Education:
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin
Expertise:
Development theory, anthropology of development, culture and politics, Latin America, Africa
Background:
Professor Gow received his B.A. in English Literature from the University of Aberdeen (Scotland), and his M.A. in Latin American Studies and his Ph.D. in Development Studies (Sociology and Anthropology) from the University of Wisconsin.
Before joining the Elliott School in September 1996, he taught at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. Prior to that he worked for FAO, the World Bank, World Resources Institute, and a private consulting company. During that period Dr. Gow was enagaged in project design and evaluation, managed a large integrated rural development project in Congo, and conducted applied research on local organizations, project management and administration, and natural resource management.
At the Elliott School, he offers graduate courses on development theory, policy, and practice; and in the Anthropology Department, courses on the anthropology of development development institutions, and civil society.
His principal publications include Implementing Rural Development Projects: Lessons from AID and World Bank Experience (1985), "Doubly Damned: Dealing with Power and Praxis in Development Anthropology" in Human Organization (1993), "Can the Subaltern Plan Ethnicity and Development in Cauca, Colombia" in Urban Anthropology (1997), and "Anthropology and Development: Evil Twin or Moral Narrative?" in Human Organization (2002).
From 1995 until 2002, he conducted research on several aspects of local development in southwestern Colombia, particularly development planning and discourse, alternative development, ethnicity and representation, the role of culture, refugees and disasters, all within the broader context of modernity and globalization. His forthcoming book, Countering Development: Indigenous Modernity and the Moral Imagination, will be published by Duke University Press early in 2008.
Dr. Gow is presently conducting research on local politics at the provincial level in Colombia, focusing on the role of social organizations, social movements and coalitions in the creation and sustainability of alternative public spaces and alternative governments. He is also studying anthropological and artistic approaches to violent death in Colombia.
Courses Taught:
Anth 220 Anthropology of Development
Anth 222 Issues in Development
Anth 223 Research Methods in Development
Anth 224 Internship in Development Anthropology
IAff 221 Int'l Development Studies Cornerstone
IAff 239 Int'l Development Studies Capstone
Last update: 8/30/2007
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