The Project > Facilitators - QRM

PETER HOUTZAGER is a Political Scientist (Berkeley 1997) with broad training in comparative politics and historical-institutional analysis. His areas of specialization include contemporary citizenship practices, state-society relations, empirical varieties of civil society, social movement theory, and political development in Latin America. Peter Houtzager is a fellow at the Institute of Development Studies since 1999, and was a Visiting Professor at MIT and Brown Fall 2008. He has also taught at Stanford University and been a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley, University of Wisconsin Law School, and at the Centro Brasileiro de Analise e Planejamento (CEBRAP) in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

His recent research interests include citizenship practices in Sao Paulo, Mexico City, and Delhi, the institutional roots of collective action, and the role of law in development. He is the principal investigator of the cross-national research project "Modes of Service Delivery, Collective Action, and Social Accountability: Making Public Services Responsive to the Poor in Brazil and India" (BI for short) and recently completed field work for the comparative project "Rights, Representation and the Poor: Comparisons Across Latin America and India" (RRP for short). Houtzager is the co-editor of Changing Paths: International Development and the Politics of Inclusion (University of Michigan Press, 2003), authored the collection of essays in Os Ultimos Cidadaos: Conflito e modernizacao no Brasil rural (1964-1995) (Editora Globo, 2004), and a library of scholarly articles in English and Portuguese that examine citizenship practices and empirical forms of civil society, rural social movements, landlessness, politics, and legal change in Latin America. He coordinates the EU funded project "Creating Networks of Excellence for Qualitative Research in the Social Sciences: Proposal for a Training and Research Network in Sub-Saharan Africa (2009-2011)."

Peter Houtzager's methodological interests lie in concept formation and mixed method research designs. The RRP project he led combined survey research at the household-level in three urban centres, a survey of civil society organizations (using purposeful snowball sampling), and comparative historical analysis. The current BI project combines detailed case studies, network analysis, and a survey of local-level civil society organizations and service providers in Sao Paulo and Delhi. Houtzager has taught qualitative methods at the IDS and developed and ran British Council supported qualitative methods workshops in Ghana and Rwanda in 2008.

Anna Schmidt Academic and policy research across a range of international relations and political governance issues with particular emphasis on humanitarian aid evaluation and effectiveness, humanitarian emergencies and forced migration, conflict analysis and post-conflict reconstruction, as well as human rights and security matters. Multiple years field experience in conflict and post-conflict settings across Sub-Saharan Africa, including humanitarian aid-management and electoral monitoring. Anna Schmidt received her PhD in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley in 2006. In 2006-07 she was Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence. She is Programme Convenor of the MA Governance and Development.

Nauja Kleist is a Project Senior Researcher in the Migration Unit at the Danish Institute for International Studies, DIIS, working with migration and development and diaspora mobilization. She is currently studying Ghanaian diaspora organizations and migration-development policies as part of the research programme Mobilizing African Diasporas as Agents of Change. Kleist has published on transnationalism, diaspora, gender, and migrant associations.

Simon Turner is Senior Researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies where he is Head of the Research Unit on Migration, Conflict and Development. He has worked on politics, governance and gender identities in refugee camps. He is presently working on long-distance nationalism among the Burundian diaspora in Europe and East Africa. A central theme in his work has been rumours, conspiracy theories and secrecy. His publications include Under the Gaze of the ?Big Nations? ? refugees, rumour and the international community in Tanzania. In African Affairs 103 (411), 2004 and The Tutsi are Afraid we will discover their Secrets on Secrecy and Sovereign Power in Burundi in Social Identities 11(1), 2005.

John Gerring (PhD, University of California at Berkeley, 1993) is Professor of Political Science at Boston University, where he teaches courses on methodology and comparative politics. His books include Party Ideologies in America, 1828-1996 (Cambridge University Press, 1998), Social Science Methodology: A Criterial Framework (Cambridge University Press, 2001; revised edition planned for 2009), Case Study Research: Principles and Practices (Cambridge University Press, 2007), A Centripetal Theory of Democratic Governance (Cambridge University Press, 2008), Concepts and Method: Giovanni Sartori and His Legacy (Routledge, 2009), Global Justice: A Prioritarian Manifesto (in process), and Democracy and Development: A Historical Perspective (in process).

His articles have appeared in numerous political science journals. He served as a fellow of the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, NJ) and as a member of The National Academy of Sciences' Committee on the Evaluation of USAID Programs to Support the Development of Democracy. He currently serves as President of the American Political Science Association's Organized Section on Qualitative and Multi-Method Research, and is the recipient of a grant from the National Science Foundation to collect historical data related to colonialism and international development.

Christopher Ansell received his B.A. in Environmental Science from the University of Virginia in 1979 and worked at the US Office of Technology Assessment from 1979 through 1984. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago in 1993. His fields of interest include organization theory, political sociology, public administration, and Western Europe. He has served as a consulting editor for the American Journal of Sociology and as an Associate Editor of the Encyclopedia of Governance (Sage). He won the 1999-2000 Distinguished Teaching Award from the Division of Social Sciences.

Dr. Arnab Acharya, trained in economic theory and development economics, works primarily on health policy issues in developing countries. He has published, among other issues, on economic theory, planned economies, distributive justice, disease eradication, cost-effectiveness of health projects and collective action. Currently his work focuses on impact evaluation of development projects, how population level health shapes economic growth and the interconnectedness between poverty and health. He has worked in a number of countries including Tanzania and Malawi. He holds a PhD in micro-economic theory, specialising in the economics of information, from the University of Illinois and also a Masters in Public Health from Harvard University. He is currently employed as a senior lecturer in quantitative health-economics within the Dept. of Public Health Policy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Helen Callaghan is a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne, Germany. She obtained her Ph.D. in Political Science from Northwestern University in 2006. Her current research compares the politics of corporate governance in advanced industrial economies, with a special focus on Western Europe.

Kerstin Hamann (Ph.D. Washington University, St. Louis, USA) is Professor of Political Science at the University of Central Florida (Orlando). Her research specializes on comparative political economy (Western Europe), comparative industrial relations, and Spanish politics and has been published in journals such as Comparative Political Studies, British Journal of Industrial Relations, European Journal of Industrial Relations, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Party Politics, and South European Society and Politics. She is co-editor (with Bonnie Field) of Democracy and Institutional Development: Spain in Comparative Theoretical Perspective (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008). She also specializes in the Scholarship of Teaching in Learning, especially on assessing teaching and learning in the online environment.

Her SoTL research has appeared in journals such as PS: Political Science & Politics and Journal of Political Science Education. She is co-editor (with John Ishiyama and Michelle Deardorff) of Assessment in Political Science (APSA 2009). She currently serves as chair of APSA's Committee on Teaching and Learning. She was awarded the university award in Excellence in Undergraduate Education in 2008.

Bruce M. Wilson (Ph.D. Washington University), Professor of Political Science, University of Central Florida and Research Professor, Chr. Michelsen Institute, Bergen, Norway
Bruce has published widely in the area of Latin American politics with an emphasis on judicial politics. His work has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals including Comparative Political Studies, Comparative Politics, and the International Journal of Constitutional Law. His co-authored book, Courts and Political Power in Latin America, Africa, and Eastern Europe, is forthcoming with Palgrave in 2009.

In his research for his secondary area of interest, the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Bruce works in a research team with Kerstin Hamann and Philip Pollock. Their work, published in leading peer-reviewed journal including PS: Political Science & Politics, Journal of Political Science Education, focuses on online teaching and learning. The research looks at students' active learning behavior in online courses and pays particular attention to the dynamics of asynchronous online discussions. This research also looks at the effectiveness of online course modalities with respect to learner outcomes.
Bruce has over 11 years experience teaching online and has designed courses for delivery entirely online or in a "blended" mode (mixed face-to-face and online).
His research in the field of the scholarship of teaching and learning was recognized by two university-wide SoTL Awards in 2004 and 2009 and by a "best paper" award by the Political Science Education section at APSA (2005). At UCF, he has won numerous teaching awards.

Esi Ansah teaches at the Ashesi University College in Ghana. Her teaching experience includes teaching Introduction to Social Science, African Politics and Comparative Politics (USA), Organizational Behavior, Human Resource Management and Negotiations (Ghana). Her research experience is in applied, qualitative research in the Ghanaian context. Her doctoral dissertation examined the role of service interactions in perceptions of service quality in the Ghanaian public sector. Using focus group discussions, interviews and questionnaires, the study examined the differences in perceptions of "service quality", and also identified and categorized components of the service interaction and their relative importance to clients and public servants.

She is also a founding partner of Axis Human Capital Limited, a socially-conscious HR consultancy based in Ghana. Recently, Esi set up a network of students in Ashesi University College who are interested in social science research. These students will be trained in rigorous research design and methodology, both quantitative and qualitative.

Esi earned her Bachelor's degrees in Psychology, International Affairs and French from the Florida State University, and holds Master's degrees in Social Sciences and in Public Service Management from the University of Chicago and DePaul University in Chicago, respectively. She holds a PhD in Public Administration from Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Lloyd Amoah earned his PhD at the prestigious Wuhan University School of Political Science and Public Management, China. His research interests are focused on areas like China and South-East Asia Affairs, Public Policy Analysis, e-governance, Government/Corporate Strategy, Postmodern Public Administration/Policy and Public Sector Reform. Lloyd currently lectures at Ashesi University College, Accra, Ghana.

Lloyd's work has appeared in international journals like the Journal of African Affairs and the Ghana Policy Journal. He writes regularly for BBC's flagship magazine on Africa, Focus on Africa magazine and the West and Southern African editions of Patrick Smith's (Africa Confidential), the Africa Report. He has written several feature articles and columns on public policy and international affairs for leading Ghanaian and international publications and has been interviewed on the British Broadcasting Corporation(BBC) and other radio and television stations in Ghana as well . He wrote the weekly column "Asia 601" on Asia ?Africa relations (arguably the first column of such nature in Ghana's history) for the nationally circulated Graphic Business paper. He is at present working on a couple of book projects. He has presented papers at both local and international conferences.

Bernadeta Killian

Richard Mbunda (Assistant Lecturer, Department of Political Science, University of Dar es Salaam) started as a Tutorial Assistant in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration in 2006, and promoted to Assistant Lecturer in 2009 after completing my Master?s dissertation. I teach the following courses. International Relations Courses (International Organizations, Conflict Resolution, Human Rights, International Law) Political Science courses (Democracy and Elections).
Research Experience (In 2008-2009 an independent study titled Resolution or Containment? An Evaluation of the Direct Negotiation and Settlement Facilitation in the Zanzibar Conflict.), (November 2008 to February 2009 R. Mbunda and Chambi Chachage  a Study on the Assessment of the Current Status of the former National Agriculture and Food Corporation (NAFCO) and National Ranching Company Limited (NARCO) farms in Tanzania, commissioned by the Land Rights Research and Resources Institute (HAKIARDHI) ), (2008 to the present Principal Researcher in a Research and Education for Democracy in Tanzania (REDET) opinion polls, and studies.), (2006-2007 I participated in REDET research projects and opinion polls as Assistant Researcher.)

Ingrid Palmary

Darshan Vigneswaran

VRU Support Team