Dr Andrew Ainslie

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Associate Professor of Critical Development Studies
Programme Director: MSc Agriculture and Development
Deputy Director: Student Experience in the Graduate Institute for International Development, Agriculture and Economics (GIIDAE) which comprises 11 MSc programmes
Other Responsibilities:
- Co-Lead, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in SAPD (until May 2025)
- Assessor, SAPD Research Ethics Committee
- Academic member, UoR Environmental Management Review Group
- Academic member, UoR Online Courses Advisory Group
- Contact in SAPD for the - the European Alliance on Agricultural Knowledge for Development
- MSc dissertation supervisor to around 6 MSc students and 3 BSc students per year
- Lead on the free, open online course, funded by EIT-Food: ''
Areas of interest
Research Interests:
- African livestock systems, see https://research.reading.ac.uk/african-livestock-observatory/
- Economic anthropology and contested (inter)cultural regimes and registers of value
- Critical scholarship in international development theory and practice
- System-wide drivers of agrarian change and ecosystem resilience, particularly in East and southern Africa, and specifically questions of governance in relation to the role of local/traditional/informal institutions in managing land, livestock and environmental resources
- Scientific/agricultural/local knowledge systems and interfaces, modes of learning and innovation
- Food in/security, livelihood analysis and research into inequality 鈥 including gender and racial inequalities - and its eradication
- Drivers of change in the global food system and controversial agricultural commodity/value chains, notably global beef, palm oil and coffee production and use
- Qualitative research methods, critical engagement with 鈥楻esponsible research,鈥 including research ethics and decolonial scholarship
- Technology-enhanced and distance methods of teaching and learning, particularly in the context of the increasing commoditisation of the Higher Education sector.
Postgraduate supervision
Doctoral supervision:
I am interested to discuss proposals from prospective doctoral students in any of the areas of my research interests mentioned above, particularly but not exclusively in relation to sub-Saharan Africa.
Current PhD supervision: (as First supervisor)
- Danilo German Amaya, 鈥楲ivelihoods, Upgrading and Adaptive Capacity in the Colombian Dairy Value Chain.鈥 Funded by Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnolog铆a e Innnovaci贸n 鈥 MINCIENCIAS, from the Republic of Colombia. With Prof. Einar Vargas Bello Perez (University of Chihuahua, Mexico).
- Abiola Ayodeji, 鈥業ntrahousehold Dynamics, Gender, and Food Security in Rural Households in South-West Nigeria.鈥 Funded by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission. With Prof. Uma Kambhampati (Economics)
(And as Second supervisor):
- Christopher Mweembe, 'Cash Transfers, Social exclusion and Inequality in social protection programmes in Binga District, Zimbabwe.' - with Dr. Alex Arnall.
- Al Hassan Cisse, 'An Evidence-Based Analysis of Synergies between Agricultural Interventions and Social Protection to Address Climate Change Adaptation for Food Security in Senegal.' - with Prof. Henny Osbahr.
- Isaac Ogundare, 鈥楬ousehold and Community Adaptation Strategies to Water shortages in Ibadan, Nigeria.鈥 鈥 with Prof. Hong Yang (SAGES).
Completed PhD students:
- Anastasia Ngenyi, 鈥楿nderstanding participatory approaches to biodiversity conservation in the TRIDOM, Congo Basin forest, Central Africa.' (co-supervised with Dr. Jo Davies). Anastasia will graduate in Jul 2025.
- Shahrina Rahman, 'Social Resilience and Adaptation to Climate change: The voice of Disabled people in Bangladesh.' (co-supervised first with Prof. Ruth Evans, then with Dr. Jo Davies). Shahrina will graduate in 2025.
- Gilbert Ngwaneh Miki, 'The contribution of the Home-Grown School Feeding Model for food security and poverty alleviation amongst small scale farmers in Malawi'. Commonwealth Scholarship recipient. - (co-supervised with Prof. Peter Dorward). Gilbert graduated in Jul 2024.
- Chimkanma Wigwe, 'Stakeholders' efforts toward developing artisanal fish farmers' resilience to oil spillage in Rivers State, Nigeria.' Commonwealth Scholarship recipient. Chimkanma graduated in Dec 2023. (co-supervised with Prof. Chittur Srinivasan).
- Heather Maggs, 'On the subject of donkeys (in Ghana).' (second supervisor, co-supervised with Prof. Richard Bennett). Recipient of funding from The Donkey Sanctuary. Heather graduated in 2022.
- Zainab Aliyu, 'How effective is the climate justice movement in sub-Saharan Africa?' Registered Oct 2017. Recipient of a Leverhulme Doctoral Scholarship in Climate Justice (co-supervised with Dr. Filippo Menga). Zainab graduated in Dec 2021.
- Atenchong Talleh Nkobou, 'Political economy of large-scale land investments and the right to adequate food in Tanzania.' Commonwealth Scholarship recipient. (co-supervised with Prof. Rosa Freedman). Atenchong graduated in Dec 2021.
- Africa Bauza Garcia-Arcicollar, 'Towards Just Climate Futures: Embracing islanders' hopes and aspirations in the context of climate-related migration in the Maldives.' Recipient of a Leverhulme Doctoral Scholarship in Climate Justice. (second supervisor, co-supervised with Dr. Alex Arnall). Africa graduated in Dec 2021.
- Sam Poskitt, 'Investigating the benefits of Participatory Scenario Planning for tackling social-ecological problems.' (First supervisor, co-supervised with Dr. Kerry Waylen at the James Hutton Institute, Aberdeen). Joint ESRC and James Hutton Institute scholarships. Sam graduated in Jul 2018.
- David Enibe, 'Breadfruit and development in south eastern Nigeria' (second supervisor, co-supervision with Peter Dorward). David graduated in Dec 2017.
- Joana Vaz Sousa, 'People-wildlife interactions in Guinea-Bissau.' (second supervisor, co-supervision with Prof. Kate Hill at Oxford Brookes University). Joana graduated in March 2015.
Affiliations
Teaching
I am the Module Convenor for:
- ADMGJD: Global Environmental Change, Justice and Development (MSc level, 20 credits)
- ADMRAS: Rethinking Agricultural Systems (MSc level, 20 credits)
- AP2AID: Approaches to International Development (Part 2, 20 credits)
- APMA108: Livestock, Livelihoods and Food Security (MSc level, 10 credits, online only, distance learning module).
And I contribute to teaching on:
- ADMTPD: Theories and Practices of Development
- ADMRFD: Research for Development
- ADMDIS: Dissertation module
- ADMESN: Ecosystem Services and Nature Based Solutions
- AD1GLS: Global Sustainability: Challenges and Prospects
- AD1SPA: Towards Sustainability: Positive Action for a Better World
Research projects
I am Co-ordinator of the , to be launched in 2026. The African Livestock Observatory will amplify African scholarship, research and advocacy in global debates around livestock-centred futures on the African continent.
I am a Co-Investigator on the UKRI/ESRC-funded project, 鈥: Knowledge Stories and the Struggles for Community Land Rights in Scotland鈥. With Dr. Atenchong Talleh Nkobou (Royal Agricultural University) as the Principal Investigator. Project start date: 1 November 2023; Expected end date: 1 November 2026
Between 2016-2019, I was Co-I on the HyCRISTAL project, which was part of the research programme, funded by DFID/NERC. I engaged in research into livelihood and resource use adaptations to changes in agro-climatic conditions by people resident in the Lake Victoria Basin in the Central Region, Uganda.
I have long-term ethnographic research interests in land and agrarian change and livestock production in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa.
Background
I trained as a social anthropologist. My specialism is in studying change in agrarian environments and specifically in livestock systems. I conduct research that is at the interface between different knowledge systems. I read for a BSocSc (Honours) with distinction and an MSocSc (both Rhodes University) with distinction, and in 2005 I completed a PhD in Social Anthropology (University College London), having earlier won a Commonwealth Scholarship. In 2012, I completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education (PCTHE) with distinction from Oxford Brookes University.
Having commenced my working career in 1994, the year the ANC came to power in South Africa, I was fortunate to spend the ensuing 15 years working as a researcher in a university context, for a parastatal agricultural institution (the ARC), and for a development NGO. In 2009, I conducted fieldwork research into indigenous veterinary practices in South Africa, taking up an Oppenheimer Visiting Fellowship at the African Studies Centre, Oxford University, to write up this material. In early 2010, I took up a position at the Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University, where I worked in the Scenarios Development Team of the CGIAR programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). In 2011, I secured an early career fellowship in 'Environment, Conservation and Development' at Oxford Brookes University (2011-2012). I was appointed Lecturer in International Rural Development at the 黑料不打烊 in January 2013. I was promoted to Associate Professor in 2019.
Professional bodies/affiliations
I am a Discipline Expert for the Syria programme.
I am a member of the Board of Trustees of (from May 2025).
I am an Associate Editor (since Sep 2013) of the .
I am a Member of the Royal Anthropological Institute, London.
I review papers for a wide range of journals, I have reviewed research proposals for UKRI (ESRC), and I have served on Assessment Panels for various research programmes, including FNRS (Belgium), The Volkswagen Foundation (Germany) and and the National Research Foundation (NRF) in South Africa.