Dennis Rodgers is a social anthropologist by training, and his research focuses broadly on issues relating to the political economy of development, including in particular the dynamics of conflict and violence in cities in Latin America (Nicaragua, Argentina) and South Asia (India). Much of his work focuses on the study of youth gangs – he has been conducting longitudinal ethnographic research on Nicaraguan gang dynamics since 1996 – but he has also worked on the topics of urban inequality, the politics of socio-spatial segregation, participatory governance processes, urban crime reduction, as well as on the epistemology of development knowledge. His future research plans include developing multi-level, comparative gang studies as well as, more broadly, re-thinking the relationship between conflict, violence, and development, both historically and in the contemporary era.

Rodgers’ publications include over 100 authored and edited books, journal special issues, articles and book chapters published across different disciplines (Anthropology, Criminology, Development Studies, International Relations, Latin American Studies, Political Science, Sociology, and Urban Studies), and written in different languages (English, French, and Spanish, with some of his work further translated into German, Portuguese, Italian, and Hindi). His recent publications include the co-edited volumes Popular Representations of Development: Insights from Novels, Films, Television, and Social Media and Global Gangs: Street Violence across the World. Rodgers was also associate editor of the European Journal of Development Research (EJDR) between 2008 and 2012, and editor of Urban Studies between 2012 and 2015.

Rodgers has BA, MA (Cantab) and PhD degrees in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge ( Trinity College), and a Postgraduate Certificate in International Studies from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. Prior to joining the UvA, he was Professor of Urban Social and Political Research at the University of Glasgow (2012-2015), Senior Research Fellow in the Brooks World Poverty Institute (BWPI) at the University of Manchester (2007-2012), and Lecturer in Urban Development and Development Studies at the London School of Economics (2000-2007). Between 2010-2012, Rodgers co-directed the ESRC-DFID-funded project on ‘Understanding the Tipping Point of Urban Violence’ at the University of Manchester, and between 2000-2010 he was a member of the core team of the London School of Economics’ Crisis States Research Centre. He has also worked as a consultant for several international development organisations, and was a member of a Nicaraguan youth gang for a year, as well as manager of a market stall selling rice and beans in one of Managua’s markets for six months.