AY 2020–2021 ANNUAL REPORT
OUR MISSION Determining how best to assist countries in need while fostering their self-sufficiency engages policymakers, non-governmental organizations, and corporations alike. It’s a challenge at the heart of the Randall L. and Deborah F. Tobias Center for Innovation in International Development at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. Founded in 2017, the Tobias Center sponsors multidisciplinary research by scholars who identify innovative approaches to international assistance and evaluate how foreign aid affects the environment and public health. Since its founding, the Tobias Center has made $170,000 in grants to 42 scholars and students. A laboratory for international research, the Tobias Center gives university scholars a voice in policy by stimulating dialogue between academics and leaders in government, foundations, and international agencies. Equally important, the Center nurtures the next generation of development scholars and practitioners.
THE FOUNDERS DEBORAH F. TOBIAS currently serves as vice chair of the board of the Methodist Health Foundation in Indianapolis and is a supporting member of the Women’s Philanthropy Council at IU. She is a former trustee of the University of Dayton as well as a former director of the Indianapolis Catholic Youth Organization and of the Indianapolis City Ballet. AMBASSADOR RANDALL L. TOBIAS was internationally recognized for over three decades of leadership in business, education, philanthropy, and government service. An Indiana alumnus, he is a past chair of IU’s Board of Trustees. He has been the vice chairman of AT&T, chairman and CEO of AT&T International, and chairman and CEO of Eli Lilly and Company. In 2003, President George W. Bush nominated Tobias to serve as the first United States Global AIDS Coordinator, with the rank of United States Ambassador. In this position, Tobias launched the highly successful President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and directed all U.S. government HIV/AIDS assistance across the globe. Tobias has also served as the director of U.S. foreign assistance and the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
WELCOME FROM THE CHAIR Dear Friends and Supporters: The demonstrated persistence of COVID-19
on COVID-19 and post-pandemic investment and
throughout this past year has presented enormous
development, while the other examined innovative
challenges of human survival that will structure the
strategies for teaching international development to
research and practice of international development
undergraduate and graduate students. The Center
for years to come. The scale of devastation is
also supported IU scholars and students through
immense; as I write, there are 251 million confirmed
a variety of research and teaching grants. Aided
cases and 5 million confirmed deaths worldwide.
by this support, Tobias Center scholars published
From 1990 to 2019, the prevalence of extreme poverty
multiple books and academic articles in 2020–2021.
declined spectacularly from roughly 40 percent to under 10 percent of the global population. The
As we continue our work in winter 2022, much
pandemic has reversed many of these hard-won
remains uncertain. The prevalence of new COVID-19
gains. The World Bank now estimates that COVID-19
variants and the challenges of vaccinating
will push upwards of 124 million people into extreme
populations in low- and middle-income countries
poverty. In addition, the accelerating pace of climate
remind us that there is likely no return to a pre-
change and its related death toll will only compound
pandemic normal. The need to reduce carbon
the crises we now must face.
emissions – and rapidly – has never been clearer. The Tobias Center remains committed to leveraging
These challenges to human flourishing, the desire to
its scholars, students, and resources to continue
produce clear-eyed research to guide development
to study these key challenges, so that we can better
policy, and the need to train the next generation of
equip the development practitioners of today
development practitioners are at the core of the
and tomorrow.
Tobias Center’s mission. Despite the difficulties of operating during a pandemic, over the past year, the
SARAH BAUERLE DANZMAN
Center convened two online workshops: one focused
Chair, Steering Committee 1
NEW GRADUATE FELLOWS KATIE STRECKERT Graduate fellow Katie Streckert earned her
“I wouldn’t be here at the Hamilton Lugar School
undergraduate degree in archaeology at the University
without the Tobias Center,” she says. “The Center has
of Northwestern-St Paul. Her participation on
funded my summer thesis research, allowing me to
archaeological digs in the Middle East introduced her
travel to five Midwestern art museums to study how
to the region’s cultures and inspired her to apply to the
Middle Eastern and American art are presented. I am
Department of International Studies Master’s degree
specifically looking at the narratives museums put
program in International Studies, where she now
forward about the two regions, and how they connect
concentrates on the Middle East. She hopes to one day
to modern remnants of Orientalism and imperialism.
become a cross-cultural consultant.
These museum narratives both reflect and shape a society, and, thus, they can affect how Americans approach development efforts.”
ANDREW CARRINGER Born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, Carringer studied
Center, and connecting with the variety of people who
Strategic Communications and German at the Ohio
engage with Tobias Center workshops.”
State University. After graduation, he was an English teaching assistant in Germany for a year through the
Carringer began work on his Master’s degree in the
Fulbright Program.
Department of International Studies in January 2021. He spent the next summer studying Russian in the
“Through that Fulbright experience, I gained a greater
Hamilton Lugar School Summer Language Workshop.
interest in working with international exchange
He focuses on improving his understanding of
programs in the future,” Carringer says. “At the Tobias
Eastern Europe and other areas formerly controlled
Center, I have been in charge of updating our social
by the Soviet Union.
media presence to spread awareness of the Tobias
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Tobias Center Annual Report 2020–2021
NEW STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBER and Cultures. She specializes in political economy, comparative politics, and international relations, with a regional focus on China and East Asia. “China is playing an increasingly important role in international development,” Leutert says. “Once best
TOBIAS SCHOLARS 2020–2021 TOBIAS CENTER STEERING COMMITTEE CHAIR Sarah Bauerle Danzman, Assistant Professor International Studies
known as contractors for mega projects supported by Chinese development finance, Chinese firms today operate, invest in, and own diverse infrastructure works around the world. They’re now working with new partners, including international non-governmental
SCHOLARS Nick Cullather, Professor History, International Studies
organizations and intergovernmental organizations, to
Wendy Leutert, Assistant Professor East Asian Languages and Cultures
develop projects overseas.” China has also moved from being the object of
WENDY LEUTERT
international development programs to being a
The newest Tobias Center Scholar is Wendy Leutert,
aid to other countries. “As China itself has achieved
assistant professor and the GLP-Ming Z. Mei Chair
higher levels of economic development,” Leutert says,
of Chinese Economics and Trade in the Hamilton
“international organizations are pivoting from working
Lugar School’s Department of East Asian Languages
in China to working with Chinese actors to promote
partner and provider of international development
development in other countries. Their joint activities
Stephen Macekura, Associate Professor International Studies Jessica O’Reilly, Associate Professor International Studies Jessica Steinberg, Associate Professor International Studies
range from informal advising to training or research programs to infrastructure project delivery.”
GRADUATE FELLOWS Andrew Carringer, International Studies Katie Streckert, International Studies
Indiana University Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies
3
MAPPING THE FIELD Tobias Center scholars are examining development studies programs around the world to see what—and how—they’re teaching the next generation of global leaders.
I
n 2019, Hamilton Lugar School Associate Professor Stephen Macekura and Elisheva Cohen, postdoctoral fellow, launched a
research project on the state of development studies as an academic field in the Anglophone world. They are collaborating with a small network of accomplished scholars, including John Yasuda, an assistant professor of political science at John Hopkins University. The group aims to produce an overview of the discipline that will be called Mapping the Field: A Comparative Analysis of International Development Studies Majors in the United
Stephen Macekura
Elisheva Cohen
States, United Kingdom, and Canada.
“There has not been much recent research into development studies as a field … Once that work is complete, we can position Indiana University and the Tobias Center to be a clearinghouse for such information.” The group began by analyzing the content of
teach, and to what effect. After all, the next
methodological focus, and language
development studies programs and majors.
generation of development practitioners will
requirements of such courses.
graduate from these programs.” As Macekura explains, “One of the goals
“In consultation with the Tobias Center
of the Tobias Center has always been to
Cohen began her work on the project
steering committee, we are analyzing all
strengthen teaching and learning about
by analyzing syllabi for undergraduate
this data and planning subsequent projects
development studies at Indiana University, in
development studies programs in the United
to get a better sense of what development
the United States, and across the world. We
States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
studies look like today,” says Macekura.
realized, however, that there has not been
She also built a database that includes
“Once that work is complete, we can position
much recent research into development
hundreds of development studies program
Indiana University and the Tobias Center
studies as a field. In other words, we wanted
descriptions and dozens of syllabi for
to be a clearinghouse for such information.
to know what development studies programs
introductory courses that will permit her
Ultimately, our work will bolster our own
are teaching, why they teach what they
and other scholars to determine the content,
teaching in our development courses as well.”
Indiana University Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies
5
RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM PROVES FACULTY RESILIENCE Research Study Grants Allowed Scholars to Continue their Work Undaunted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the 25 faculty
“Thanks to the
Political Science
and graduate students who received Tobias Center
Tobias Center
“In my research, I
research grants found resilient solutions to continue
funding, I was
am investigating
their work.
able to pivot my
how cities develop
research efforts
in a global
from leading
economy, exploring
On December 9, 2020, ten of these grant recipients
in-person arts
the importance
Fall Research Symposium. Topics ranged from cultural
workshops for Indigenous youth in communities
of place and whether traditional global hierarchies
heritage management practices in Oaxaca, Mexico,
impacted by hydroelectric development in Manitoba,
between cities/nations solidify over time. The Tobias
to Islamic environmentalism in Indonesia. Here, we
Canada, to working with a team of Indigenous and
Center grant allowed me to purchase the data
present a sampling of the grant recipients’ work.
non-Indigenous artists to develop a curricular guide
necessary to systematically investigate this question.”
presented their findings at the Tobias Center’s virtual
to the arts activities that we would have done. That “My research
guide can now be even more widely distributed
examines the
across Manitoba and beyond.”
usefulness of the ‘food desert’ idea in mitigating poor
—Dana Vanderburgh, Ph.D. candidate, IU Department of Anthropology
food accessibility
“The generous
within poor
Tobias Center
neighborhoods in urban Africa. Since I could not travel
grant enabled
to Ghana during the pandemic, the Tobias Center
me to present
grant enabled me to pay research assistants in Ghana
a chapter of my
to collect relevant information.”
dissertation – which posited the
—Daniel Fobi, M.S. candidate,
emergence of a
IU Department of Geography
derisking state in emerging capitalist economies in an era of rapid financial integration – at the Finance and Society Network Conference at City, University of London.” —Fathima Musthaq, Assistant Professor, Reed College; Ph.D. candidate, IU Department of 6
Tobias Center Annual Report 2020–2021
— Helge-Johannes Marahrens, Ph.D. candidate, IU Department of Sociology
REDEVELOPING THE CLASSROOM EXPERIENCE Course (Re)Development Grants Aided Faculty Flexibility Tobias Center grants enabled Hamilton Lugar School
Jessica O’Reilly,
“The grant helped me revise and translate course
faculty to respond creatively to the pandemic’s
associate professor,
content for a hybrid environment,” Hellwig says. “I
challenge, redesigning their courses for online
International Studies,
also altered the course so that we concentrated on
learning platforms. Nine faculty members received
used the grant to
three key problems: national health care systems,
Rapid Course (Re)Development grants during the
help students in
immigration and citizenship, and energy and
2020-21 academic year.
INTL-420/502,
the environment. Students took on the roles of
Negotiating Climate,
politicians, cattle ranchers, environmentalists, and
Here, a few of the recipients share how they utilized
to create poster presentations for an international
multinational enterprises to lobby and negotiate
the Tobias Center grants to transition to online
conference on climate change attended by students
protection for the rain forest. I was also able to bring
learning, to revitalize course content, and to help
from across the U.S., the U.K., Australia, and Peru.
in experts and faculty from around the globe as
students connect with experts in new ways.
guest lecturers.” “Indiana University had the highest number of
Isak Nti Asare,
participants in the conference, which was arranged in
Laura Tscherry,
associate director of
collaboration with the Youth Environmental Alliance
associate instructor
the Hamilton Lugar
in Higher Education (YEAH),” O’Reilly explains. One of
and doctoral
School Language
YEAH’s partners, Michigan Technological University,
candidate in the
Workshop and the
is publishing the conference proceedings. “So,” Reilly
Department of
Indiana University
adds, “our students not only had an international,
English, redesigned
Cybersecurity and
professionalizing experience, but they also have their
Global Policy Program, used his Tobias Center grant
first publications.”
ENG-W170, Future of the American City.
to develop a course on information technology and industrialization in developing countries: AI and the
Timothy Hellwig, a
“The adapted course attracted students from a wide
Race to Rule the World SGIS S202. He also designed
professor of political
range of internationally oriented programs, including
a new, one-credit intersession course (INTL-I212) on
science and the
German Studies and East Asian Studies,” says
government digitization.
academic director
Tscherry. “And, thanks to the Tobias Center’s grant,
of the IU Europe
I was able to invite two international guest speakers
“I added a unit to SGIS S202 that focused on the
Gateway in Berlin,
from the developing world. As a result, my students
role of artificial intelligence in the developing world.
used the grant to
produced some of the best essays I’ve read during
As a result, multiple students wrote final papers
modify POLS-Y349, Policymaking around the Globe:
focused on issues at the nexus of international
Immigration, Health Care, and the Environment.
my time teaching at Indiana University.”
development and AI, such as AI for education and public health, and AI and human rights, to name a few,” Asare explains. Indiana University Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies
7
OVERSEAS ONLINE The Tobias Center created community connections, virtually
Two children in the Casamance region of southern Senegal holding the first harvest of cowpea, a critical food source that is often the first of the rainy season crops to be harvested | Jon Eldon
Dr. Steinberg visiting a local tree nursery with Ansumana Sanneh (standing) and member of a local NGO | Jon Eldon
Jon Eldon
I
n late 2019, the Tobias Center funded a summer overseas course that would have taken Indiana University students to West
Africa to study agriculture, development, and rural livelihoods in Senegal and The Gambia. The course was to be led by Jon Eldon, a lecturer at the Indiana University Paul O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Eldon hoped that his students would work closely with West African development specialists and local communities to develop project ideas. By spring 2020, however, the pandemic forced him to make new plans for his course.
“I wouldn’t have gotten the chance to interact with people across the world if the class had been open solely to people who had the means of traveling overseas.” zone and the production of local agro-waste
under appreciated idea of ‘overseas online’
briquettes to replace timber-based cooking
educational opportunities.”
With the continued support of the Tobias
charcoal. Students also developed grant
Center, Eldon condensed his original course
proposals for each project so that the local
The online format had unanticipated benefits
into a two-week intensive format for the short
partners could quickly apply for funding.
for students, too. According to one student, “Making the course entirely online opened it up
2021 winter session. Over Zoom, Eldon and ten IU students, with backgrounds ranging
“While there may be nothing like traveling
to a student like me, who has a family, is rooted
from environmental science to business to
to a foreign country and interacting with
in a community, and is stuck to a full-time job.
health, met for hours every day with West
a culture that is nothing like the only one
I wouldn’t have gotten the chance to interact
African representatives of two local NGOs.
you’ve known, this online course made the
with people across the world if the class had
Together, they developed realistic projects,
most of a bad situation and offered students
been open solely to people who had the means
including the establishment of for-profit tree
valuable experience in a difficult time,” says
of traveling overseas.”
nurseries at primary schools in a post-conflict
Eldon. “It also provided a template for the Indiana University Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies
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DECOLONIZING INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT STUDIES Innovative Practices and Pedagogies for Teaching Undergraduate International Development Studies Workshop June 7-8, 2021 In summer 2021, the Tobias Center offered a two-day
Dalhousie University, suggested incorporating voices
“I came out of the workshop feeling inspired and
virtual workshop that surveyed the latest trends in
of early post-colonial revolutionaries such as Walter
excited to teach again,” one participant related. “I also
International Development Studies (IDS). Thirty-seven
Rodney and Thomas Sankara.
told my department about some of the takeaways
scholar-educators from 14 countries around the world converged to discuss their current teaching strategies. “Undoubtedly, the most prominent theme of the
“I came out of the workshop feeling inspired and excited to teach again.”
workshop was the importance of decolonizing the
“There was also a lot of interest in new ways of
from the workshop, particularly around tech-
field of IDS and, in turn, our teaching practices,” says
leveraging technology,” Cohen adds. “Marylynn
enhanced pedagogies to break up the boring linearity
workshop organizer Elisheva Cohen. “Presenters
Steckley, of Carleton University, argued that
of zoom lectures.”
questioned the IDS cannon and reinforced the
e-volunteering could address the racial, social, and
necessity of questioning whose voices are heard.
economic inequities related to travel-based experiential
For instance, two presenters, Jonathan Langdon, of
learning while also acknowledging the environmental
St. Francis Xavier University, and Ajay Parasram, of
impact of air travel.”
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Tobias Center Annual Report 2020–2021
Above: A soon-to-be planted field within a palm grove, which provides important construction material in rural areas | Jon Eldon
REINVIGORATING GLOBAL INVESTMENT COVID-19 and Post-Pandemic Investment and Development Workshop March 11, 2021
“The pandemic has severely disrupted global investment and supply chain patterns … In response to these economic uncertainties, multinational enterprises have pulled back on their global investment plans.”
In spring 2021, the Tobias Center held a virtual workshop examining new research on trends in foreign direct investment policy in a postpandemic world. As workshop organizer Sarah Bauerle Danzman explains, “The pandemic has severely disrupted global
policies and encouraging their global firms to diversify
Bostjan Skylar, from the World Association of
investment and supply chain patterns. In response
supply chains and reshore critical capabilities.”
Investment Promotion Agencies, Dr. Abhishek Saurav,
to these economic uncertainties, multinational
from the IFC/World Bank, and Brooke Guven, from
enterprises have pulled back on their global
At this virtual workshop, 23 scholars from North America,
the Columbia Center for Sustainable Investment,
investment plans. And while many governments
Europe, Asia, and Australia met to consider the implication
held a roundtable discussion to suggest research
have worked to attract new investment to stimulate
of these trends on economic development, inequality,
directions that scholars could pursue to help global
struggling economies, some governments—
and prosperity. Scholars presented papers on topics that
policymakers deal with the new COVID-19 investment
particularly in developed economies—have
ranged from the economic effects of COVID-19 border
and development challenges.
responded by tightening investment screening
closures to COVID 19’s impact on peace building efforts.
A woman in a recently plantedplanted field in field Matam, Senegal.Senegal | Jon Eldon Above: A woman in a recently in Matam,
Indiana University Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies
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MERGING INTERESTS:
When Domestic Firms Shape FDI Policy
Sarah Bauerle Danzman
The pandemic didn’t slow down Tobias Center Steering Committee Chair Sarah Bauerle Danzman. She spent the last year as a Council on Foreign Relations fellow, working at the State Department’s Office of Investment Affairs (OIA), which works to promote U.S. investment overseas and to prevent deleterious national security consequences from investment into the U.S. The OIA
published by Cambridge University Press in January
for domestic firms to obtain capital, they welcome
supports American companies who want to invest
2020. Bauerle Danzman’s book asks, “When do
foreign investors.
abroad by advocating for regulatory environments
governments try to restrict multinational foreign
overseas that enable commercial exchange. The Office
firms from entering their domestic markets, and
Bauerle Danzman’s analysis has wide-reaching
also protects American national security by working on
what happens when governments liberalize these
implications. Her book challenges traditional economic
an interagency panel to review foreign investment into
restrictions and encourage foreign investors?” She
models, which tend to view foreign direct investment
the U.S. for potential national security risks.
approaches the question through both quantitative
(FDI) as benefiting domestic labor while disrupting local
and qualitative analysis, including a comparative case
business interests. Her analysis instead shows that
study of Malaysia and Indonesia from 1965 to 2016.
investment policy tends to follow the preferences of
“My year working at State provided valuable insight
large domestic firms, and that business groups are less
into how the U.S. government thinks about outward investment as an international development tool. I look
Her answer? Large domestic firms ultimately
likely to push for more open economic policy when they
forward to drawing on this experience in the classroom,”
determine—and profit from—government policies
receive subsidized credit. This insight can help explain
Bauerle Danzman said.
on foreign investment. When large domestic firms
why the business community in advanced economies
have preferential access to local capital, they have
has not more forcefully pushed back against the more
Bauerle Danzman’s latest book, Merging Interests:
no interest in allowing foreign investors in. However,
restrictive trade and investment policies that their
When Domestic Firms Shape FDI Policy, was
when changes in the banking sector make it harder
governments have pursued in recent years.
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Tobias Center Annual Report 2020–2021
DISCERNING EXPERTS:
The Practices of Scientific Assessment for Environmental Policy formerly of the Indiana University Environmental Resilience Institute and now EPA Deputy Administrator—came to the event with comments and questions for authors Dale Jamieson and Jessica O’Reilly. Discerning Experts analyzes how research in the geosciences translates into environmental decision making through the process of scientific assessment. Using the examples of acid rain, Jessica O’Reilly
the ozone hole, and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the book offers insight on how to deploy expert
On November 14, 2019, the Tobias Center hosted a
knowledge in institutions, how to make decisions
roundtable event to celebrate the launch of Discerning
under uncertainty, and how scientists make
Experts: the practices of scientific assessment for
judgments about the information at hand. The
environmental policy (Chicago University Press). Three
roundtable conversation focused on how climate
experts with expertise in environmental law, policy, and
science is translated into policy, or not, through the
history—David Bosco, International Studies, Stephen
assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on
Macekura, International Studies, and Janet McCabe,
Climate Change.
INDIANA UNIVERSITY
Tobias Center for Innovation in International Development Indiana University Bloomington Global and International Studies Building 355 North Jordan Avenue Bloomington, IN 47405-1105
tobiasdevelopment.indiana.edu tobiasdv@iu.edu | (812) 856-7900