Meet your director

I studied… (What? Where?)

All of my degrees have been in interdisciplinary “Development Studies”, first at the University of Toronto (BSc 1995), then the University of East Anglia (Ph.D. 1998). My training in anthropological and geographic methods keep me focused on the human, grassroots experience of development, which has covered topics as wide-ranging as soil fertility management, rural-urban migration, cellphones, and masculinities.

I began my teaching career (where, when?)

I started at the University of Ottawa in 2006, after about a decade of working as a Nairobi-based, social scientist in an international agricultural research organisation. My research and teaching continues to draw on concrete examples from rural and urban Africa, and my networks of peers throughout the Global South.

Why did I accept this position?

I wanted to play a role in supporting our School, its students, instructors, and other staff as we navigate this moment of trauma and a return to campus-based life. Change is hard, but development studies is all about understanding how to confront challenges that are interlaced with each other, like the pandemic, settler colonialism, or environmental crisis.