Global Poverty & Practice Minor
Faculty
Khalid is a Continuing Lecturer at UC Berkeley, teaching courses in the Global Poverty & Practice (GPP) program, Political Economy, and Civil & Environmental Engineering. He received his BSE in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and his MSE and PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from UC Berkeley. While completing his PhD, Khalid began focusing his research on the complex role that engineering expertise plays in the politics of international development and poverty alleviation, and his current work focuses on the intersection of poverty, expertise, and political economy. He is a recipient of the 2019 American Cultures Teaching Award and the 2017 Distinguished Teaching Award, UC Berkeley’s most prestigious honor for teaching.
Projects and Publications
- Engineering Social Justice: http://issuu.com/shawnm/docs/beng-spring2014/16
- Video: Can Experts Solve Poverty?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jqEj8XUPlk
Courses Regularly Taught
- GPP 105: The Ethics, Methods, and Pragmatics of Global Practice
- GPP 196: Global Poverty and Practice: Capstone Course
- POLECON 101: Contemporary Political Economy
- POLECON 159: Digital Technology, Political Economy, and Justice
- E/IAS 157AC: Engineering, Environment, and Society
Clare Talwalker is a Lecturer in Global Studies and Political Economy and core faculty for the Global Poverty & Practice minor. She is co-editor with Ananya Roy of the UC Press book series Poverty, Interrupted. Trained in cultural anthropology, her research focuses on India, social inequalities, and postcoloniality. She writes also about student engagement in aid work and poverty alleviation. She offers classes on ethnographic methods, political economy, the anthropology of liberal human rights, and India. Talwalker grew up in Mumbai, India. She earned a B.A. at Dartmouth College and her Ph.D. at Duke University.
Dr. Ross Doll is a lecturer for the Global Poverty and Practice Minor. His research focuses on agrarian change in Asia, drawing on critical development studies, political ecology, and cultural geography. Based on long-term ethnography, his current work foregrounds issues of history, place, and (in)security to understand the uneven geographies of development in rural China under state-led agricultural modernization. Ross received his PhD from the University of Washington’s Department of Geography. He also holds an MA in China Studies from the University of Washington and a BA in English from UC Berkeley. Ross recently served as a S.V. Ciriacy-Wantrup Postdoctoral Fellow in the UC Berkeley Department of Geography and he has previously served as a volunteer in the Peace Corps in Romania.
Ricardo G. Huerta Niño is a Lecturer in the Global Poverty & Practice minor, and has taught at UC Berkeley’s Department of City and Regional Planning and San Francisco State’s Urban Studies and Planning Department. He also has served as a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues and as an Affiliated Scholar at the Center for Research on Native American Issues. His most recent professional experience includes serving as a consultant for economic development with Kaiser Permanente, a consultant for city planning in San Rafael, and as Oakland’s Director of Collective Impact in the Office of the Mayor. His research and practice interests include community and economic development, environmental justice, public health, sustainable development, international development, philanthropy, planning theory, education, youth development, and ethnic studies. He received his PhD and MCP from the Department of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley and is also a graduate of UC Davis (BA), Stanford University (MA), and UC Berkeley’s International and Area Studies (MA).
Staff
Chetan Chowdhry manages and serves as the Lead Academic Advisor for the Global Poverty & Practice Minor. Prior to joining the Blum Center team, Chetan served as a Graduate Coordinator with the University of Maryland Multicultural Involvement and Community Advocacy Office. He holds a Master’s degree in Counseling and Personnel Services from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and Environmental Analysis & Design from UC Irvine.
(510) 664-4423 | cchowdhry@berkeley.edu
Valerie is the Student Advisor and Program Manager for the Masters of Development Engineering and Global Poverty and Practice Minor at the Blum Center. Before joining the Blum Center, she worked on many higher education initiatives supporting Minority Serving Institutions and underserved communities across the United States. Additionally, Valerie has spent over four years researching human communication tactics, neurological data processing, and financial policy. Her experiences have provided her with an interdisciplinary understanding of students and the greater bureaucratic elements of higher education institutions. Valerie has a BA in Cognitive Science and Psychology from the University of California, Merced, and an M.S.Ed in Education Policy from the University of Pennsylvania. Outside of her work in student affairs, you can find Valerie baking, trying to find the best cup of coffee in the Bay Area, or at the local farmer’s markets.