About Me:
Margaret Willson is the International Director and co-founder of Bahia Street, an NGO that for 13 years has been providing educational opportunities for young women and girls in Brazil. Dr. Willson has a Ph.D. in anthropology from the London School of Economics, where her research focused on concepts of power and negotiation among overseas Chinese entrepreneurs. Her widely varied publications include ethnohistorical research on discrimination and exclusion practices toward Chinese immigrants in the United States, issues of sexuality and gender, and complexities of race and power. She has worked in ethnographic film, both as director of an independent film of concepts of sexuality and gender among blind people, and for Channel Four (Britain) as associate producer and anthropologist for a television-released program on Inner Mongolia.
Currently Dr. Willson, in addition to her work at Bahia Street, gives extensive talks and workshops on international development theory and practice. She also teaches specific programs as Affiliate Faculty with the Department of Anthropology at the University of Washington and through the office of Minority Affairs and targeted directly for university minority students.
Dr. Willson’s recent publications include “Incorporating an Anthropological Consciousness as a Model for Development,” in So What? Now What?: The Anthropology of Consciousness Responds to a World in Crisis, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009, and Dance Lest We All Fall Down: breaking cycles of poverty in Brazil and beyond (to be released Fall 2010, University of Washington Press). Her current research interests include gendered concepts and complexities of risk in Iceland, and gender, practices and policy in international development aid.
Area(s) of Training
anthropology, applied anthropology, cultural anthropology
Area(s) of Expertise
international development theory and practice, applied anthropology, sex and gender, ethnogrpahic film; area specialties: Papua New Guinea, Overseas Chinese, Brazil, Iceland
Current Area of Employment
International Director, Bahia Street/Anthropology, University of Washington
