Katherine Snyder

I began my career focusing on how ideas about development shape everyday life in rural Tanzania. As Tanzania underwent the transformation from a one-party state to a multi-party democracy, I looked at how these political shifts affected social change in rural communities and in national narratives. Since that first fieldwork, I have continued research in Tanzania, Kenya, Malawi, Ethiopia and Ghana and have lived on the continent for a total of 16 years. My research has focused largely on governance, the political economy of agricultural development and natural resource management, and gender and social change. I have worked in multidisciplinary teams with partners from national research institutes and have trained master's and Ph.D. students. My publications focus on institutional analysis, gender, the politics of participation and the impacts of decentralization programs. 

Most of my research has been in countries in East and Southern Africa. I have led projects on political change in Tanzania, land-use change and institutional analysis in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Malawi and governance of small-scale fisheries in Ghana and Malawi. I am interested in how global development narratives shape the practice of development on the ground and have an impact on local livelihoods, gender relations and land-use strategies.