International Consultancy

The preoccupations that run through my novels, film and consultancy work, and join them, are the ways that the experiences of ordinary people across the world, richer and poorer, are interwoven. Much of my early work was spent sitting in poor villages in Africa and Asia, talking to men and women in order to assemble an overall picture of how things changed - technology, institutions, beliefs, economics, the sense of self. Later my interests widened from rural societies to include human migration (the background to A Girl From Zanzibar), political change, conflict, and the broader tides of history. My wish has been to try to understand the big picture, while my imagination in fiction keeps my attention on the individual human soul - and the laughter in us. Most recently these strands have come together in researching and imagining future scenarios.

Experience

Recent consultancy work includes: Global future scenarios (World Bank); Documentary filmmaking focusing on change among indigenous peoples in India; Post-conflict reconstruction and reconciliation for Afghanistan (UN).

Earlier work included assignments in twenty African and Asian countries for a variety of international agencies, mostly UN related. Many of these were as a socio-economist concerned with understanding change in rural societies, and evaluating or proposing interventions.

Some representative examples of earlier assignments are:
China - De-collectivization of agriculture in Inner Mongolia (1989)
Pakistan - Area development in North West Frontier Province(1984-86)
Western Samoa - The role of livestock in the society and economy (1986-87)
Bangladesh - Evaluation of the national jute industry (1982)
Zimbabwe - Resettling of ex-guerilla fighters into society (1980)
Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Liberia - adult literacy and popular participation (1979)

In the 1990’s, I became ill with ME Disease and unable to travel much. Instead, I started the "Writers in Danger" project, researching, and becoming directly involved with, the human rights cases of writers imprisoned, or in danger, in many countries around the world, in collaboration with PEN and San Francisco State University.

Academic

PhD, Agricultural Economics, University of Reading, UK
MS, Agricultural Economics, University of Massachusetts, US
BS, Food Science, University of Nottingham, UK

Academic posts in international development: Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria, and the University of Reading, UK.

Academic posts in Creative Writing: Eastern Washington University, San Francisco State University, and Warren Wilson College.

Distinctions

BABRA novel of the year award.
BBC/Writers Guild First Screenplay award.
Fellowships at The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Ragdale, and the Breadloaf Conference.
Guest Speaker, World Affairs Council

Contact for consultancy enquiries. consult@rogerking.org