Director

Peter Little, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Anthropology and
Director, Emory Program in Development Studies

Professor Little's Academic Home page 


PPeter Little is a development and economic anthropologist who currently is Professor and Chair of Anthropology and Director, Emory Program in Development Studies.  He has been involved with research and training in international development since 1981. During the past 28 years, Dr. Little has researched and directed interdisciplinary programs on rural development, globalization, natural resources management, and poverty and food insecurity in several African countries, but with primary emphasis on eastern Africa, including the African Horn.  In this period, he has earned several prizes and awards, including fellowships and grants from the the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, National Science Foundation, and the Social Science Research Council; and the Kirwan Memorial Research Prize (2005) and the Wethington Research Award (2007) both from the University of Kentucky, Amaury Talbot Book Prize from the Royal Anthropological Institute (2003), and a Choice Outstanding Academic Book award (2004). 

Dr. Little has been a consultant and advisor to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Bank, Rockefeller Foundation, US Agency for International Development, International Institute for Environment and Development (England), the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), OXFAM-America, and several other agencies and foundations. 

Dr Little has published more than 100 journal articles, book chapters, and research reports and eight books.  Among his recent books are Economic and Political Reform in Africa: Anthropological Perspectives (2013), Somalia: Economy Without State (2003; Talbot Book Prize and Choice Academic Book Award) and Understanding and Reducing Persistent Poverty in Africa (with C. Barrett and M. Carter, 2008). Currently Dr. Little is leading an interdisciplinary study titled "Cross-cultural insights into well-being among vulnerable populations in eastern Africa" with funding from the John Templeton Foundation and St. Louis University.