Syeda ShahBano Ijaz

Assistant Professor of Diplomacy & 世界事务Syeda ShahBano Ijaz从加州大学圣地亚哥分校来到西方，在那里她完成了博士学位.D. in political science. Prior to that, she completed an M.A. in politics from New York University and an MSc. in economics for development from the University of Oxford as a Commonwealth Scholar. Ijaz是一位研究发展政治经济学的学者，主要研究南亚地区. Her research, teaching, 公共奖学金处于国际和比较政治学的前沿:她最感兴趣的是对外援助对国内的影响. At Occidental, she teaches courses on international development, globalization, foreign aid, and democratic processes in South Asia. 
 
What attracted you to Occidental?
Occidental is a unique liberal arts college in many aspects. 令我印象最深刻的是学院对公平和正义的承诺，这是其核心使命的一部分. 很少有教育机构将公平视为创造价值的动力，而不是阻碍, and I found Occidental to be one of them. Also, during my visit, 我亲眼目睹了学生们对确保校园社会公正的热情:从创建包容性团体到支持学院非终身教职员工的工会. Of course, 学院的教师和管理人员负责提供安全的空间，放大不同的声音. I knew then that I wanted to be part of such a community. Finally, 我也被十大正规网赌平台充满活力的城市校园和通过LA Encounters项目将课堂扩展到洛杉矶市的可能性所吸引. Hopefully, I will be using the latter to create immersive experiences for my students!

What will you be teaching at Oxy?
At DWA, I will be teaching Introduction to Global Political Economy. I’m also teaching First Year Seminars on Foreign Aid & Imperialism and Globalization & Development. Next year, 我将教授国际发展政治学以及南亚的民主与发展课程.

When did you develop an interest in the political economy of development?
As someone who grew up in a developing country, I was interested in the broad field of development studies, and then development economics, from the very beginning of my educational career. I followed my undergraduate in economics with a graduate degree in development economics. It was then, as a graduate student at Oxford, 让我着迷的是，世界上有多少差异(比如为什么有些国家比另一些国家穷)可以用经济模型和数字来解释. Of course, I became critical of Eurocentric models of growth and development later in my career, but at that time, the sheer simplicity of economic models really appealed to me. 模型和理论中蕴含着某种可预见性:它们对学生有一种镇静作用，否则他们就会被世界的现状所困扰. 我最喜欢的方面是研究比较动力学:如果你对需求稍加调整，价格或工资会如何变化 ‘keeping all else equal,’ as is the mantra in economics. 从那里到政治经济学的旅程源于这样一种认识，即即使某些东西改善了福利——或者是有利可图的——由此产生的利润或福利可能无法公平分配. 政治经济学从根本上关注的是政策的分配效应:自由贸易对谁有利，对谁不利, or who will taxation benefit and who will it hurt. Also, even when everyone benefits, it is important to ask who benefits disproportionately more and who benefits much less. As someone who was experiencing immigration and being a person of color in the U.S. during graduate school, these questions became more than just academic concerns for me. 我意识到，我对政策分配效应的理解，在很大程度上是由对以欧洲为中心的理论的理解驱动的. My Ph.D. 然后变成了从更亲密的角度来理解南亚外援的政治经济学:在巴基斯坦进行实地考察，找出真正受益于援助的人, who it hurts, and along what dimensions.

You’ve done more than two years of fieldwork in Pakistan. Can you talk about your book project, Aiding Accountability: The Politics of Last-Mile Service Delivery in Pakistan?
Aiding Accountability 在确定援助是否惠及受援国以及如何惠及受援国方面，该机构具有中心地位. 许多关于对外援助的文献都对援助的好处持怀疑态度，因为它们关注的是发展中国家的精英勾结和腐败. Reading this literature always unsettled me slightly. 不是因为我不了解发展中国家腐败的程度和程度, but because I found this to be the exclusive focus of most scholarship. Whereas elites were seen as the only people with agency in developing states, voters – or ordinary citizens – were conceptualized as exploited, and essentially helpless. Yet, I have also witnessed strong citizen action in developing countries, unparalleled mobilization, and a deep understanding of rights and entitlements.

Aiding Accountability 讲述了一个公民如何通过巴基斯坦最大的社会安全网获得外国援助的故事, “贝娜齐尔收入支持计划”积极要求当地政客提供便利，以获得利益. They need these facilitative – or what I term ‘last-mile’ – services, 因为这些项目往往要求潜在的受益者跨越多个官僚主义和流动性的障碍. They need legal documentation, knowledge of their household poverty score, and a host of other information to even enroll in the program. From there to finally obtaining the cash is a whole different story. For example, women beneficiaries need to undergo fingerprinting before they can retrieve payments via ATMs. But how do poor women—who are often not able to travel alone, 而且可能因为洗盘子和衣服而模糊了指纹——去自动取款机，成功地提取了指纹? 这就是他们向当地政客寻求帮助的地方，他们将为他们提供指纹豁免, and sometimes public transportation.

这本书展示了我在实地工作中亲眼目睹的情况:选民意识到这些计划的好处是为他们准备的, and they don’t just sit helplessly while the elite skim the money away. Instead, 他们积极地向他们的政治代表询问这笔钱，并要求有针对性的服务来帮助他们获得这笔钱. 这本书的一个关键目标是表明，如果不了解这些故事，我们就无法完全理解外援的政治经济学——谁受益，谁没有受益, and agency, of those it seeks to benefit. In some ways, 援助使以前被剥夺公民权的公民成为公共项目的受益者，从而帮助他们参与政治. And even if aid is failing at a macro-level, perhaps this presents a silver lining to where aid might bring about improvement. 如果政治自由化是一项目标，它也对捐助机构可以把重点放在什么方面有直接的政策影响.

Anything else you would like to add?
As a Muslim and an immigrant woman of color, 我认识到少数族裔和第一代学生在美国大学必须面对的不同挑战.S. institutions. 我完全接受我的代表角色，并希望让学生们知道，我的目标是在课堂上挑战传统知识，同时在课堂外为探索隐藏的课程提供支持. During my time here, 我仍然致力于鼓励尊重的辩论，确保每个人的声音和观点都能被听到. Finally, 我很高兴能成为Oxy社区的一员，并期待着在这一年里认识你们中的许多人.