Program Faculty
Kiran Asher, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, International Development, Community and Environment Department
Dr. Asher attempts to bring about social change by addressing issues of power related to gender, race, and historical location. Her research and teaching interests include: Culture and power, political economy, gender studies, the politics of biodiversity conservation, and Latin American studies. Her scholarly interests also address postcolonial, marxist, and feminist theories of power, and the nexus of nature/culture and politics.
Tel: 1-508-421-3823
Email:
David Bell, Ed.D.
Associate Professor of Practice, International Development, Community, and Environment Department
Associate Professor of Practice in International Development and Social Change
IDCE Assistant Director
Education, empowerment, social transformation and community development
Tel: 1-508-793-7568
Email:
Ramon Borges-Mendez, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Community Development and Planning
Coordinator of the Graduate Program in Community Development and Planning
Dr. Borges-Mendez has written on various public policy issues: workforce development; labor markets; Latino CBO’s; Latino poverty and community development in the United States; immigration; decentralization and civil society matters in Latin America. His research and teaching interests include, Urban and regional economic development, labor markets and workforce development, political economy, Latin America, Latinos in the U.S. and immigration, governance, non-profits and institutional development, and research methods.
Tel: 508-421-3838
Email: rborgesmendez@clarku.edu
Anita Häusermann Fábos, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, International Development, Community, and Environment Department
Associate Professor of International Development and Social Change
Coordinator of the Graduate Program in International Development and Social Change
Ethnicity and race, gender, urban refugees, Sudanese immigrants and refugees, Middle Eastern immigration and naturalisation policies, transnationalism and citizenship, transnational Islam, narratives of exile, Hungarian refugees
Tel: 1-508-421-3826
Email:
Jude Fernando, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, International Development, Community, and Environment Department
Associate Professor of International Development and Social Change; Director of Peace Studies Program
Economic development and political economy, with emphasis on non-profit organizations, environment, gender, and child labor, particularly in South Asia
Email:
William Fisher, Ph.D.
Professor and Director, International Development, Community, and Environment Department
Dr. Fisher's research centers on the social and environmental impact of large dams, forced displacement, transnational advocacy, competition over natural resources and non-governmental organizations. His research and work for such agencies as CARE, USAID, and the UNDP have taken him to several continents. Other research activities, mostly in South Asia, include ethnic associations, competition for natural resources, non-governmental associations, and the role of participation and community-based institutions in development planning and action.
Tel: 1-508-421-3765
Email:
Ellen Foley, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, International Development, Community and Environment Department
Assistant Professor of International Development and Social Change
Anthropology of development, gender, Islam, knowledge systems, medical anthropology and West Africa
Tel: 1-508-793-3815
Email:
Liza Grandia, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, International Development, Community, and Environment Department
Assistant Professor of International Development and Social Change
Coordinator of the Undergraduate Program in International Development and Social Change
Political economy and corporate capitalism, the commons, political ecology and the politics of biodiversity conservation, peasants and agrarian change, Mesoamerica and the Q’eqchi’ Maya people, DR-CAFTA and the Puebla to Panama Plan, indigenous knowledge and cultural survival, the global cancer epidemic
Email:
Heidi Larson, Ph.D.
Associate Research Professor of International Development and Social Change
Risk analysis, risk communications, public health issues, including HIV/AIDS, TB, and child health and vaccines, particularly focusing on the socio-cultural and political determinants of health, including the role of religion and belief systems
Ken MacLean, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of International Development, Community, and Environment
Assistant Professor of International Development and Social Change
Director of Asian Studies Program
States and state-effects, political violence, extractive industries, displacement and irregular migration, critical humanitarianism, (late and post-) socialism, legal regimes, science and technology studies, and comparative cartographies in Mainland Southeast Asia and the Greater South China Sea
Tel: 1-508-793-8817
Email:
Hamil Pearsall, Ph.D.
Jennie Stephens, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of International Development, Community, and Environment
Assistant Professor of Environmental Science and Policy
Coordinator of the Graduate Program in Environmental Science and Policy
Climate change science and policy, energy technologies, CO2 capture and storage, renewable energy, energy infrastructure in China, the use of science in environmental decision-making
Tel: 1-508-793-8846
Email:
Visiting Faculty
Marianne Sarkis, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of International Development and Social Change
Dr. Sarkis is an applied medical anthropologist who is currently conducting research on the contentious relationship between African women refugees, health care professionals and biomedicine. Her research examines the link between acculturation, reproductive experiences, and strategies and fertility rates among African immigrants in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Tel: 508-421-3898
Email: msarkis@clarku.edu
Department Instructors
Ruth Allen, M.A.
Dodi Swope,
Research Faculty
Joseph de Rivera, Ph.D.
Professor, Hiatt School of Psychology
The structure and function of different emotions, the relationships between emotion and action, the social psychology of non-violent action for peace and justice
Email:
Cynthia Enloe, Ph.D.
IDCE Research Professor
The interactions of feminism, women, militarized culture, war, politics and globalized economics in countries such as Japan, Iraq, the US, Britain, the Philippines, Canada, Chile and Turkey
Richard Ford, Ph.D.
IDCE Research Professor
Resource trends and resource management in Africa, community participation and sustainable development, conflict mediation, community-based planning, monitoring and evaluation
Tel: 1-508-793-7691
Email:
Barbara Thomas-Slayter, Ph.D.
IDCE Research Professor
Local institutions, women and public policy, peasant-state relations, gender issues, non-governmental organizations
Tel: 1-508-793-7454
Email:
Adjunct Faculty
Parminder Bhachu, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Sociology
Dr. Bhachu is interested in emergent cultural forms and cultural identitities in border zones and niche markets innovated from the margins by multiply-moved new global citizens. Her work deals with the production, circulation, and marketing of cultural products and commodities in multiple sites around the globe and their interpretation in local contexts. These research topics build on her long term interests in immigrant enterprises, multiple migrations and diasporas, race and ethnicity, cultural nationalisms, and consumer and popular cultures in global markets.
Tel: 1-508-793-7599
Email:
Jody Emel, Ph.D.
Professor, School of Geography
Resource/environmental geography, animal geographies, feminist/social theory
Tel: 508-793-7317
Email:
Odile Ferly, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of French, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures
Dr. Ferly's research interests are Caribbean literatures and cultures from a comparative perspective, including the Anglophone, Francophone, and Hispanic regions. She studies especially contemporary women's writing from the Caribbean and its diaspora. Her work focuses on the issues of race and gender in connection with history, language, and the Caribbean literary tradition. She teaches interdisciplinary courses on literatures and cultures from Francophone countries, on French popular culture, immigration in France and on Caribbean writing from comparative perspective.
Tel: 508-793-7723
Email:
Jacqueline Geoghegan, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Economics
Tel: 1-508-793-7709
Email:
Amy Ickowitz, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Economics
Tel: 1-508-793-7281
Email:
James T. Murphy, Ph.D
Associate Director and Associate Professor, School of Geography; Adjunct Associate Professor, International Development, Community and Environment Department
Economic geography, technological change, sustainable development, developing economies
Tel: 508-793-7687
Email:
Richard Peet, Ph.D.
Leo L. '36 and Joan Kraft Laskoff Professor of Economics, Technology and Environment; Professor, School of Geography
Political economy of development, social theory, marxist geography
Tel: 508-793-7364
Email:
Paul W. Posner, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science
Dr. Posner's current research focuses on democratization and political participation in developing regions, particularly Latin America. He is also interested in the impact of economic globalization and related state reforms on social organization and collective action in both developing and developed countries, and in comparative environmental policy and democratization in developing countries. Dr. Posner is also affiliated with the Latin American and Latino Studies Concentration.
Tel: 1-508-793-7253
Email:
Dianne Rocheleau, Ph.D.
Professor, School of Geography
Environment and development, political ecology, forestry, agriculture and landscape change, with an emphasis on the role of gender, class and "popular" vs. "formal" science in resource allocation and land use.
Tel: 508-793-7176
Email:
Paul Ropp, Ph.D.
Research Professor, Department of History
Chinese social and intellectual history
Tel: 1-508-793-7213
Email:
Srinivasan Sitaraman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science
Program Faculty for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
On sabbatical, 2011
United Nations and international law, international political economy, and international relations
Tel: 1-508-793-7684
Email:
Valerie Sperling, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Political Science
Dr. Sperling teaches a variety of courses in comparative politics, including Russian politics; revolution and political violence; mass murder and genocide under communism; transitions to democracy; globalization and democracy; and introduction to women’s studies. Her research interests include globalization and accountability, social movements, gender politics, patriotism and militarism, and state-building in the post-communist region.
Tel: 1-508-793-7679
Email:
Kristen Williams, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Political Science; Chair of the Faculty
Chair of Women's Studies; International relations theory, arms control and international security, nationalism and ethnic politics, U.S. foreign policy
Tel: 1-508-793-7446
Email: