David Lewis is professor of anthropology and development in the LSE’s Department of International Development. His research has been mostly focused on South Asia and Bangladesh in particular, where he conducted village level fieldwork on technology and agrarian change for his PhD. David’s subsequent research has explored the interface between anthropology and development studies, such as understanding how ‘development’ is experienced by those on the receiving end of policies, anthropological analysis of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society, and popular representations of development.

Recent collaborative research has explored the ethnography of small-scale entrepreneurship advice in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, while David’s ongoing work is concerned with the relationship between policy and the past, and he is currently writing a book on ‘policy amnesia’. He has also provided consultancy advice to a wide range of international development agencies including the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the UK Department for International Development (DFID), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Oxfam GB and BRAC Bangladesh.