Elizabeth Buckner

Biography

My research investigates how globalization and neoliberalism affect higher education and the states ability to develop the capacities of its citizens more broadly. I have conducted wide ranging policy-relevant research, primarily set in lower and middle-income nations, to study how globalization, neoliberalism, and large-scale displacement impacts education as core sector of human development. My primary interest has been the privatization of higher education: I have investigated the role that global development community has played in making private higher education both an acceptable and, at times preferable, policy even in nations that once outlawed private universities. Other recent research projects have included: policies governing urban refugee education with a focus on Lebanon (US State Department), teacher professional development policies in OECD nations (OECD-funded), the link between educational inequality and violent conflict outbreak over the past four decades (UNICEF-funded), the effect of private higher education on access to higher education in Egypt, cross-national analyses of how globalization is portrayed in textbooks over time, applied research on mobile devices as educational tools in Palestine and Tanzania, and youth attitudes to private higher education in Syria. My research investigates how globalization and neoliberalism affect higher education and the states ability to develop the capacities of its citizens more broadly. I have conducted wide ranging policy-relevant research, primarily set in lower and middle-income nations, to study how globalization, neoliberalism, and large-scale displacement impacts education as core sector of human development. My primary interest has been the privatization of higher education: I have investigated the role that global development community has played in making private higher education both an acceptable and, at times preferable, policy even in nations that once outlawed private universities. Other recent research projects have included: policies governing urban refugee education with a focus on Lebanon (US State Department), teacher professional development policies in OECD nations (OECD-funded), the link between educational inequality and violent conflict outbreak over the past four decades (UNICEF-funded), the effect of private higher education on access to higher education in Egypt, cross-national analyses of how globalization is portrayed in textbooks over time, applied research on mobile devices as educational tools in Palestine and Tanzania, and youth attitudes to private higher education in Syria.

Research Interest

My primary interest has been the privatization of higher education: I have investigated the role that global development community has played in making private higher education both an acceptable and, at times preferable, policy even in nations that once outlawed private universities.