Ananya Roy
We are delighted to announce new Truelift Steering Committee member Ananya Roy, Distinguished Chair in Global Poverty and Practice department at the University of California, Berkeley.
Welcome Dr. Roy!
Dr. Roy is Professor of City and Regional Planning, Distinguished Chair in Global Poverty and Practice, and Education Director with Blum Center for Developing Economies. Her work analyzing poverty in the global South and new frontiers of capital accumulation will lend valuable academic expertise to the poverty-focus of the Truelift Steering Committee.
Chris Dunford, Co-Chair of the Truelift Executive Committee, discusses what Dr. Roy will bring to Truelift:
“The Truelift Steering Committee has been particularly eager to include people from the thought-leading interface of academic research and policy/practice in international development. The value of recognition by Truelift is the credibility it bestows on MFIs and other social enterprises in the eyes of pro-poor lenders and investors, who are heavily influenced by the credibility we have in the eyes of thought leaders in our field. Building that credibility and value is a major task before Truelift. Given her outstanding academic career and leadership role at the UC Berkeley Blum Center for Developing Economies, Ananya has the experience and wisdom we need on the Steering Committee to address this major task.”
Larry Reed welcomes Dr. Roy to Truelift:
“Dr. Roy is a leading researcher and thinker into what causes poverty and what facilitates movement out of poverty. We are glad that she will be able to apply her ground-breaking research to our work at Truelift.”
Dr. Roy is founding chair of the undergraduate program in Global Poverty and Practice, currently the largest undergraduate minor at UC Berkeley. She has also served as co-director of the Global Metropolitan Studies Center and Associate Dean of International and Area Studies. She previously held the Friesen Chair in Urban Studies.
Dr. Roy holds a B.A. (1992) in Comparative Urban Studies from Mills College, a M.C.P. (1994) and a Ph.D. (1999) from the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of California at Berkeley, and is a distinguished author of many books from 2003 onward. Her book, Poverty Capital: Microfinance and the Making of Development (Routledge, 2010), was recipient of the 2011 Paul Davidoff Book Award of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, a book award for research that advances social justice. She is currently in several collaborative projects of research and practice, including The 21st Century Indian City: Setting New Agendas for Policy (with Raka Ray, Pranab Bardhan, and Ashok Bardhan), and Territories of Poverty: Rethinking Poverty Scholarship (with Emma Shaw Crane; forthcoming, University of Georgia Press, 2014).
Dr. Roy teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses and supervises doctoral students in the fields of global urbanism and international development, among others. She is a committed teacher and has received numerous teaching awards, including a lifetime achievement award from the California Alumni Association, the Distinguished Faculty Mentors Award from the Graduate Assembly at UC Berkeley, the only award given by the student body – the Golden Apple Award, and the highest teaching honor granted by UC Berkeley to its faculty – the Distinguished Teaching Award. CASE/Carnegie Foundation also recognized Dr. Roy in 2009 as California Professor of the Year. In line with her teaching interests, she has been leading innovative experiments with new formats of pedagogy. These include the #GlobalPOV Project, which includes a series of Youtube videos combining social theory and improvised art in order to promote discussion about poverty and inequality.
Dr. Roy adds Truelift to her distinguished resume of board service, including the editorial board of Territory, Politics, and Governance, and the Geographies of Justice and Social Transformation, University of Georgia, book series. Earlier in 2013, she gave a Ted Talk in Berkeley on (Un)knowing Poverty, which can be viewed here: http://tedxberkeley.org/ananya-roy
To read her full bio on the UC Berkeley website, click here.
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