Daniel Haines

Dan is an environmental historian, focusing on hazards and environmental politics in twentieth century India, Pakistan and the South Asia region. He writes and speaks about environmental and South Asian affairs via policy forums, television and radio. His research is interdisciplinary and often collaborative.

As RDR's Director of Education and Student Experience, he has oversight of undergraduate and taught postgraduate learning in the department. He was previously programme leader for the MSc Risk, Disaster and Resilience. 

He recently completed a two-year secondment to the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Dan's key publications and writings include:

BOOKS
-2017: Rivers Divided: Water in the Making of India and Pakistan, Oxford University Press (New York), Hurst and Co. (London), Penguin HarperCollins (New Delhi), 260 pp.
-2013: Building the Empire, Building the Nation: Development, Legitimacy, and Hydro-Politics in Sind, 1919-1969, Oxford University Press, 281 pp.

SELECTED ACADEMIC ARTICLES
-2024: 'Heroic Fear: Emotions, Masculinity, and Dangerous Nature in British Colonial Adventure Narratives', Environmental Humanities
-2024: 'Timescapes, subjectivity and emotions after the India-Tibet earthquake, 1950’, Past & Present
-2023: ‘Recovering the status quo: Earthquake aftermaths in colonial India’, Disasters
-2022: 'Development, Citizenship, and the Bhakra-Nangal Dams in Postcolonial India, 1948-1952’, The Historical Journal
-2021 (with Matthew I. England): ‘Topography and the Hydraulic Mission: Water Management, River Control and State Power in Nepal', International Journal of Water Resources
-2017 (with Elisabeth Leake), 'Lines of (In)Convenience: Sovereignty and Border-Making in Postcolonial South Asia, 1947-1965’, Journal of Asian Studies


POLICY ANALYSIS
-2023: ‘How Not to Prepare for an Earthquake: Lessons from history’, UCL IRDR blog, https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/irdr/2023/08/16/how-not-to-prepare-for-earthquakes/
-2023: ‘India and Pakistan Are Playing a Dangerous Game in the Indus Basin’, commentary for United States Institute for Peace (27,000 views in first week after publication), https://www.usip.org/publications/2023/02/india-and-pakistan-are-playing-dangerous-game-indus-basin
-2022: ‘Do Not Renegotiate the Indus Waters Treaty’, policy briefing published by PolicyBristol, https://www.bristol.ac.uk/policybristol/policy-briefings/indus-water-treaty/
-2020: Interview for Brookings India: 'Linking border-making and sovereignty in postcolonial South Asia', https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/05/28/sambandh-blog-linking-border-making-and-sovereignty-in-postcolonial-south-asia/
-2017: ‘To Catch a Flow: A bold compromise is needed for the Indus Waters Talks’, Outlook magazine (India), 27 March
-2017: ‘The Rivers Run Wild’, Newsweek Pakistan, 8 March

See also the Publications tab for a full list of academic writing
See also the 'Videos' links.