Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Senior Researcher
Field of Specialization:	International Politics
Name:	Dr. Joel Oestreich
Official Address:	Department of History and Politics, College of Arts and Sciences Drexel University, Philadelphia
Indian Host Institution:	Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Duration of Grant & Start Date :	Duration: 9 months October 2011

Brief Bio:

Dr. Joel Oestreich is a Professor of political science at the Drexel University where he is also the Director of the international area studies. His primary areas of research include international organizations, international finance, development, and human rights. He holds a B.A. from Cornell University in history and politics, an M.Phil from Oxford University in international relations, and a Ph.D. from Brown University in political science. In 2007, he published a book with Georgetown University Press on "human rights programming in international organizations". He has also published on the rights of indigenous peoples; the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child; and on the goals and impact of anti-globalization movements. Classes that he has taught include courses on international relations theory and practice, United States foreign policy, and ethical issues in international affairs. Dr. Oestreich's current research continues in international organizations and human rights. His edited book, "International Organizations as Self-Directed Actors" is forthcoming from Routledge Press, as part of their Global Institutions series. He is working on an article on the assessment of rights-based approaches to development. He has been a consultant to UNICEF in Bangladesh and Nigeria, and was a Business Ethics Consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. As Fulbright-Nehru research scholar Dr. Oestreich intends to focus on the success of "human rights based approaches to development" (HRBA) in the Indian context. HRBA is now the main approach of UN agencies working on economic development, but few studies have analyzed its effectiveness. He will select a set of development projects in India that apply HRBA, analyze their methods and goals, and will then apply his own set of criteria to assess their progress. This will involve interviews of UN personnel and government counterparts, and collection of economic data. Dr. Oestreich plans to produce a monograph on HRBA in the Indian context, with applicability to other countries.