Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin
Associate Professor
Office: Living Learning Academic 216
Phone: (828) 262-6492
E-mail: woodca@appstate.edu 

Cynthia A. Wood has a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin. Her research interests include critical development studies, gender equity, sustainable development in Latin America, alternative appraoches to economics, and postcolonial feminist theory. Her work has appeared in publications such as Nepantla: Views from South , Struggles for Social Rights in Latin America , and Toward a Feminist Philosophy of Economics . Much of her writing has focused on the implications of postcolonial and feminist theories for effective critiques of economics, including gender mainstreaming and macroeconomic policies at the World Bank — research which challenges standard development models implicit in the Bank's approach. Currently she is working on the impacts of study abroad on local communities from the perspective of sustainable development.

Courses taught for Sustainable Development include SD 2400 Principles of Sustainable Development; SD 3400 Development and Underdevelopment; SD 3450 Farmworkers; and SD 4400 Sustainability Economic Development.

She looks forward to the day when we live more lightly on the earth, with an equitable distribution of burdens and happiness, and an appreciation of the diversity which makes our world a wonderful place to live. She is pretty sure that sustainable development entails a lot more porch-sitting than she currently does.

She has spent time in the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Guatemala, Cuba, and most recently in Mexico at the Universidad de Quintana Roo, and sometimes in one of the other Latin Americas, including Norte Carolina y Tejas. 

Selected Publications:

with Kathleen Schroeder, Shari Galiardi and Jenny Loehn, "First, Do No Harm: Ideas for Mitigating Negative Community Impacts of Short-Term Study Abroad" Journal of Geography, Volume 108, Issue 3 May 2009, pages 141-147.

"Different Commonalities: Gender Mainstreaming and the Marginalization of Difference in Economic Development" Canadian Journal of Development Studies (2005).

"Economic Marginalia: Postcolonial Readings of Unpaid Domestic Labor and Development," pp. 304-320  in Toward a Feminist Philosophy of Economics , edited by Drucilla Barker and Edith Kuiper. New York: Routledge, 2003.

"Adjustment with a Woman's Face: Gender and Macroeconomic Policy at the World Bank," pp. 209-230 in Struggles for Social Rights in Latin America , edited by Susan Eckstein and Tim Wickam-Crowley. New York: Routledge, 2002. Reprinted in Feminist Perspectives on the World Economy, edited by Drucilla Barker and Edith Kuiper. New York: Routledge, 2005.

"And Now a Word From..." and "Answer This," Kie Connection, Spring 2002 : 2-3. Durham, NC: The Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University.

"Authorizing Gender and Development: 'Third World Women,' Native Informants, and Speaking Nearby ," Nepantla: Views from South 2.3, 2001: 429-447.

"Transforming 'Them' into 'Us': Some Dangers in Teaching Women and Development," in Encompassing Gender: Crossing Disciplinary and Geographic Borders , edited by Mary Lay, Janice Monk, and Deborah Rosenfelt. New York: Feminist Press, 2001.

"The First World/Third Party Criterion: A Feminist Critique of Production Boundaries in Economics ," in Feminist Economics 3(3), 1997, 47-68.