Fouad Makki

About

Fouad Makki is Associate Professor in the Department of Global Development. He teaches and writes about international development, social theory, political economy and the historical sociology of modernity. Trained in the comparative study of society and history, he works across the disciplinary boundaries of the social sciences. As an undergraduate at Cornell, he was particularly interested in social and political thought and subsequently received a Ph.D. in historical sociology from Binghamton University. Set within a broad comparative framework, his writings explore materials from the history and contemporary politics of social change in Ethiopia and Eritrea where he has conducted research for many years.

Research Focus

Fouad's research program seeks to advance knowledge of the sociology and ecology of development. Fouad's overarching research program is constituted by three interlocking projects: (i) the critical rethinking of the conceptual framework of development through the reconstruction and elaboration of the idea of "uneven and combined development"; (ii) the systematic deployment of this theory to elucidate various aspects of state, economy, and society in northeast Africa so as to better understand their developmental trajectories; (iii) and, thirdly, the extension of this the theory of uneven and combined development to the metabolic relations between society and nature.

Awards and Honors

• CALS Young Faculty Teaching Excellence Award (2010) CALS- Cornell University
• Summa cum laude (1993) Cornell University

Selected Publications

Journal Publications

• Makki, F. M. (2015). Post-Colonial Africa and the World Economy: The Long Waves of Uneven Development. Journal of World-Systems Research. 21:Pages 124-146.
• Makki, F. M. (2014). Development by Dispossession: Terra Nullius and the Social Ecology of New Enclosures in Ethiopia. Rural Sociology. 79:79-103.

Book Chapters

• Makki, F. M. (2016). "The Ethiopian Revolution: A World-Historical Perspective". p. 185-205 Historical Sociology and World History: Uneven and Combined Development over the Longue Durée Alex Anievas and Kamran Matin (ed.), Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, Md. USA.

Presentations and Activities

• The Long Revolution: 1974 from the Perspective of 1991. The Ethiopian Revolution at 40. November 2014. International Institute for Social History. Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
• Land Enclosures: Implications for Water. Water Scarcity, Risk and Democracy in the Mediterranean and the Middle East. April 2013. Global Water Partnership. Athens, Greece.
• Massawa: Politics and Culture in a Red Sea Emporium. IFRIQIYYA Colloquium. April 2011. Institute for African Studies and the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies. Columbia University.
• New Enclosures. Roundtable on New Enclosures. April 2011. Organization of Cornell Planners. Miller-Heller House, Ithaca, NY.
• Development by Dispossession: Land Grabbing as New Enclosures in Contemporary Ethiopia. International Conference on Global Land Grabbing. April 2011. Institute of Development Studies. Sussex University, Brighton UK.