Dr Glyn Williams
Senior Lecturer, Department of Town and Regional Planning
Room number: D11e
Telephone (internal): 26179
Telephone (UK): 0114 222 6179
Telephone (International): +44 114 222 6179
Email: glyn.williams@sheffield.ac.uk
Academic Profile
I was awarded a BA in Geography from St Catharine’s College, University of Cambridge (1991) followed by a Doctorate from Cambridge in 1996. I completed a certificate in Higher Education Teaching at Keele University where I lectured in Geography from 1994 – 2002.
In 2003 I was appointed as a lecturer in Environment and Development in the Global South in the Department of Geography, King’s College London and in 2005 I was promoted to Senior Lecturer.
In 2006 I was appointed as Senior Lecturer in the Department of Town and Regional Planning, University of Sheffield.
Research Interests
My research interests lie in the field of international development, and more specifically in the interaction between development programmes, governance practices, and citizenship in the Global South.
Current research
My work is driven by a motivation to promote development practice which is more socially just in two key respects. First, by critically engaging with the core agendas of development interventions, looking at their limitations, their unintended consequences, and the spaces for resistance within them. Second, by seeking to represent more fully within academic and policy debates the agency and understanding of socially, economically and politically marginalised groups in whose name ‘development’ is often invoked. These interests are inherently inter-disciplinary, engaging with debates in Development Studies, Geography, Political Studies and Planning.
Teaching
I have a range of teaching experience, and currently teach on the Department's postgraduate programmes (particularly for the MA International Development and Planning), and its undergraduate programmes. I am the Department's Director of Learning and Teaching. I teach on a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses including:
TRP601 Development and Planning Theoretical Perspectives
TRP611 Spatial Planning and Development in the South
TRP6014 / 4007 Cities of the South
I am committed to research-led teaching, with extensive experience at all levels, from UG to PhD (6 successful PhD completions, 2 further submissions in 2011). I have established and led a new programme, MA International Development and Planning. I have developed cross-departmental programmes via a new MA co-taught with Geography.
Key publications
• G Williams, P Meth and K Willias 2009 Geographies of Developing Areas: the Global South in a Changing World. Routledge, London
• S Corbridge, G Williams, M Srivastava and R Véron 2005 Seeing the State: Governance and Governmentality in Rural India. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
• Williams G, Thampi BV, Narayana D, Nandigama S and Bhattacharyya D 2011 “Performing Participatory Citizenship: power and politics in Kerala’s Kudumbashree programme” Journal of Development Studies 47(8), 1261-1280.
• Williams, G. 2004 “Evaluating Participatory Development: tyranny, power and (re)politicisation” Third World Quarterly 25(3), 557-579.
• Williams, G 2009 “Good Governance” in Kitchin, R and Thrift, N (eds.) International Encyclopaedia of Human Geography London: Elsevier. pp.606-614.
Other Information
Since 2010 I have been Chair of the Developing Areas Research Group at the Royal Geographical Society.
I am an invited member of the Peer Review College, Economic and Social Research Council (UK). I am external examiner on the MSc and MRes Programmes in International Development, University of East Anglia, and IDPM, University of Manchester. I have been external examiner for nine UK-based PhD students, and one in India. Since 2010 I have been Co-Director of Sheffield International Development Network (SIDNet): I have been a co-founder of this network, and helped to guide its successful bid to became a recognised research centre of University of Sheffield in January 2011. Since 2009 I have been Director of Learning and Teaching in the Department of Town and Regional Planning.