Department of Anthropology
 354 Baker Hall
 Michigan State University
 East Lansing, Michigan 48824
 Tel: 517-432-1669
 Fax: 517-432-2363

  Women and International Development
  206 Center for International Programs
  Michigan State University
  East Lansing, Michigan 48824
  Tel: 517-353-5040
  Fax: 517-432-4845

As a member of the Department of Anthropology and Director of the Women and International Development Program at Michigan State University (MSU), I engage in research, teaching, and program development in the areas of gender and feminist studies, international development, and agricultural and environmental change. My research, teaching, administration, and service are united by a longstanding focus on international development, informed by theoretical approaches drawn from political economy, political ecology, and feminist theory. I approach international development as an arena of research and practice. My focus on public policy contributes to Anthropology's concern to advance policy-relevant anthropology.

Research: My research has critically examined international development initiatives and policies as they relate to poverty alleviation and agricultural and environmental change in Southern Africa, often employing a feminist political ecology framework. In Malawi, where most of my fieldwork has centered, I have studied the gendered social construction of agricultural technology and natural resource management programs and policies. These investigations include a focus on scientists, policy makers, and other development planners, as well as villagers and other actors in environment and development initiatives. I am actively engaged in anthropological fieldwork, generally spending six to eight weeks a year in Malawi. In 2000, with the support of a Fulbright Hays Faculty Research Abroad Program grant, I carried out eight months of research in Malawi and Zimbabwe on water reform processes. Since 2000, my continuing research on water policy reform and new water management institutions has been funded by the USAID BASIS Collaborative Research Support Program. My research has involved participation as a member of a team of scientists addressing common problems from different disciplinary perspectives. I have collaborated with plant and soil scientists, hydrologists, agricultural economists, sociologists, historians, and other anthropologists at US and Southern African universities, particularly the University of Malawi.

Teaching and Mentoring: My research and administrative experience in international development and feminist studies has contributed directly to my teaching, as I draw on my continuing fieldwork and publications to enrich my courses. Since 2000, I have developed and taught three new environment and development-related graduate courses in the Anthropology Department ~ Political Ecology/Economy of Health; Gender, Justice, and Environmental Change: Issues and Concepts (co-taught with Dr. Tracy Dobson in the Fisheries and Wildlife Department); and Gender, Justice, and Environmental Change: Methods and Applications. These last two classes constitute core courses in the Gender, Justice, and Environmental Change Graduate Specialization discussed below.

I serve on the committees of many graduate students in the Anthropology Department, as well as in other departments, who are planning dissertation research related to feminist, gender, and international development studies. I offer advice in identifying sources of dissertation funding and writing effective dissertation grant applications. In addition to MSU students, I have served on more than a dozen graduate committees of Malawian students attending MSU or the University of Malawi, many of whom now head academic and non-governmental programs in Malawi or the Southern African region.

Professional Service: I am an active member of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), and have regularly organized panels and presented papers at the annual meetings. I also attend and present papers at the annual meetings of the African Studies Association and the Society for Applied Anthropology. In the AAA, I have served as President of the Culture & Agriculture Section, and as a member of the Executive Board of the Anthropology and Environment Section. I have twice been elected to the Executive Committee of the AAA. In these capacities, I have been outspoken in my belief that Anthropology has much to say to policy makers and program planners, while at the same time building theory and advancing the discipline itself.

Women and International Development: My academic background and interdisciplinary research experience positions me to collaborate with faculty and students from across the university in my capacity as Director of MSU's Women and International Development Program. Nearly 150 faculty and 120 graduate students from almost all of the colleges and professional schools at MSU are affiliated with WID. An active Advisory Committee, composed of faculty representatives from five colleges and student representation, provides advice and assists in program planning.

WID functions as a catalyst for research and teaching on campus, nationally, and internationally in the areas of international development, globalization, and feminist and women's studies. As Director, I generate external funding to support internationalization of faculty research and teaching, as well as fellowships and dissertation research funding for graduate students. WID and the Center for Advanced Study of International Development (CASID) have successfully competed for two US Department of Education Title VI Program grants and Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS) awards as a National Resource Center (NRC) in the area of international studies. WID and CASID are one of only three NRCs at MSU and one of eleven in International Studies in the US. NRCs are recognized as centers of excellence and are designed to deepen knowledge in their fields through strengthening the knowledge base of faculty and students on campus and at other colleges and universities in the region.

WID publishes the nationally recognized WID Bulletin three times a year with information on new resources related to gender, development, and global change, and the WID Working Papers series, featuring current research on these topics (see the WID Website at http://www.wid.msu.edu). WID also regularly sponsors speakers' series and hosts visiting scholars. Two graduate specializations are offered: Gender, Justice, and Environmental Change and the Graduate Specialization in International Development. During 2004-05, WID collaborated with faculty and administrators in the College of Social Science to develop a new undergraduate degree in Global and Area Studies which has a concentration in Gender and Global Change. We expect this new degree offering to be available to undergraduate students in 2006.

In addition to these academically-oriented awards, WID collaborates with other centers on campus in writing successful State Department, Office of Citizen's Exchange, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs grants. Since 2000, these awards have permitted us to bring women political activists from West Africa to the US for training in web and internet skills, enabling them to communicate more effectively with constituencies in their own countries and the West African region. A second grant allowed us to bring newly elected local government officials from Malawi and Ghana to Michigan for internships to develop their administrative and financial management skills, and to send local government specialists from Michigan to Malawi and Ghana to become acquainted with the challenges faced by local government in these contexts. Our USAID-funded WID Indefinite Quantity Contract (IQC) with Management Systems International and The Futures Group provides faculty with the opportunity to work with USAID missions around the world in gender-related programming.

For more information on WID and the resources it makes available to faculty, students, policy makers, and development practitioners, please consult the WID Website at http://www.wid.msu.edu.

For more information on the Gender Justice and Environmental Change Graduate Specialization, consult http://www.gjec.msu.edu.