Fellows and Postdocs
Afia Adaboh
Afia Adaboh was awarded her doctorate in the Heller School’s Global Development and Sustainability Ph.D. concentration. Her research focuses on social policy creation, implementation and evaluation in developing countries that aim to improve the quality of life of vulnerable and marginalized communities. Previously she worked with breadfruit farmers in Jamaica to develop a means to ensure survivability and improve fruit yield; helped to develop a comprehensive implementation and evaluation plan to reduce high maternal mortality rates in Somalia. She was a research team member for the GDS evaluation of the Akshaya Patra Mid-day Meal program in Lucknow, India. Dr. Adaboh also serves as the Senior Editorial Assistant for CASTE: A Global Journal on Social Exclusion published by GDS in collaboration with the Brandeis Library.
Mei-Ling Ellerman
Mei-Ling Ellerman, PhD, Visiting Scholar, conducts interdisciplinary research on all forms of power, control, and subordination exercised over members of vulnerable groups, and the socio-cultural, socio-political, moral, psychological and cognitive factors that influence their responses. Ellerman founded The Action Research Project on Domestic Workers in Beijing, and led research on workplace issues and sexual harassment of Chinese female and male migrant domestic workers. Her other research projects have been supported by UNESCO and the Fulbright and David L. Boren Fellowships. Ellerman earned her PhD from The Australian National University.
Previous Fellows
Dinar Kharisma
Dinar Dana Kharisma, PhD, finished his PhD at Heller in the Global Development and Sustainability concentration and served as a postdoctoral associate. He works with the Government of Indonesia on the development of national social protection programs, including the National Health Insurance and conditional cash transfer. His main research interest is social policy evaluation in developing countries. He participated in the GDS evaluation of the Akshaya Patra Mid-day Meal program in Lucknow, India and is now part of the GDS team for capacity building for baseline studies with RAINS in northern Ghana.
Purna Bahadur Nepali
Purna Bahadur Nepali, PhD, was a Fulbright Visiting Research Fellow at GDS in 2017-18 and now works with GDS on capacity building in Nepal. Nepali was the Coordinator for the Regional Food Security Governance Project in South and East Asia for DanChurchAid, the development arm of Danish churches. He is currently conducting research on reorienting the political economy of agrarian transformations, focusing on marginalized communities in Nepal. He is an Associate Professor at Kathmandu University, where he earlier received his PhD in conjunction with the human geography program at the University of Zurich. His ongoing research is on landlessness, livelihood insecurity and social conflict with special focus on the Dalit community.
April 2025: GDS congratulates Dr. Nepali on being appointed the Nepalese Ambassador to Sri Lanka.
Man Bahadur Bishkawarma
Man Bahadur Bishwakarma, PhD, was a GDS Fulbright Visiting Scholar, and in August 2021 was appointed the Secretary of the Government of Nepal (the most senior officer in Nepal’s Civil Service). He is the first person of Dalit background to rise this high in the Civil Service. Previously, he was Joint Secretary/Director General of the Government of Nepal’s Department of Labour. Earlier he served as the National Manager for the Centre for Constitutional Dialogue under the UNDP Support to Participatory Constitution Building Process in Nepal. Dr. Man has now retired from government service and joined the Akamai University/USA as a faculty member and Kathmandu University/Nepal as visiting faculty in the MPhil in Education program. He has published widely on Dalit issues in Nepal.
Sukhadeo Thorat
Professor Sukhadeo Thorat, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. He is the former Chair, University Grants Commissions, India, and former Chair, Indian Council for Social Science Research. He is the co-founder of the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, New Delhi.
Alfred B. Zack-Williams
Professor Alfred B. Zack-Williams is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Central Lancashire, UK and the past President of the African Studies Association of the UK which in 2020 awarded him the Distinguished Africanist Award. He is a member of the British Academy Africa Panel, and Editor of the Review of African Political Economy.