April 2025 Newsletter
1. Internships
We are pleased to announce our first two summer interns, Aron Einbinder and Sophia Tyrell-Knott (“TK”). Aron will be working at the International Food Policy Research Institute. TK will be working at the World Bank. For more about them and more about this program, which we hope to repeat next year, please see https://sites.krieger.jhu.edu/cgp/internships/.
2. Events
April 25, 2025, 1:00-2:30PM (US Eastern Time)
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?
3. Initiatives
The Sustainable Development edited volume group will be holding virtual workshops throughout the summer, in preparation for submitting a grant application and book proposal by the end of the summer. If you would like to be involved, please email [email protected]. We will be sending out a more formal call for papers toward the end of the summer.
March 2025 Newsletter
ATTACK ON USAID
Are you currently in a developing country, watching the effects of the shutdown of USAID funding? We are planning a virtual panel on the attack on USAID, and we are looking for someone with experience IN THE FIELD who can speak about the consequences of the shutdown anywhere around the world. Please contact Monica Prasad at [email protected].
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT EDITED VOLUME
The Sustainable Development group has set MARCH 15 as the deadline for those interested in participating in the edited volume. For detailed instructions on how to indicate your interest, email Monica Prasad at [email protected].
NEW MEASURE OF INSECURITY
RINA AGARWALA’s group is developing a new measure of insecurity. The group has put together an extended abstract and primer on insecurity and they plan to present 4-5 papers at the human capability conference. After that, they plan to organize a workshop with policy makers about the insecurity measure. Please contact Rina at [email protected].
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND GRASSROOTS GLOBAL JUSTICE GROUP
This cluster supports socially engaged research on global justice and grassroots development. We provide a forum for social movement scholars and practitioners to network with one another, helping to build communities of praxis that are capable of grounding theory and putting critical knowledge into action. Recognizing the role that social research plays in perpetuating scientific colonialism, we welcome Indigenous, participatory, and problem-solving methods that involve local communities in the production of knowledge and enact inclusive change. We also are committed to working across disciplines and geographies and encourage interdisciplinary and multicultural collaborations that build egalitarian alternatives to hierarchical systems. If you are interested in learning more about the cluster, please email Jennifer at [email protected].
Anyone is welcome to start a new initiative! Whatever we dream up now is what the Center is going to become in future years. Our website is the best way to get an overview of everything going on: https://sites.krieger.jhu.edu/cgp/
February 2025 Newsletter
JENNIFER KEAHEY is leading the Research Cluster on Social Movements & Grassroots Global Justice (Founding Committee: Jennifer Keahey (Chair), Aabid Firdausi, Eliana Fonsah, Raka Sen). This cluster supports socially engaged research on global justice and grassroots development. We provide a forum for social movement scholars and practitioners to network with one another, helping to build communities of praxis that are capable of grounding theory and putting critical knowledge into action. Recognizing the role that social research plays in perpetuating scientific colonialism, we welcome Indigenous, participatory, and problem-solving methods that involve local communities in the production of knowledge and enact inclusive change. We also are committed to working across disciplines and geographies and encourage interdisciplinary and multicultural collaborations that build egalitarian alternatives to hierarchical systems. If you are interested in learning more about the cluster, please email Jennifer at [email protected].
The SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT group held its first meeting, and decided to pursue the question of what (if anything) can be learned from the lifestyles of groups in the global south who live less energy-intensive lives. We plan to submit a grant application for a workshop/conference, followed by producing an edited volume. Please contact Monica at [email protected].
We are pleased to announce paid summer INTERNSHIPS for Johns Hopkins University undergraduates with D.C.-area international development organizations. Are you an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins? Kick-start your career in international development, or simply spend a summer exploring to see if this field is right for you. Are you a DC-area international development organization? Hire a bright, hard-working JHU undergrad at no cost to you. Your organization will benefit from the fresh perspectives these young people will bring, and you might transform their lives.
January 2025 Newsletter
Happy New Year everyone, from the Center on Global Poverty!
Check out NILANJAN RAGHUNATH’s new initiative on “Artificial Intelligence and Economic Empowerment” here:
SAHELI NATH is working on an initiative to put together an edited volume on the use of process tracing methodology in the analysis of economic development. Economic development and persistent poverty are complex phenomena deeply embedded in historical power structures, cultural frameworks, and institutional arrangements. This edited volume seeks works using process tracing methodologies to illuminate how different mechanisms produce and reproduce patterns of economic development or stagnation across various geographical contexts. Those interested in collaborating on this book project as co-editors or contributors should contact Saheli Nath at [email protected] by January 31st, 2025.
RAHARDHIKA UTAMA is preparing an annotated bibliography on published problem-solving research. The idea is to synthesize research findings into accessible policy pointers for policymakers and practitioners, to enhance the visibility of research that could contribute to addressing global poverty. He is starting with the topics of global health and agricultural development. Please email him at [email protected] if you are interested in collaborating. Dhika is creating a pilot for this project, and looking forward to sharing it with the community in a few weeks.
RINA AGARWALA is leading a research cluster that employs a critical sociological lens to redefine standard meanings and measures of poverty used in development policy and practitioner settings. In particular, we aim to insert issues of economic and social insecurity into the discussions. We are having an initial meeting on January 15th. If anyone is interested in joining the meeting or hearing more about the cluster, please email Rina at [email protected].
MONICA PRASAD is spearheading internships for Johns Hopkins University undergraduates with D.C. international development organizations. If you are an undergrad at JHU and might be interested in this, please email her at [email protected].
MONICA PRASAD is heading up an effort to put together an edited volume on sustainable development. If you are interested, please fill out your preferred meeting time here: https://www.when2meet.com/?28260409-hhTTv
AARUSHI BHANDARI and RYAN CALDER are arranging brief interviews with Center affiliates about their research related to global poverty. Recorded interviews will appear on the Center’s website over the coming months. If you are a grad student or undergrad interested in conducting or editing interviews, or a Center affiliate interested in being interviewed, please e-mail [email protected] and [email protected].
November Newsletter
Thank you to everyone who attended the meeting to launch the Johns Hopkins Center on Global Poverty!
This Center has a very clear mission, fostering qualitative research on international development to come up with new approaches for ameliorating global poverty. At the meeting in November we came up with a basic structure of how the Center will operate: at least for the first few years, anyone can propose an initiative, and it’s up to you to develop your initiative in whatever way you wish. Whichever initiatives survive/attract energy will end up being what the Center is.
Here are some of the initiatives that people proposed and will be overseeing so far:
RINA is starting an initiative on rethinking development measures of “success” to include economic and status security (rather then just income). To help her on that please email her at [email protected]
RYAN and AARUSHI are taking charge of multimedia operations, starting with short video interviews with faculty. Email them at [email protected] and [email protected] if you’d like to help conduct the interviews or be interviewed.
JENNIFER will think through how the Center can partner with social movements. [email protected]
MONICA is putting together internships for JHU undergrads at development organizations in DC. If you are either an undergrad at JHU or a development organization in DC interested in this, please email [email protected]
MONICA is going to work with others on an edited volume on sustainable development—the idea being that the best way to demonstrate the potential of qualitative methods is to actually use them to help solve a problem. If you’re interested in participating please email me at [email protected].
We have a bare-bones website that we will be filling out over the next weeks and months with more on each of these initiatives.
If you are interested in starting something new, just email me ([email protected]). There is no shortage of possibilities. One idea we had, but that no one has volunteered to lead (yet) is submitting panels to the annual World Bank conference. Another idea was qualitative research of RCTs, including ethnographic studies of RCTs in process (see these two great examples) and study of when and why policymakers act upon or ignore evidence produced by RCTs. Another idea is an edited volume using historical process tracing to study causes of economic growth and failure.
If you’d be interested in leading these, or have some other idea (book reviews? a blog?), please email me.
Until we get a listserv going (if you’d like to do that email me!) please let me know if you’d like to be removed from the list. If you know others who would like to be added to the list please ask them to sign up here.
Stay tuned for more soon. In the new year we will think about how often to meet as a group, what kinds of workshops and webinars will be most helpful, etc.
All best,
Monica Prasad