Omar Faruque

Dr. Omar Faruque is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton. During 2019-2021, Dr. Faruque was a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Global Development Studies at Queen’s University. Earlier, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh and a Research Associate (Agriculture and Rural Development Division) at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS).

Dr. Faruque’s broad research interests are positioned at the intersection of Political Sociology, Environmental Sociology and Global Sociology. More specifically, he is interested in contentious politics/social movements, with a focus on sustainable energy future, resource extraction, environmental governance, and climate politics. Drawing on conceptual toolkits derived from a wide range of critical social theory, he uses interpretive epistemologies as a methodological framework (i.e., interpreting the meaning of human action is the way to generate empirical knowledge of a social phenomenon) and qualitative in-depth interviews as the primary research method in his research.

Moving beyond a disciplinary tradition, his research program draws on theoretical issues and empirical research from multiple disciplines: Sociology, Political Science, Political Economy, Anthropology and Geography. His research projects also address themes related to three United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (Goal-7: Affordable and Clean Energy; Goal-13: Climate Action; Goal-16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions). His research in this area of scholarship will enhance the role of universities committed to advancing the UN’s SDGs within and beyond their local communities.

Dr. Faruque is also involved with a multidisciplinary global network of scholars: Climate Social Science Network (CSSN) at Brown University. He is a member of its working group on Natural Resources, Energy and Climate Obstruction in the Global South.

His work appears in PLOS Climate, Critical Sociology, Social Movement Studies, Asian Journal of Social Science, Asian Journal of Political Science, Journal of Contemporary Asia, The Extractive Industries and Society and Canadian Journal of Development Studies.

Dr. Faruque’s current research project, funded by Climate Social Science Network (CSSN), examines the political economy of sustainable energy future in South Asia (with an empirical focus on Bangladesh’s energy and climate policies and actions). He is also involved in a collaborative research project examining actors, discourses and strategies of climate obstruction/delay across the Global South.

Education

PhD, Sociology, University of Toronto
MA, Sociology, University of Toronto

Research interests

Contentious politics/social movements
Energy futures/just transition
Environmental justice/environmental racism
Environmental governance
Politics of climate crisis
Political economy of development
Resource politics

Teaching interests

Environmental sociology
Global/transnational sociology
Introductory sociology
Political sociology
Qualitative methods
Sociology of development
Social movements
Sociological theory

Publications

Edwards G, Gellert PK, Faruque O, Hochstetler K, McElwee PD, Kaswhan P, et al. 2023. “Climate Obstruction in the Global South: Future Research Trajectories.” PLOS Climate 2(7): e0000241.

Milani, Carlos R. S., Guy Edwards, Jonathan R. Walz, Kathryn Hochstetler, Omar Faruque, Prakash Kashwan, Pamela McElwee, Ruth E. McKie, Timmons Roberts. 2021. “Is Climate Obstruction Different in the Global South? Observations and a Preliminary Research Agenda.” Climate Social Science Network (CSSN) Position Paper, 2021:4.

Faruque, O. 2021. “Foreign Investment, Mining Conflict, and Contested Development in Bangladesh.” Canadian Journal of Development Studies 42(4):537-555.

Faruque, O. 2020. “Nationalist Imaginaries and Political Mobilization against Global Extractive Capital.” Critical Sociology 46(7-8):1251-1266.

Faruque, O. 2019a. “Articulation of Movement Demands and the Politics of Solidarity against Extractive Capital in Bangladesh.” Asian Journal of Social Science 47(2):224-254.

Faruque, O. 2019b. “Confronting Neoliberal Resource Policy: Mining Conflict and Coal Politics in Bangladesh.” Pp. 60-82 in Social Movements Contesting Natural Resource Development, edited by John F. Devlin, London: Routledge.

Faruque, O. 2018a. “Contested Resource Extraction, Anti-Corporate Protests and the Politics of Movement Alliance in Bangladesh.” Journal of Contemporary Asia 49(3): 410-433.

Faruque, O. 2018b. “Mineral Resource Development in Bangladesh: An analysis of the Conflict over the Phulbari Coal Project” (in Bangla). Bangladesh Unnayan Shamikkhaya (Bangladesh Development Studies) 35:123-154.

Faruque, O. 2017a. “The Politics of Extractive Industry Corporate Practices: Anatomy of a Company-Community Conflict in Bangladesh.” The Extractive Industries and Society 5(1):177-189.

Faruque, O. 2017b. “Mining and Subaltern Politics: Political Struggle against Neoliberal Development in Bangladesh.” Asian Journal of Political Science 26(1):65-86.

Faruque, O. 2016a. “The Phulbari Coalmine and Energy Politics in Bangladesh” (in Bangla). Sarbojonkotha: Journal of Politics, Economy and Society 2(4):49-57.

Faruque, O. 2016b. “Neoliberal Resource Governance and Counter-Hegemonic Social Movement in Bangladesh.” Social Movement Studies 16(2):254-259.

Conference presentations

2023a. “Climate Crisis and the Politics of Low Carbon Energy Future in Emerging Economies,” at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Philadelphia, August 17-21.

2023b. “Climate Injustice and Energy Transition,” at the New Energy Summer Summit, Dartmouth College, Hanover, July 23-26.

2023c. “Climate Crisis, Energy Infrastructures, and Contested Technological Optimism,” at the Canadian Sociological Association Annual Conference, May 29-June 2.

2022a. “Social Movements and Policy Outcomes in an Authoritarian Regime,” at the Canadian Sociological Association Annual Conference (Virtual), May 16-20.

2022b. “Slow Violence, Environmental Governance, and Social Movement Outcomes in a Hybrid Regime,” at the British Sociological Association Annual Conference (Virtual), April 20-22.