Nancy Rydberg

Nancy’s expertise is in critical ethnography, gender and education, education in conflict zones, and education in Africa. Her dissertation, funded by the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Award, is an 18-month ethnography exploring the role of schools in shaping students’ gender identity formation in post-conflict northern Uganda. Nancy examines how notions of the ideal male and female educated person are contested and negotiated in students’ daily experiences in classrooms in relation to internationally funded sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education, experiences of violence in and around schools, and local efforts to revitalize pre-war norms and values. She received her MA in development management and policy from Georgetown University and has conducted academic research in Africa and Latin America. She has served as a consultant with Save the Children writing evaluations of the group’s programming in Uganda, Malawi, Ethiopia, and Egypt. Nancy’s MA thesis examined non-governmental programming to promote the rights of street children in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Nancy is fluent in Spanish and Acholi (a dialect of Luo) and proficient in Portuguese.