Colette Harris currently works as a fellow in the the Participation, Power and Social Change Group, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK. At the time when this book was conceived and written, she was program director, women in development, at Virginia Tech. Born in Britain, Colette has lived and worked all over the world and speaks multiple languages. She has long been involved with the Republic of Tajikistan, in former Soviet Central Asia, but she has also carried out development projects in Africa, Latin America, and other parts of Asia. Colette is a social scientist and development specialist, working on issues of gender, identity and power, family relations, conflict and violence, public health and sexological problems from a gendered perspective, as well as the development of grass-roots innovative pedagogical methodologies.