Jacob Rinck is a sociocultural anthropologist studying global inequality through a focus on migration, the national economy form, and development economics as storytelling in Nepal. He is a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Anthropology, George Washington University, and has a PhD in sociocultural anthropology from Yale University (2020). Jacob is currently preparing a book manuscript and articles based on his long-term research on the relationship between transnational labor migration, agrarian change, and histories of developmental thought in Nepal. Two new research projects explore histories of neoliberalism and agrarian development in Nepal, and the negotiation of a bilateral labor agreement between Nepal and Malaysia. In a professional capacity, Jacob is currently a consultant for the World Bank, and has previously also worked at the International Crisis Group and for DFID.
Areas of interest: migration; inequality; history and anthropology of development; experts and expertise; anthropology of economics and the economy.