Faculty and Researchers with STS Interests - Profile

Michael Watts
Professor, Department of Geography
University of California, Berkeley


Email: mwatts@berkeley.edu

Michael Watts was the Director of the Institute of International Studies [IIS] 1994-2004, and is currently Class of 1963 Professor of Geography and Development Studies, at the University of California, Berkeley where he has taught for over twenty-five years. His current research and writing addresses the natural and social history of oil in Nigeria entitled Black Gold: Oil, Nation and Violence in Nigeria. He has also conducted research in Senegambia, Kerala (India), Vietnam and California on a number of issues pertaining to agrarian change, political Islam, agro-food systems, and political ecology. The author of 8 books and over 100 articles, Watts has served as the advisor to over 50 PhD dissertations (as Chair) and over 60 as second reader. He has received a number of awards and fellowships from scholarly organizations including the Social Science Research Council, the MacArthur Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation. He was educated at University College London and the University of Michigan and has held visiting appointments at the Smithsonian Institution, Bergen, Bologna, and London. Watts has served as a consultant to UNDP, the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations and a number of NGOs. He serves on the Board of Food first and the Pacific Institute.

Website: http://geography.berkeley.edu/PeopleHistory/faculty/M_Watts.html

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