This transformational experience sent me back to graduate school, this time in Anthropology, so that I could acquire both the intellectual foundations and technical skills in development and anthropology. I also studied Agricultural Economics to add to my toolkit. In my professional life, I have worked extensively in Africa, Europe, and Latin America, and less so in Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, and Albania. Most of my research has been in Portugal, the Cape Verde Islands, Chad, and Brazil. My research interests focus around various dimensions of world poverty, including vulnerability, livelihood security, climate and society interactions, natural resource management, and public policy. I am a devotee of participatory research and development and have worked to develop new, more effective methodological tools.

Currently my main research activity is a five-year study of climate vulnerability in Ceará and a study of freshwater prawn farming in Southwest Bangladesh. My driving ambition in life is to demystify the public perception of anthropology and to promote it as an applied profession that contributes to the betterment of our global community. Being the director of a unique applied research institute like BARA, I am convinced that a diverse and global society needs the anthropological perspective. In real life, I play handball and the piano—neither very well.

Classes Taught
Mixed Methods in Applied Social Science Research (ANTH 609)
Anthropology and Development (ANTH 331)
Global Change Workshop (GC 597A)

Selected Publications
2005 Vulnerability and Nutrition Assessment of Kassala and Red Sea State. Report prepared for the World Food Program, Khartoum. May 2005
2004 The Dynamics of Debt and Migration in Northwest Bangladesh. Report prepared for CARE/Bangladesh, Dhaka
2003 "Climate Science and the Policy of Drought Mitigation in Ceará, Northeast Brazil" in S. Strauss and B. Orlove (eds.) Weather, Climate, Culture, New York: Berg Publishers, pp.203-216
2002 "Processes of Adaptation to Climate Variability: A Case Study from the U.S. Southwest" Climate Research 21(3): 299-310
2002 "The use of seasonal climate forecasting in policymaking: lessons from Northeast Brazil" With Lemos, M. C., R. Fox, D. Nelson, and J. Tucker. Climatic Change 55(4): 479-507
2001 "Making rain, making roads, making do: public and private responses to drought in Ceará, Brazil" (with Donald R. Nelson) Climate Research 19(2): 97-108
1997 Waiting for Rain: Agriculture and Ecological Imbalance in Cape Verde (with Mark W. Langworthy) Boulder, CO: Lynne-Rienner Publishers.