Clara Randimbiarimanana

Clara Randimbiarimanana is a fourth-year Ph.D. student from Antananarivo in Sociocultural and Applied Anthropology at the University of Arizona. Her overall interests focus on participatory development and environmental justice in Africa. She specifically investigates and engages with the ways in which community voices and cultural capital are valued in approaching education, and environmental discourses. Clara received her master's degree in Anthropology from the University of Arizona in 2021, where her research focused on the importance of using various dialects, especially in social science subjects to promote decolonial and learner-centered education in Madagascar. Her current project explores ecological funds of knowledge in Atsimo Andrefana Madagascar and Dakar, Senegal. More specifically, it looks at how community-based cultural practices and expressions can help people cope with the ongoing environmental injustice in both places. Prior to her graduate studies, she earned her bachelor's degrees from Lafayette College, in Pennsylvania in Sociology & Anthropology, and International Affairs with a concentration in social justice and human rights in Africa. She also served in a few positions in the international development field through her positions with Management Systems International (MSI) in the D.C area and ESDA Friendly Haven in Windhoek, Namibia.