Welcome back to a new academic year, and a new international development landscape. This year the Center on Global Poverty will be hosting a virtual and in-person series of talks on “The Future of Foreign Aid” and rolling out new research resources, including a small grants program.
Beyond Aid: Innovative Pathways to Sustainable Development
Location TBD
Drawing from over 25 years of pioneering work across rural India, Gupta will share how Goonj’s comprehensive portfolio of initiatives has redefined the intersection of social justice, economic empowerment, environmental sustainability, and community health.
October 17, 2025, 3PM EST
Rob Bertram, Food Security Leadership Council, ex-USAID
Norms of “global” development, often based on industrialized nations in the West, are being reimagined. In her forthcoming book, Wilks takes readers to Cambodia, a country at the heart of this transformation. Based on a multi-sited ethnography examining aid donors from Japan and the U.S., and the implementation of their aid to women’s health in Cambodia, the book documents two processes in the reimagining of regional development norms. The first is that, foreign donors from the U.S. and Japan bring distinctive priorities alongside their aid programming. The second is that, development actors in Cambodia use differences in donor priorities to argue for two model paths to development, one stereotypical “Western” and the other new and “Asian.” Combining elements of each model, Cambodians construct their own hybrid visions of the role that the state, market, civil society, and gender should play in development.
November 14, 2025, 3 PM EST
Michael Woolcock, World Bank/Harvard
Not Charity, not Decoration: Fulfilling our Mandate in Tough Times
In this moment of apparent crisis for international development many are calling for a strident focus on using remaining resources to fund clear, tangible, ‘proven’ interventions targeting the most vulnerable groups in the most difficult contexts. But if sophisticated charity becomes the best multilateral agencies and large philanthropies can do, then development professionals will have “defined development down” to the point of abandonment. No country has ever graduated from low to middle-income status or escaped the “middle income trap” on a strategy prioritizing a series of calibrated, technical, micro-interventions, though of course many individuals have benefited from such approaches. Achieving national goals – economic growth, infrastructure, public health, education, housing, transport, regulation, justice – requires comprehensive national strategies and public sector ministries led by qualified teams with high levels of professional ethics, policy skills, and implementation capability. Sustainable national development enhancing the lives of billions is achieved by consistently solving (ever larger, more complex, and often novel) problems, not selling (small-scale, relatively simple, predetermined) solutions.
JHU Center on Global Poverty Speaker Series with Nilanjan Raghunath, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Singapore University of Technology and Design
Reprogramming Inequality: Rethinking AI’s Role in the Fight Against Poverty
Artificial Intelligence is increasingly being adopted in efforts to address poverty through innovations such as algorithmic credit scoring, automated social service delivery, and predictive tools for resource allocation. These technologies are often celebrated for their potential to improve efficiency, expand access, and optimize decision-making at scale.
However, to ensure these tools genuinely support the people they are intended to help, it is essential to consider not only what AI can do, but how and for whom it is being implemented. Who defines the problems AI seeks to solve? Whose perspectives are included in the design of these systems? And how do we ensure that technological solutions remain grounded in the realities of the communities they aim to serve?
This talk explores AI not merely as a set of tools, but as part of a broader system shaped by social, institutional, and ethical considerations. Drawing on practical examples, I will examine how AI is reshaping definitions of “need” and influencing the distribution of support and resources. While these technologies hold promise, they also carry risks—particularly when they reduce complex human experiences to data points or overlook the nuances of daily life in underserved communities.
I will also highlight the critical importance of qualitative methods—such as interviews, ethnographic research, and community engagement—in complementing data-driven approaches. These methods help illuminate what is often invisible in datasets: context, meaning, and human experience.
As a solution, I propose a co-design model for AI in social systems—one that brings together technologists, policymakers, and the communities most affected by poverty. By creating inclusive design processes, supporting interdisciplinary research, and embedding accountability mechanisms into AI development, we can build systems that are not only effective, but equitable. The goal is not to reject the use of AI in poverty alleviation, but to advocate for more thoughtful, inclusive, and accountable systems—ones that are informed by the people most affected and grounded in a deep understanding of social realities.
Thursday, May 1, 1PM Eastern time
Sustainable Development Group Virtual Workshop
Enrique Pumar, “Pragmatic vs. Revolutionary Visions of Sustainability”
Discussant: James Linn
April 25, 2025, 1:00-2:30PM (US Eastern Time)
JHU Center on Global Poverty Speaker Series/ASA Sociology of Development section webinar:
The Attack on USAID
Please join us for a discussion of what happened, why, and where we go from here.
Laura Adams and Anna Calasanti on the experiences of aid agency workers
Blair Glencorse of the Accountability Lab on consequences around the world
Laura Heideman on what happens when donor withdrawal is poorly planned
The US experience in the context of the recent defunding of international development in Europe
Keith Moore: where do we go from here, and are there lessons we could apply to an improved agency?
February 28th, 2025 at 3:00-4:00 (Eastern)
JHU Center on Global Poverty Speaker Series with Fiona Greenland, Associate Professor of Sociology, Fiona Greenland, University of Virginia
Investigating War Crimes as a Cultural Sociologist
Fiona Greenland will discuss her experience as a war crimes investigator for the Conflict Observatory Ukraine and how this work both informed and was informed by her training as a cultural sociologist. Documenting alleged war crimes for international legal accountability mechanisms, including the ICC, requires specific data collection and analysis skills that will be familiar to sociologists. At the same time, some of our discipline’s core concepts – such as representativeness and context – function differently in this space. Part of the talk will provide practical information for sociologists interested in getting involved in human rights and/or war crimes investigations.
February 14th, 2025 at 3:00-4:00 (Eastern)
JHU Center on Global Poverty speaker series with Miri Eliyahu, PhD, Northwestern University
“Industry Research and Global Development: A Different Perspective on Problem Solving”
Miri Eliyahu earned a Ph.D. in Sociology from Northwestern and has worked as “Industry research and global development: a different perspective on problem solving” at Euromonitor. She will be discussing how work at a global market research firm involved in global development projects for international NGOs, Governments and Universities differs from academic work. From ideation to design, to research and then to implementation, this industry heavy process focuses on the client’s notion of desired outcomes and how to achieve them.
January 24th, 2025 at 3:00-4:00 (Eastern)
“Seminar on Grantwriting”
Enrique Pumar of Santa Clara University will speak about his experiences serving as the Program Director for the Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences at the National Science Foundation.
