Annual Al Berry Lectures

2023 Annual Al Berry Lecture hosted by the Department of Global Development Studies

Speaker: Professor Emeritus Albert Berry
Title: The Surprising Economics of Climate Change
Date: Wednesday October 18, 2023
Time: 7 PM – 9 PM
Location: AC223

The Department of Global Development Studies will be hosting a reception at the Albert Campbell Lounge BV380 from 5:00pm-6:45pm just prior to the lecture.

Prof. Emeritus Al Berry - Al Berry Lecture 2023

The Surprising Economics of Climate Change

The greatest challenge now faced by humanity--that of climate change, is very complex, involving technical, political, economic, psychological and

other aspects. This makes it hard to handle and contributes to the widespread pessimism that now exists. Two main sources of optimism are

that (i) we have or can soon get the technologies we need to win the battle and (ii) if we do it well the economic cost will be quite low. The

major obstacles are political and psychological. A necessary condition for success is that everyone contributes with the skills and political weight they have.

 

About the Speaker

Albert Barry, Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto Scarborough in the Department of Global Development Studies, has dedicated his career to exploring agriculture, labor markets, and income distribution in developing nations, with a primary focus on Colombia. His research delves into the impact of agrarian structure and farm size distribution on agricultural output and income distribution. Prof. Barry's work highlights the productivity advantages of small farms, shedding light on their significance. Recently, he's been investigating small-scale industries, drawing parallels with agriculture. His labor market studies, particularly in Colombia, seek to understand income and welfare inequality in developing countries and its relationship to public policy. Additionally, his extensive data analysis on income distribution trends in Colombia and the Philippines underscores the importance of addressing data issues in causal analyses.

Annual Al Berry Lectures

Revisiting Gender and Development in a Time of Fascisms

Dr. Kalpana Wilson is a Lecturer in the Geography Department at Birkbeck, University of London. Her research explores questions of race/gender, labour, imperialism, fascism and reproductive rights and justice, with a particular focus on South Asia and its diasporas. She is the author of Race, Racism and Development: Interrogating History, Discourse and Practice (Zed Books, 2012) and co-editor of Gender, Agency and Coercion (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). She has written widely on themes of international development, revolutionary social movements and reproductive justice. She is a founder member of the campaigning organization South Asia Solidarity Group.

Dr. Kalpana Wilson - Al Berry Lecture 2022

2020 Annual Al Berry Lecture by Prof. Ruth Oniang'o: Is Three Meals a Day Feasible for Everyone? (Sep 30, 2020)

Al Berry 2020 Lecture Poster

2019 Annual Al Berry Lecture by Dr. Rami Zurayk: Food, Farming and War: The Remains of the Spring (Sep 25, 2019)

The Centre for Critical Development Studies hosted the annual Al Berry lecture on Wednesday, September 25, 2019, at the University of Toronto Scarborough. The aim of the lecture was to provide students with an opportunity to learn about the food, agriculture, conflict and development in the Arab World and explore the region’s political economy/ecology of food and its evolution since the “Arab Spring. The Centre hosted a pre-lecture reception with the speaker, faculty, alumni, and current International Development Studies 5th year Co-op students. The 5th year IDS Co-op Students had the opportunity to engage and talk about their placement experiences with Prof. Rami Zurayk, IDS alumni and faculty. This year’s Al Berry lecture was delivered by Prof. Rami Zurayk, who is a professor at the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences at the American University of Beirut and chairperson of the department of Landscape Design and Ecosystem Management.

Dr. Rami Zurayk is a professor at the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences at the American University of Beirut and chairperson of the department of Landscape Design and Ecosystem Management. He is a member of the Steering Committee of the High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) of the Committee of World Food Security (CFS), and a commissioner on the EAT-Lancet commission on sustainable diets from sustainable food systems. He is a founding member of the Arab Food Sovereignty Network, an advisory board member of SEAL (Social and Economic Action for Lebanon) and an advisory board member for the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems and Community Development. He has worked and written extensively on the Arab World, focusing on the political ecology of Arab food security and its linkages with the agrarian question. His latest work on the subject includes: Crisis and Conflict in Agriculture (CABI, 2018), The Agrarian Roots of the Arab Uprisings (with Anne Gough, Cambridge, 2014); Control Food, Control People: The Struggle for Food Security in Gaza (with Anne Gough, IPS, 2013) Food, Farming and Freedom: Sowing the Arab Spring (Just World Books, 2011). He obtained his BSc and MSc from the American University of Beirut and his DPhil from Oxford University.

Al Berry 2019 Lecture Photo

2018 Annual Al Berry Lecture by Prof. Jeremy Adelman: Development or Justice? A Global History (Sep 26, 2018)

 

In this lecture, titled “Development or Justice? A Global History,” Prof. Jeremy Adelman takes a long, global view of development: what it has meant and speculations on what’s left in the age of climate change, uncertainty, and inequality.

About the Speaker:

Jeremy Adelman is the Henry Lea Professor of History and the Director of the Global History Lab at Princeton University. He is the author of 3 books, five edited volumes and countless articles that intersect the fields of Latin American history, global history, and development history. His most recent books include Worldly Philosopher: The Odyssey of Albert O. Hirschman (2013) is a chronicle of one of the 20th Century’s most original development thinkers; and, as a coauthor, Worlds Together, Worlds Apart (4th edition, 2014), a history of the world from the beginning of humankind to the present.

Al Berry 2018 Image

2017 Annual Al Berry Lecture by Prof. Haroon Akram-Lodhi: Feeding the Future: Understanding the Contemporary Food Crisis (2017)

Al Berry 2017 Image

2016 Annual Al Berry Lecture by Prof. Tania Murray Li: Capitalism from Above and Below (Oct 19, 2016)

Al Berry 2016 Lecture Photo

 

Podcast of 2015 Annual Al Berry Lecture by Dr. Vijay Prashad: Time of the Popular Front: How to React to the Endless Neoliberal Present (Oct 21, 2015)

Dr. Vijay Prashad is a professor of International Studies at Trinity College, Connecticut. He is a prolific and widely read critical historian of the ‘Third World’ and ‘Global South’ and author of over seventeen books. Some of his notable work includes Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting and Karma of Brown Folk, both of which were chosen by New York's Village Voice as among the best books. A more in depth detailing of his work can be found here: http://internet2.trincoll.edu/FacProfiles/Default.aspx?fid=1000767

Podcast of 2013 Annual Al Berry Lecture by Dr. Gita Sen: Health & Human Rights In The Post 2015 Development (Oct 22, 2013)

Dr. Gita Sen is a retired professor of public policy at the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore, India, and adjunct professor of global health and population at Harvard University. Sen is widely known for her analysis and activism on gender and development, women’s human rights, reproductive and sexual health, and the equity dimensions of health. She is currently the General Coordinator of Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era. To learn more about Gita and her work please visit http://icpdtaskforce.org/member/gita-sen/Opens an external site in a new window.

Students networking with Al Berry series lecturer