• Environmental Violence, with a focus on the mitigation of risk and vulnerability pre and post natural and technological disasters.
• Technology Assessment, with a focus on the social, economic, and environmental consequences of emerging technologies.
• Environmental Governance and Entrepreneurship, with a focus on the design of new, adaptive, institutions - governmental, non-governmental, and corporate, and frameworks of assessment and accountability.

Rajan’s goal is to nurture rigorous research that can anticipate and respond to the next generation of policy challenges. His approach is borne out of the conviction that good public policy can only be made on the basis of a sound understanding of contexts and history. He therefore draws upon the methodologies of disciplines such as analytical philosophy, environmental and economic history, geography, sociology and anthropology.

Please click on the relevant side bars to learn more about Rajan’s various research projects over the past few years and the directions in which he is now headed. For more specifics, including a list of publications, please see his profile page in the ‘faculty’ section of UCSC’s Environmental Studies site.