Robert Anderson

Departmental Committees

• 2005-2006: Governance Task Force, School of Communication
• September 2003: August 2004 Member, Search Committee, School of Communication
• 2003, 2004, 2006: Member, Tenure and Promotion Committee (TPC), School of Communication
• 1996 – 1997: Honours Coordinator, School of Communication
• 1992 – 1995: Director, School of Communication , SFU
• 1988 – 1992: Director, Community Economic Development Centre, SFU
• 1979 – 1983: Chairman, Graduate Studies, Department of Communication
• 1981 – 1981: Co-ordinated Graduate Deans of Canadian universities to re-establish IDRC fellowship.

University Committees

• 2003- 2010: Co-Chair, Steering Committee, Burnaby Mountain College
• 2002-2008: Co-Chair, Development Studies Steering Committee, SFU
• 2001 – 2004: Chair, Steering Committee, Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue
• 2001 – Current Chair, Steering Committee, Graduate Development Studies Program
• 2000 – Current Member, SFU-Burnaby Liaison Committee
• 1999 – Current Committee member, In 1999 I was elected by all faculty to the Board of the Mountain Community Corporation, which I attend regularly (and teach a course about).
• 2000 – 2010: Current Elected Board Member, SFU Community Trust
• 2002 – 2003: Acting Director, Community Economic Development Centre
• 1999 – 2001: Member, Academic Advisory Committee, Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue
• 2000 – 2000: Chair, Senate Review Committee of the Eastern Indonesia University Development Project
• 1999 – 1999: In 1999 I was active in the development of the Centre for Dialogue, Centre for Dialogue
• 1995 – 1995: Member, External Review of Women’s Studies Department
• 1985 – 1988: Member, SFU President’s Advisory Committee on International Co-operation
• 1987 – 1987: Appeared before Winegard Committee regarding more effective links between CIDA and universities.
• 1979 – 1983: Member, Senate Graduate Studies Committee, SFU
• Other SFU Faculty Association
• 1985 – 1987: Member, Executive
• 1988 – 1992: Member, University Affairs Committee

Active Service to the Academic Community

• 1998 – Current In terms of academic community service, I support the journal Pacific Affairs and Canadian Journal of Communication as much as possible, reviewing articles and books.

University Related Activities

• 2008 – 2010: Director, Development & Sustainability Program, Faculty of Environment, SFU
• 2001 – 2004: Director, Dialogue Institute, SFU
• 2003 – 2003: Reviewer, Grant applications for US National Science Foundation
• 2003 – 2003: Reviewer, Grant applications for SSHRC Individual Grants
• 1994 – 1994: Member, Advisory Committee to Fraser Basin Management Program
• 1990 – 1990: Member, B.C. Council on Conflict Resolution
• 1977 – 1980: To study American universities’ relation with international development (via USAID, foundations, etc.), U.S. National Science Foundation grant
• 1973 – 1977: UBC professor involved in trying to create an ” Institute of Development Studies .”
• 1974 – 1975: Consultant, on finding Canadian university resources for research in Bangladesh , IDRC
• 1970 – 1971: Fellow, studying university based transfer of technology projects in South Asia, Centre for Developing Area Studies, McGill University

Book and Manuscript Reviews

• 2005: Columbia University Press
• 1997: Princeton University Press
• 1997: Cambridge University Press
• 1997: University of Toronto Press
• 1976 – 2006: Pacific Affairs
• 1995: Canadian Public Policy
• 1993: Journal of Developing Areas
• 1993: Culture
• 1988 – 1994: Canadian J. of Communication
• 1986: Journal of Asian Studies
• 1979: International Journal
• 1978: Canadian Literature
• 1972: Journal of European Studies
• 1971: Journal of African and Asian Studies

Service to the Community At Large

• 1999 – 2004: Municipal Government Representative, I have been re-appointed by the Mayor and Council for a further three year term as Citizen Representative on the Environment and Waste of the City of Burnaby , and attend those meetings regularly.
• 1999 – Current Director, In late 1999 I started, on a voluntary basis, the very successful “Sea to Sky Radio Society” to bring english and french radio signals in to Whistler Valley . This brings me in contact with one of my original interests, the role of communication in cultural and socio-economic development

• Anderson, R.S. (2010) Nucleus and Nation: scientists, international networks, and power in India. University of Chicago Press, pp.683
• Anderson, R.S. (2007) “The Biographical Origins of Political Systems of Highland Burma” in Francois Robinne and Mandy Sadan [eds] Social Dynamics in the Highlands of Southeast Asia.Leiden, Brill Publishers, pp 3-21.
• R.S. Anderson, Richard Grove, Karis Hiebert (eds.). Islands Forests and Gardens in the Caribbean : conservation and conflict in environmental history. London : Macmillan, 2006.
• Anderson, R.S. “Civilizations and their Discontents, Again”. In M. Intriligator et al. [eds.] Eurasia : a new peace agenda. London , IB Tauris, 2005.
• Anderson, R.S. “Thinking Strategically About New Conflicts: Patrick Blackett as military and scientific advisor in India , 1947-1972.” In P. Hore (ed.) Patrick Blackett: Lord, Professor and Lieutenant, London , Cass, 2003.
• Anderson, R.S. Qui a peur de développement aujourd’hui? In G. Brunel & C.-Y. Charron [Eds.] La Communication Internationale: mondialization, acteurs, et territoires socio-culturels. Montreal, Editions Gaetan Morin, 2001.
• Anderson, R.S. (Ed.) Planning a University Village on Burnaby Mountain , and “Introduction,” 2000, Simon Fraser University. Anderson , R.S. Report of the Senate Committee to Review the Eastern Indonesia Universities Development Project, Simon Fraser University , 2001 [book length evaluation].
• 1998. “Opening Up But Keeping Control,” in R. Mansell et al (eds.) Knowledge Societies: Information Technologies for Sustainable Development, United National Press and Oxford University Press.
• Anderson, R.S. et al., (Eds.) (1998). Innovation Systems in a Global Context: the North American experience. Montreal , McGill-Queens.
• Anderson, R.S., Gruneau, R. & Heyer, P. (Eds.) (1996). TvTv – the television revolution, the debate. Canadian Journal of Communication.
• Anderson, R.S. & Charron, C.-Y. L’intégration des communications mondiales et locales pour un développement international durable, enjeux, contraintes et perspectives de développement. In Communication and International Development, T. Paquet-Sevigny (Ed.), Presses de l’Université du Québec, 1996.
• Anderson , R.S., Trevin, J., and N.J. Weekes, Implications for forestry action of a socio-economic study in a watershed of Saint Vincent , in Towards Sustainable Forest Management in the Caribbean, Rio Piedras Puerto Rico, International Institute of Tropical Forestry, 1994.
• 1991. Anderson , Levy and Morrison, Rice Science and Development Politics: Research Strategies and IRRI’s Technologies Confront Asian Diversity, 1950-1980. Oxford University Press.
• Anderson, R.S. “History of Science and Technology”, in Cambridge Encyclopedia of South Asia . Cambridge University Press, 1989.
• 1988. (with Walter Huber), The Hour of the Fox: Tropical Forests , the World Bank, and Indigenous People in Central India . Seattle : Univ. of Washington Press.
• 1988. “Expo 86 Vancouver Canada ” (with Eleanor Wachtel) in Dictionary of Worlds Fairs and Expositions. Greenwood Press.
• 1986. (with Eleanor Wachtel), eds., The Expo Story. Madeira Park , B.C.: Harbour Publishing.
• 1984. “Cultivating Science as a Cultural Policy”, in Lloyd Rudolph (ed.), Cultural Policy in India . New Delhi : Chanakya Publications (reprinted from 1983 journal).
• 1982. Anderson (senior editor), Brass Levy and Morrison (eds.), Science, Politics and the Agricultural Revolution in Asia . Boulder , CO : Westview Press, for the American Association for the Advancement of Science: proceedings of the AAAS Symposium (510 pp.) — contributions by Anderson are Introduction, and Chapter 11, “Removing the Limitations on Science: On the Responsibilities of Rice Research in Bangladesh “.
• 1981. “The Necessity of Field Methods in the Study of Scientific Research”, in E. Mendelsohn and Y. Elkana (eds.), Sciences and Cultures, Sociology of Sciences, Volume V. Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing, pp. 213-244.
• 1975. Building Scientific Institutions in India : Saha and Bhabbha, McGill University , Centre for Developing Area Studies, Occasional Paper #11, 121 pp.

• Anderson, R.S. “Empire’s Setting Sun?: Patrick Blackett and the Military and Scientific Development of India.” Economic & Political Weekly, 29 September 2001.
• Anderson, R.S. “Patrick Blackett: Military Consultant and Scientific Intervenor in India ,” Notes and Records of the Royal Society, London , 53 (2), 253-273 and (3), 345-359.
• Anderson, R.S. “Why Lord Buddha Smiled. Review of: The Making of the Indian Atomic Bomb,” Times Literary Supplement, 8 January 1999.
• “Two Unintended Faces of Television,” in TVTV: a special issue of the Canadian Journal of Communication.
• Anderson, R.S. “The Perils of Pine: Planned Failure in International Forestry”, Journal of Business Administration, Spring 1992.
• Anderson, R.S. “The Origins of the International Rice Research Institute”, Minerva, Autumn 1991.
• Anderson, R.S. Guest editor (and “Introduction”), Special issue on communication and martial law, Canadian Journal of Communication, Fall 1988.
• Anderson, R.S. “Stop Everything in Bangladesh : Communication, Martial Law and National Strikes”, Canadian Journal of Communication, December 1988.
• 1984. “Completely in Between: Jamaica ’s Development and Canadian Interests”, International Perspectives, November.
• 1983. “Cultivating Science as Cultural Policy: A Contrast of Agricultural and Nuclear Science in India “, Pacific Affairs (special issue of journal for cultural policy).
• 1977. “The Government of Scientific Institutions in India : Case Studies of Two Research Laboratories in the Late 1960s”, Contributions to Indian Sociology, Vol. II, No. 1, pp. 137-168.
• 1976. “Impressions of Bangladesh : The Rule of Arms and the Politics of Exhortation”, Pacific Affairs, Autumn, pp. 443-475.
• 1974. “Power from Power — A new Scenario Emerges for India ’s Scientists”, Science Forum ( University of Toronto Press ), December.
• 1971. “Are Conferences on Science in Poor Nations a Useless Extravagence?” Science Forum ( University of Toronto Press), December.
• 1971. Comment on “The Social Organization of a University Laboratory”, by Gerald Swatez– Minerva.
• 1967. “Lord of the Flies on Coral Island”, The Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 54-68.
• 1966. “This Thing Could Go That Way”, Philosophy East and West, University of Hawaii Press, Vol. XVI, Nos. 1 and 2; pp. 49-58

• Anderson, R.S. (2001). Report of the Senate Committee to Review the Eastern Indonesia Universities Development Project,SimonFraserUniversity[book length evaluation].
• 1995. brief to CBC Mandate Review Committee on International Broadcasting.
• 1994. brief to Special Joint Committee on Foreign Policy, Ottawa .
• 1992. “Improving Research Effectiveness in IDRC — a proposal for a new program”, for Corporate Affairs and Initiatives Division, IDRC, Ottawa .
• 1991. “Socio-Economic Study of Colonarie Watershed , St. Vincent and the Grenadines ” (for CIDA).
• 1991. “Assessing the Socio-Economic Consequences of the Longjiang-Nujiang Project in Yunnan , China “.
• 1990. “Immigration and Social Conflict in Richmond , B.C.” (for Economic Council of Canada ).
• 1989. “Evaluation of the Local Development Assistance Program , Thailand ” (for CIDA).
• 1989. “Study of the Role of Television in China ’s Development” (for Embassy of Canada , Beijing ).
• 1988. “International Evaluation of Columbia ’s Development Projects” (for CIDA).
• 1986. “Credit Can Lead to Rural Development”, The Mid-Term Operational Review of the Rural Poor Program , Bangladesh (for CIDA).
• 1986. (with Looyd Baron) ” Jamaica ’s Decline: A Socio-Economic Study” (for CIDA).
• 1986. (with Lloyd Baron) “Expectations and Experience of Tourism: The Windward and Leeward Island States of the Eastern Caribbean “, presented to CIDA and Laventhol and Howarth Management Consultants.
• 1984. “Hunger and Malnutrition in Jamaica : Three Directions for Canadian Food Aid”. (for CIDA).
• 1984. “Agricultural Institutions in Jamaica : The Role of Donors”. (for CIDA).
• 1984. ” Jamaica 1990: A Socio-Economic Analysis”. (for CIDA).
• 1977. “International Proliferation Implications of the Extraction and Marketing of Saskatchewan Uranium”, testimony before the Bayda Inquiry, Regina , September.
• 1976. “The Canada-India Nuclear Exchange 1947-1976″, Statement on the Proposed Export of Nuclear Material to India submitted to the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission Hearings, 20 July 1976: see Washington Post, 19 July 1976.

• 2011 « Myanmar and China relationships on the frontier » Georgetown University, Washington DC (November 2011)
• 2011 « Roads to Rajasthan ; how did India begin to become a high-tech and nuclear power ? » Graduate Institute, University of Geneva (October 2011).
• 2011 « Ripples from Rajasthan : how did the 1974 nuclear test alter the way outsiders thought about South Asia ? » University of London (November 2011)
• 2007  « Guerres chaudes et froides à la haute frontière entre la Chine et la Birmanie » Universite de Quebec a Montreal, October 2007
• 2007  « Conflicts on the Yunnan-Burma frontier 1939-1950 » Institut de Recherche pour Sud-est Asie, Universite de Provence, Marseille, May 2007
• 2007  School of Oriental and African Studies,UniversityofLondon“Highland Frontiers of Burma  from hot war to cold war”, April 2007
• 2005  Desmond Pacey Memorial Lecturer,UniversityofNew Brunswick,Fredericton,  “The Rashomon-effect and Us”, April 2005
• 2004    The origins of Edmund Leach’s ‘Political Systems of Highland Burma’, European Conference on South-east Asian Studies, Paris-1 Sorbonne, France, September 2004
• 2004  Conference on Foundations of Globalization,ManchesterUniversity, “American Foundations and the Green Revolution.” Keynote address, November 2004.
• 2003  Conference on Science Studies inIndia. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  “Secret, private and professional faces in influential Indian scientific networks.” Keynote address, 24 November 2003.
• 2001 Canadian Centre for Foreign Policy Development. Chair, Roundtable on Indonesia .
• 2001 Society for the Study of Science and Society, Boston , November 2001. “Alternate histories of science in India “
• 2001 Conference on Peace and Security in Eurasia, Centre for Political and International Studies, Moscow , Russia , June 2001. “Civilizations and their discontents, again”
• 2000 Canadian Centre for Foreign Policy Development. Chair, Roundtable on Burma and Narcotics.
• 1998 University of Oxford , UK , November 1998. “The operation of nuclear networks and the development of atomic power in India “
• 1997 Canadian Centre for the Development of Foreign Policy. Chair, Canadian Roundtable on Burma
• 1994 IDRC Conference on Communication for Development, Montreal , Quebec . “The Future of Communication and Development Studies.”
• 1992 International Conference on Ethnic Peace, Matsunaga Institute, University of Hawaii . “Ethnic Conflict and Plate Tectonics.”
• 1992 Deutsche Messe AG, Expo 2000 Planning Seminar Symposium, Hannover , Germany , February 1992. “The Planning and Consequences of Expo 86 – Learning the Lessons for Expo 2000 at Hannover “
• 1991 Quatriemes Entretiens du Centre Jacques Cartier, Lyon, France, November 1991. “Communication About Risk Among International NGOs”
• 1990 First Nations Economic Summit , Vancouver , B.C., November 1990. “The Meaning of Community Economic Development”
• 1990 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and UNESCO, Paris, July 1990. “Sciences et Empires”
• 1987 International Communication Association, Montreal , Quebec . “Looking Upward: Contrasting Canadian and American Representations in the Caribbean .”
• 1985 Smithsonian Institution Conference on India , Washington , D.C. “Forest, Field and Heaven: Three Perspectives on the Sciences in Modern India .”
• 1984 Institute of Advanced Study, West Berlin . “Communication and Culture in Scientific Institutions.”
• 1981 Canadian Communication Association, Halifax , Nova Scotia . “Three Windows for Policy-Oriented Research on Communication and International Development in Canada .”
• 1980 Canadian Communication Association, Montreal , Quebec . “Developing ‘Problems’: On the Communciation of Definitions by International Development Institutions.”
• 1979 Canadian Ethnological Society, Banff , Alberta . “Political and Economic Ingredients of Agrarian Transformation: The Case of the Southern American Rice Industry, 1700 – 1945.”
• June 1975 Canadian Forum. (with Kathy Mezei) “Welcome to the Party — Aid to Bangladesh ?”
• March 1975 Association for Asian Studies, San Francisco. “Strong Traditions and Powerful Forces: the Poverty of Social Policy for Rural Bangladesh .”
• October 1974 Technical Panel of Ad Hoc Group on Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Meeting, Geneva . “People and Water in Rural Bangladesh — Or Does Political Power Come out of the Barrel of a Pump?”
• June 1974 Canadian Association of Asian Studies at University of Toronto . “Patterns of Relief at the Local Level – Bangladesh 1972-1973.”

• April 2005 Desmond Pacey Memorial Lecturer, University of New Brunswick , Fredericton , “The Rashomon-effect and Us”
• November 2003 Conference on Foundations of Globalization. “American Foundations and the Green Revolution.” Keynote address, 5 November 2003.
• November 2003 Conference on Science Studies in India . Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Secret, private and professional forces in influential Indian scientific networks.” Keynote address, 24 November 2003.
• 1991 International Conference on Environmental Institutions, Kingstown . Caribbean , June 1991. Keynote Address, ” St. Vincent and the Grenadines .”
• 1990 International Conference, Consensus and Control: Communication in Conflict and Intervention, Vancouver , B.C., June 1990. Opening Address.

• Nov. 2003 Seminar, University of Cambridge , 13 November 2003. ” Edmund Leach , Burma , and the Open System Concept.”
• 1999 In 1999 I was asked to speak at the University of Washington on the history of the Indian nuclear bombs.
• 1998 In 1998 I spoke on aboriginal conflict and negotiation at University of Cambridge , and University of Edinburgh .
• 1998 CNRS, Paris, University of Jerusalem , University of London , and University of Oxford ; seminars on the history of secret nuclear networks.
• 1997 Expert Witness for Canadian Jewish Congress, before B.C. Human Rights Tribunal, on responsibility and freedom in community press.
• 1996 State Council of Science and Technology, Bhopal , India .
• 1995 National Museum of Man, Bhopal , India
• 1995 International Forum on Burma , Amsterdam .
• 1994 Vancouver Institute Lecturer. “Intervenors in Trouble”
• 1994 Conference on Development Communication, Montreal (sponsored by AMARC and IDRC). Invited Speaker
• 1994 International Committee on Industrial Cooperatives in China , Beijing .
• 1994 Canada Council, Commission for UNESCO
• July 1994 Special Joint Committee on Foreign Policy, Senate and House of Commons, Ottawa
• 1993 Conference on Japanese and Canadian ODA Policies and Practices, UQAM, Montreal .
• 1993 Technical Experts Meeting, United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Vienna . Chair.
• 1991 UNESCO ( Summit Meeting), General Conference, Paris.
• 1991 Summer Institute and International Conference, Vancouver . “Consensus and Control: Communication in Conflict and Intervention”.
• 1991 First Nations Economic Summit Meeting, Vancouver.
• 1991 International Conference on Environmental Institutions, St. Vincent and the Grenadines , West Indies .
• 1990 UNESCO, with CNRS, France , India . “Sciences et Empires”
• 1990 Communciation Division, IDRC, Ottawa.
• 1990 Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi .
• 1989 Roundtable on Communication and Development, IDRC, Ottawa .
• 1989 University of Technology , Shanghai , China .
• 1989 Beijing Broadcasting Institute, China .
• 1989 Beijing University , China .
• 1989 The Development Research Centre, Beijing , China .
• 1987 International Communication Association, Montreal .
• 1986 House of Commons, Standing Committee on External Affairs and International Trade, Ottawa .
• 1986 Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of the West Indies, Jamaica .
• 1986 Pearson College of the Pacific, Victoria.
• 1985 School of Nursing , University of British Columbia .
• 1985 Smithsonian Institution, Washington , D.C.
• 1984 Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin , West Berlin .
• 1984 South Asia Conference of the Pacific Northwest, Seattle .
• 1983 Canadian Communication Association, Vancouver. Panel of experts: New Communication Technologies for Development: Montreal-Vancouver teleconference sponsored by Department of Communciations , Canada .
• 1983 International Round Table on Theory of Representations, Universite de Quebec a Montreal .
• 1982 Department of Foreign Languages, University of Inner Mongolia . Three lectures on communication and development.
• 1982 The Asiatic Society of Bangladesh .
• 1981 Association for Asian Studies, Toronto .
• 1981 Canadian Communication Association, Halifax.
• 1981 Universite de Montreal; l’Institute d’Histoire et Sociopolitique des Sciences.
• 1981 Universite de Quebec: Department de Communication.
• 1981 McGill University : Centre for Developing Area Studies.
• 1981 McGill University : Joint Colloquium on Communication and Anthropology.
• 1980 American Association for the Advancement of Science.
• 1980 San Francisco – Organizer of Special Conference on Science, Values, and the Politics of Agrarian Systems.
• 1980 Canadian Communication Association, Montreal .
• 1979 Association for Asian Studies, Los Angeles .
• 1979 Canadian Ethnological Society, Banff .
• 1979 Canadian Council on Southeast Asia , UBC.
• 1978 Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, Dhaka .
• 1978 Raman Research Institute, Bangkok .
• 1978 Resource Systems Institute, East-West Centre, Honolulu .
• 1976 Cholera Research Laboratory , Bangladesh .
• 1976 American Association for the Advancement of Science, Boston .
• 1976 American Association for the Advancement of Science, Boston .
• 1976 University of Guelph , conference on Bangladesh .
• 1976 Centre for Developing Area Studies, McGill University .
• 1975 Association for Asian Studies, San Francisco.
• 1974 MIT (Technology Studies), Cambridge .
• 1974 Canadian Association for Asian Studies, Toronto .
• 1973 University Services Centre, Hongkong.
• 1973 University of Ottawa (Department of Theatre).
• 1972 University of Edinburgh (Science Studies).
• 1972 University of Sussex (History of Science and Technology).
• 1971 American Physical Society, New York .
• 1971 Canadian Association for Anthropology and Sociology, St. John’s .
• 1970 Harvard University (History of Science).
• 1970 MIT (International Studies), Cambridge .
• 1970 York University (Social Science and Humanities)

• Negotiating Nuclear Power: how the great powers bargained with reactors and the bomb in India. (Manuscript in preparation for University of Chicago Press; research supported by a SSHRC history standard grant 2010-2013. This work is based on interviews and recently declassified nuclear files in the IAEA Vienna, and the USA, Canadian, and UK Archives, from 1940 up to 1980: it is the mirror image of my recent book (2010, see below) because it provides perspectives from the great nuclear powers’ points of view, rather than Indian points of view.
• Highland Burma, Edmund Leach, and Anthropology in Guerilla Warfare, Manuscript in preparation, relying on permission of Leach’s literary executors to use Leach Papers at Kings College Cambridge; also includes materials in the Myanmar National Archives, Imperial War Museum, and the British Library London. Leach’s “Political Systems of Highland Burma” (1954) was one of the most influential texts in 20th century anthropology, and my book will establish the previously unknown biographical and contextual circumstances of Leach’s early work in anthropology, as part of a re-thinking of Leach as a historic figure in the social sciences. (An introductory chapter to this book is already published, see below 2007).