September 2025 Newsletter
Friends,
Welcome back to a sobering new academic year. At the CGP we will do our best to keep the focus on solving global poverty, in whatever small way we can. In this newsletter please find information about:
- center events, including a year-long series on “The Future of Foreign Aid,” culminating with an in-person event in Washington, D.C. on May 5. Many thanks to Keith Moore, organizer and host of the virtual speaker series.
- a small grants program for graduate students and scholars from developing countries
- a prototype of a research resource that Rahardhika Utama is working hard to produce
- a call for your fieldwork photos, and your ideas for the Center logo
All best,
Monica
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1. Center Events (for location/Zoom info please see https://sites.krieger.jhu.edu/cgp/events/)
- (virtual) September 19, 3PM: George Ingram, Brookings Institution, “Aid in an Era of Disruption”
- (in person in Baltimore) September 29, 4PM: Anshu Gupta, Goonj, “Beyond Aid: Innovative Pathways to Sustainable Development”
- (virtual) October 17, 3PM: Rob Bertram, 3PM, Food Security Leadership Council, ex-USAID
- (virtual) November 14, 3PM: Michael Woolcock, World Bank/Harvard, “Not Charity, not Decoration: Fulfilling our Mandate in Tough Times”
- (in person in D.C.) May 5, 10AM-1PM: Panel on the Future of Foreign Aid at JHU Bloomberg Center, 555 Pennsylvania Ave. [save the date; more information coming soon]
2. Small Grant Program
The Johns Hopkins University Center on Global Poverty invites applications for small grants ($1000-$5000) to support qualitative research to solve global poverty, such as historical, ethnographic, or interview-based analysis of development projects or development trajectories, in-depth examination of successful practices emerging from grassroots communities, organizational analysis of municipal reforms, etc. We particularly value projects that adopt a problem-solving approach, and that seek to move beyond description and critique.
We welcome applications from:
- Graduate students anywhere in the world (including in the U.S.)
- Scholars of any rank based in developing countries
Applications should take only 15 minutes, and can be submitted here: https://jh.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0im01uQsFBwkSI6
The deadline is October 31, and we hope to announce results in December.
3. New Research Resource
We are pleased to share the prototype of a research resource that Rahardhika Utama has been putting together, “CORE for Solving Global Poverty,” a website that allows precise searches of research in sociology and related fields on several different categories of poverty:
https://www.rahardhika.com/coreforsgp
This is a prototype. Dhika has done a lot of hard work to get the site to this point, and he is looking for a board of advisers to help him make the site as useful as it can be, ideally people who:
*Know the target audience for this collection of scholarship
*Have broad knowledge of which journals relevant to sociology and global poverty should be included (and a sense of how interdisciplinary this should be)
*Are interested in brainstorming about additional features, such as creating teaching materials where students practice writing policy summaries of academic papers
We are hoping to roll out the finalized version in November. Please contact Dhika at [email protected] if you would like to be involved.
4. need photos and logo
If you conducted research this summer and have fieldwork photos that we can use for the website, please send them! And if you happen to be gifted in design, can you help us come up with a logo? Here’s what ChatGPT has come up with so far:
May 2025 Newsletter
We launched the Johns Hopkins Center on Global Poverty six months ago. Since then, we have inaugurated a research initiative on artificial intelligence, a research initiative on sustainable development, and a cluster devoted to fostering connections between academics and social movements. We have also created summer internships and held a speaker series.
In these six months we have also witnessed an extraordinary attack on foreign aid. As sociologists, we always had many criticisms of the foreign aid establishment; let’s use this moment to rebuild it the way we think it should be built. We can only do that if we work together. The Center is ideally located for this rethinking, with its proximity to international development organizations in DC, and its global network of scholars. Join us!
We won’t be sending out newsletters over the summer, but the initiatives are continuing over the summer, so please reach out and get involved (see the website for details of how to get involved), and please continue to send me your terrific ideas for new directions and new initiatives.
I leave you with one last announcement below, for the Hopkins-India conference in Washington D.C. this weekend, featuring speakers from national and international development, labor, and nonprofit organizations.
Thanks, everyone, for a terrific first half-year, and for the promise of many more.
Monica Prasad
https://indiainstitute.jhu.edu/hopkins-india-conference
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