Teaching feminist economics to gender-blind policymakers in Hanoi

On 21 August I posted a blog for the International Association of Feminist Economics, of which I am a founder-member.  The post can be read here.

Recent activities, spring 2014

With the end of the winter term I move into a period of quite hectic activity. I have just started work on a new book, Feast or Famine: Small Farmers, Industrial Agriculture and the Future of Food and this will occupy a good deal of my time over the spring and into the summer.  In addition, I am revising an article for publication in Third World Quarterly and a chapter in an edited book on the agrarian transition in India.  The spring is also conference season for academics, and this is no different for me.  I will be part of a plenary at both Historical Materialism Toronto as well as the annual meetings of the Canadian Association for the Study of International Development in May, and will deliver a keynote address to the international conference on Feeding Cities: Rural-Urban Connections and the Future of Family Farming, being held at Ryerson University in June.

In mid-May I will also lead a masterclass for DPhil research students in development studies at Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford University, in the United Kingdom, as well as a class for MA and PhD students at the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, the Netherlands, in June.  Also in terms of teaching, June is the time when I prepare my fall and winter courses at Trent University.  My University administrative tasks will also continue.

In terms of my advisory work, I will continue in my role as a Gender and Poverty Adviser to the United Nations Development Programme's Gender Team. During the spring I will be starting preparations for a couple of assignments that will take place in the summer, in Vietnam and in Kenya, where I facilitate capacity-building activities in gender-responsive economics and economic and environmental policy. I have also agreed to act as an external adviser to an independent evaluation of UN Women's activities in women's economic empowerment.

It will be a busy spring.

Recent activities, winter 2014

As I head into 2014 the winter will be unusually busy, even by my standards. Of course, there is teaching, at Trent University: the Blackboard site for my winter term course, IDST - ANTH - SAFS 2600H, 'Peasants, food and agrarian change', is ready and teaching starts on Monday 6 January at 9 in the morning. I must say that I always look forward to teaching this course because it is, in a very real sense, what I do.  At the University I will also have my administrative responsibilities as Chair of the Department of International Development Studies. In terms of scholarly activity, there will be a lot of it. In early January I will give a Keynote Address at the 2014 Conference of the Atlantic International Studies Association Annual Meeting, in Sackville, Nova Scotia. In late January I will be off to Pondicherry in India -- my first trip in 5 years -- to give a paper at a conference on The Agrarian Transition in India. I will then be delivering a Keynote Address to the annual International Development Studies Student's Association conference at the University of Toronto in Scarborough. Other talks are probable as I continue to promote my most recent book, Hungry for Change: Farmers, Food Justice and the Agrarian Question. In terms of my advisory work, I will continue in my role as a Gender and Poverty Adviser to the United Nations Development Programme's Gender Team as they continue to roll out the Global Gender and Economic Policy Management Initiative in the Asia-Pacific region. I will complete revisions to a training module on gender, economics and the environment in early January, and in February will travel to Vietnam -- my first trip in 7 years -- to deliver tailor-made training to senior civil servants in the economics ministries of the Vietnamese government.  I will also spend some time in Seoul as part of that work in May, to which I look forward. There is also the possibility of some work with the UN Capital Development Fund as I have designed a major project for them. It will be a busy winter.