Derek is a sociology Ph.D. candidate at Indiana University-Bloomington. His research areas lie at the intersection of global health, international development, and organizations, with a regional focus on Cambodia and Southeast Asia. He is particularly interested in how international NGOs and intergovernmental organizations deliver health care to developing countries, how colonial/postcolonial relations affect inequalities between countries, and how Western ideas about health and medicine are interpreted in aid-receiving countries.

Previously, Derek studied INGOs in Cambodia and their relationships with the state, donors, and local partners. He coauthored an article on this topic with Dr. Mary-Collier Wilks and Dr. Jennifer Bair, which was published in Sociology of Development in March 2021 (https://doi.org/10.1525/sod.2021.7.1.1).

Derek earned his M.A. in sociology from Indiana University in 2021, and B.A.s in sociology and biology from the University of Virginia in 2018. His master’s thesis assessed endorsement of developmental idealism for beliefs about marriage in the United States, was chaired by Dr. Keera Allendorf and Dr. Dina Okamoto, and was published as a co-authored journal article in Sociology of Development in January 2023 (https://doi.org/10.1525/sod.2022.0007).

Derek is currently conducting fieldwork for his dissertation in Cambodia, supported by a Fulbright U.S. Student Program Fellowship, Center for Khmer Studies U.S. Scholar Research Fellowship, and College of Arts & Sciences Dissertation Research Fellowship. His dissertation research investigates and compares how “traditional,” professionalized INGOs and “grassroots,” amateur INGOs articulate and apply expert knowledge in their organizational structures and interactions with beneficiaries.