The Transregional Collaboratory on the Indian Ocean was born of environmental realities—the Indian Ocean is the fastest warming ocean in the world—and principles central to the SSRC mission. Since its inception in 2019, the program has united scholars across the region and the globe focusing on the social implications of environmental issues such as saltwater intrusion, disruption of traditional trade patterns, and changing migration dynamics. While the Collaboratory focuses on a central location and theme, it has disrupted traditional ways of understanding regional and environmental issues by bridging geographic, institutional, and academic boundaries. The program was purposefully designed to foster a new model of transnational research ethics that emphasizes South-South collaboration and supports institutions and researchers that have been overlooked by models of research funding and collaboration historically driven by institutions from the Global North.

This project emerged from several strands of topical inquiry within SSRC programs, as well as a burgeoning attentiveness to the role that funders and funding collaborators in the Global North can play in perpetuating inequalities in knowledge production in the Global South, even via projects that were nominally collaborative. The Collaboratory has sought to support novel modes of engagement through which locally-situated researchers can access the resources needed to coproduce knowledge alongside international peers.

With generous funding from the Mellon Foundation, the program funded research planning and implementation projects, supported pioneering, experimental working groups, and helped realize multiple scholarly convenings. This website serves as a record of the Collaboratory’s work, and a platform for researchers and practitioners alike to explore the overlapping themes of social and environmental change, and ethical collaboration.