct trade mean? In simple terms, it means buying directly from the producer.  In the world of small batch production – crafts, arts or even food commodities, produced by small producers, often there are many middle-men/ women, who are part of the supply chain.…

  • Have you learnt your crisis communications lessons, yet?

    Covid-19, economic recession of 2008, 9/11 attacks and a great many other events should have taught us one thing: crisis management. I firmly believe that if you have been paying attention to these events then you’d have picked up at least a few lessons in crisis management/ communications along the way. If you haven’t, no…

  • Amidst the Chaos and social strife lets ask “What would Gandhi do?”

     For those scholars and activists who are following India, there is not much good news coming out of the subcontinent. Day after day, there are reports of riots, planned attacks on minorities and institutional corruption that has forced many democracy watchers to downgrade India’s standing as a democracy. Amidst the silence of the leaders of…

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