SOAS South Asia Institute

Development Expertise

Name/Title	Area of Expertise
Alessandra Mezzadri Senior Lecturer in Development Studies	International trade, global commodity chains; production networks and industrial systems; informality and processes of labour informalisation; inequality and social structures of oppression; gender, feminisms and reproduction; the political economy of the garment industry; the political economy of India
Anna Larson Research Associate, Centre of Contemporary Central Asia & the Caucasus	Democratisation in Afghanistan and other conflict-affected states, with a particular focus on gender and democratic institutions (elections, political parties and the legislature). Recently this has included work on the impact of Afghanistan's reserved seats system for women, the way elections shape and are shaped by local political landscapes, the internal dynamics of Afghan national assembly, political party institutionalisation and women's role in parties over time
Bhavani Shankar Professor of International Food, Agriculture and Health, Centre for Development, Environment and Policy	Analysis of economic drivers of over- and under-nutrition, nutrition transition, dietary policy evaluation, impact assessment and the role of agriculture in enabling better nutrition and health
Feyzi Ismail Senior Teaching Fellow	NGOs and social movements, politics and development in Nepal and South Asia, global protest and change, alternatives to neoliberalism and imperialism
Jens Lerche Reader in Agrarian and Labour Studies	India; labour, social movements and globalisation; labour and the ILO; labour and caste in India; agrarian political economy
Jonathan Goodhand Professor in Conflict and Development Studies	South and Central Asia; complex political emergencies, humanitarian aid; NGO capacity building, aid, conflict and development
Navtej K Purewal Reader in Political Sociology and Development Studies and Deputy Director, SOAS South Asia Institute	Purewal’s interests fall within two areas, both with a distinctive Punjab (India and Pakistan) focus. The first is on feminist scholarship and gender in South Asia, including female feticide and routes and barriers to girls’ education. The second area is the sociology of religion. Purewal was the principal investigator on a large project under the Religion and Society programme (AHRC and ESRC) on popular religious practices and contemporary transgressions of religious boundaries in South Asia focusing specifically on the region of Punjab across India and Pakistan
Nigel Poole Professor of International Development Policy, Centre for Development, Environment and Policy	Agri-health and nutrition, natural resources and food value chains, poverty reduction
Paolo Novak Lecturer in Development Studies	Trans-nationality with particular reference to migration; refugee regime; borders and NGOs
Peter P Mollinga Professor of Development Studies	South Asia, Central Asia; comparative political sociology of water resources and development; technology and agrarian change; boundary work in natural resources management; interdisciplinary social theory
Richard Axelby Research Associate, Department of Anthropology and Sociology	Natural resource use; citizenship and identity, and the politics of development
Subir Sinha Senior Lecturer in Institutions and Development	South Asia: institutions of development, NGOs, social movements; the environment, common property institutions and resource use
Thomas Tanner Reader in Environment and Development	South Asia: Environmental change, environment economics, political science. Specialised in building resilience and adaptation to climate change through research, policy and practice.