At Syracuse University, I am a faculty affiliate/associate across several programs and departments, such as Women’s and Gender Studies Department, International Relations Program, Center for Environmental Policy and Administration (CEPA), South Asia Center, Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs, Tolley Humanities Faculty, Democratizing Knowledge Collective, and Asian/Asian-American Studies.

I am also a Visiting Faculty Fellow at the International Center for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) of the Independent University in Bangladesh.

Bhan has written a variety of books, including  , which examines the relationship between everyday forms of militarization and social life in Kashmir, with a focus on how state-based economic development and environmental interventions normalize everyday forms of violence through registers of care, compassion, and humanitarianism. In 2018, she co-authored  , which challenges the modernist binaries between nature and humanity, and offers a situated and place-based assessment on how human and nonhuman entanglements produce climatic assemblages across space and time.

With her colleagues from the Critical Kashmir Studies Collective that she helped co-found in 2013, she co-edited . Envisioned as a critical feminist collaboration among scholars who do engaged and advocacy work in Kashmir, the book foregrounds voices of Kashmiri scholars, and explores the social and legal logic of India’s occupation of Kashmir.

Professor Bhan is co-editor of the HIMALAYA, the flagship journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies, and on the editorial board of AGITATE, published through the University of Minnesota Libraries. Her writings and interviews have appeared in several media and print outlets such as the BBC, Al Jazeera, TRT, Kindle, Open Democracy, and Outlook.

Before coming to Syracuse, Mona taught at DePauw for twelve years where she was the Otto L. Sonder Jr. Chair of Anthropology. Bhan received her Ph.D. in Anthropology from Rutgers University.

The world’s large rift valley lakes are outstanding laboratories for understanding the interaction of tectonic, climatic, and depositional processes, and are particularly useful for developing models for hydrocarbon exploration in ancient rift systems. These large, deep lakes contain thick accumulations of sediment dating back millions of years, and are among the best places on the continents for reconstructing past climates. Recent field programs have involved scientific drilling in tropical lake basins, the recovery of high-resolution sediment cores from lakes, and the imaging of sedimentary lake basins at various scales, using seismic reflection datasets techniques.

Current areas of active research include: landscape evolution in response to tectonics, changes in climate and sea level; development of density models for the mantle by integrating seismic tomography and mantle convection modeling; melt generation and extraction during continental rifting; carbon cycle of the Hadean-Archean Earth; and surface deformation in response to flat-slab subduction. Inherent to my research is high-performance computing and the development and continuous improvement of geodynamic and landscape evolution software.

She has particular interest in the biotic and climatic evolution of the early Cenozoic, with longstanding projects in the molluscan records of the US Gulf Coastal Plain and Antarctica.  Work on the chemistry of Permian and Cretaceous bivalves relates to paleoseasonality and the oxygen isotopic composition of seawater.  Research on growth rate and lifespan explores the evolution of life histories in deep time, including the evolution of extreme longevity.  Other interests include the long-term dynamics of ecological assemblages, including the proposed pattern of coordinated stasis, and how the architecture and composition of the sedimentary record influence metrics of Phanerozoic diversity.

He also examine effects on wetlands, the Great Lakes, urban ecosystems, coastal waters and the open ocean. Over the past 35 years, he has advanced new analytical techniques, established and maintained long-term measurements and experiments, and developed a series of research and predictive models that simulate transformations of major chemical elements in forest vegetation, soil and surface waters in response to air pollution, climate and land disturbance. Beyond theory, he is interested in testing ‘in situ’ strategies to reverse the damaging effects of acid rain and mercury contamination and eutrophication. Current research includes using models, field experiments and measurements to examine: ecosystem effects of changing climate and acidic, nitrogen and mercury deposition; the effectiveness of “green” water infrastructure in storm water management; and ecosystem restoration.