Lourdes Arizpe

Dr. Arizpe recently held the position of Assistant Director-General for Culture at UNESCO Paris. She earned an M.A. in Anthropology, followed by a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology, at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Dr. Arizpe has held several notable international positions. She was the President of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, and at present serves as Vice-President for the International Social Science Council (ISSC). She also served as Vice- President for the Society for International Development (SID) and she was a member of the Steering Committee for Development Alternatives for Women in a New Era (DAWN).

Dr. Arizpe was a member of the World Commission on Culture and Development and Chair of the Scientific Committee of the World Culture Report.

As a research scholar and lecturer, she received a Fulbright-Hayes as well as a John D. Guggenheim grant and has received several awards for her scientific work. She has been a Fellow of the Global Economic Forum of Davos. At present she is a Professor at the National University of Mexico.

Dr. Arizpe has published numerous research articles and chapters of books. Her most recent works include “Culture and Globalization” in UNDP Working Papers of the Human Development Report, 1999; The cultural dimensions of global change: An anthropological approach, Paris, UNESCO (1996); and “Re-thinking the Population-Environment Debate” in Population and Environment: Rethinking the Debate, Arizpe, Stone, and Major (ed.), 1994