Bunker Roy

In 1972, Sanjit ​“Bunker” Roy founded the Barefoot College to help rural communities become self-sufficient. Now in locations from Africa to the Himalayas, These ​“barefoot solutions” address solar energy, water, education, health care, rural handicrafts, people’s action, communication, women’s empowerment and wasteland development. As Roy says, Barefoot College is ​“a place of learning and unlearning: where the teacher is the learner and the learner is the teacher.” In 2010 Roy was recognized by Time for the programs of the college which have trained more than 3 million people, and in 2013 he received the Clinton Global Citizen Award for Leadership in Civil Society. 

With support from the U‑M Office of the President, the Program in the Environment, the School of Natural Resources & the Environment, the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise, the India in the World Theme Semester, the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, the Pedagogy of Action project, and In Memory of Dick Ervin.