This event, featuring Dr. Shivani A. Patel and Dr. Ishanika Sharma and held in collaboration with Rollins School of Public Health, took place on December 3, 2024, as part of a global week of action to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster. Learn more about the disaster, demands of the survivors, and what you can do by visiting www.bhopal.net/40th.
December 3, 2024 marks the 40th Anniversary of the Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster, which remains the worst industrial disaster in history. Today, well over 150,000 people in Bhopal battle chronic illnesses, with 500,000 lives physically and economically impacted. For four decades, affected communities have demonstrated remarkable resilience—documenting ongoing environmental pollution and health impacts while maintaining their unwavering struggle for justice. This discussion will center on lessons from Bhopal for building effective advocacy and fostering global solidarity around environmental issues.
Bhopal 40th Anniversary Slides
Dr. Shivani A. Patel is Associate Professor in the Hubert Department of Global Health. As a student activist, she worked with the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal and Greenpeace to advocate for corporate accountability following the Bhopal gas disaster. She later spent over a decade working with grassroots environmental movements in India. She will draw on these experiences during the discussion.
Dr. Ishanika Sharma is Assistant Professor of postcolonial literature at the University of North Texas and a graduate of Emory’s PhD program in English. Her work examines narratives of catastrophe in South Asia. She analyzes the stakes of storytelling in the wake of Carbide’s leak in Bhopal. She is interested in what a postcolonial lens offers to the narrativization of catastrophe as such.