Dr. Gowher Rizvi

In a career of more than 25 years across four continents, Rizvi has combined academic appointments with positions in international organizations, not-for-profit institutions and the media. He originally trained as a social scientist, but is an area studies and development expert.

His publications have spanned the disciplines of history, politics, international relations and development economics. His books include "South Asia in a Changing International Order," "South Asia Insecurity and the Great Powers," "Bangladesh: The Struggle for the Restoration of Democracy," "Perspectives on Imperialism and Decolonization" and "Lord Linlithgow and India." Rizvi earned a "double first" in B.A. Honors and M.A. from the University of Dhaka in Bangladesh. He earned a D.Phil. at Trinity College, Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes scholar.

He taught for nearly two decades at several British universities, including Oxford University, the University of Warwick and St. Anthony's College. He also served as the Asia-Pacific region head for the Oxford Analytical Daily Brief, an Oxford think tank. He is the founding editor of Contemporary South Asia, an academic and policy studies journal published at Oxford.

Rizvi has also been widely engaged in working to manage conflicts and strengthen democratic institutions and processes in Asia. From 1988 to 1990, he served as special assistant to the United Nations coordinator for Afghanistan, participating in several missions to that country and developing close links with Afghan leaders on both sides of the civil war.

Rizvi joined the Ford Foundation in 1995 as the deputy director for governance and civil society with responsibilities for the foundation's work worldwide. He became the representative to New Delhi in 1998. The New Delhi office, with a grant-making budget in excess of $56 million in 2001, is the foundation's oldest and largest overseas office. Prior to joining the Ford Foundation, Rizvi was the director of contemporary affairs at the Asia Society in New York, the leading public education organization dedicated to increasing American understanding of peoples and cultures throughout Asia.