Dashwood, Hevina S. 1960-

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Dashwood, Hevina S. 1960-

PERSONAL:

Born 1960. Education: University of Toronto, B.A., Ph.D.; McGill University, M.A.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Brock University, 500 Glenridge Ave., St. Catharines, Ontario L2S 3A1, Canada. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, educator. University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, International Relations Program, former instructor; Centre for International Studies, former research associate; Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, current associate professor.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council research grant, 2001.

WRITINGS:

Zimbabwe: The Political Economy of Transformation, University of Toronto Press (Buffalo, NY), 2000.

Contributor of articles to professional journals, including International Journal, and to publications, including Canada among Nations: 2000, edited by Maureen Appel Molot and Fen Osler Hampson, Oxford University Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2000.

SIDELIGHTS:

A Canadian university professor, Hevina S. Dashwood specializes in Canadian foreign policy, Canada's relations with the developing world, peace building, and Canadian corporate responsibility. The research for her doctorate, which examined international development, led to the publication of Zimbabwe: The Political Economy of Transformation, an examination of the "evolution of Zimbabwe's development strategies from independence in 1980 through 1997," as Elizabeth Schmidt described the work in an H-Net review. "Dashwood argues," Schmidt further observed, that "the government's development strategy duly emphasized equity, income redistribution, and meeting the social welfare needs of the poor. By [the] end of the decade, however, the ruling elites had cast aside their commitment to the poor." It is Dashwood's thesis that such a rejection of social welfare programs was not the result of economic pressures put on the country by such international organizations as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, but rather that "reconfiguration of class forces in Zimbabwe were at the root of the transformation," as Schmidt noted. The vanguard of the revolution, had, in Dashwood's analysis, become the new bourgeoisie.

Reviewing Zimbabwe in Contemporary African Studies, Michael Hartnack felt that Dashwood's thesis was "based on a profound misunderstanding of the nature of a frontier society's economy and political power structure." Hartnack also went on to comment, however, "Dashwood gives a competent and thorough view of internal developments in the years 1980-1997 according to the lights of orthodox contemporary scholarship which drew on persistently over-optimistic sources such as official documents of the Zimbabwean government itself and the World Bank." Similarly, Schmidt gave the book a mixed review: "While Dashwood's book provides a wealth of factual information and important contextualization for the current situation in Zimbabwe, it leaves readers dissatisfied." For Schmidt, though, Zimbabwe was still a "a must for all college and university libraries," and "an important resource for understanding the still unfinished story of independent Zimbabwe." Lisa Daniels, writing in the Eastern Economic Journal, had higher praise for Dashwood's book, terming it "well written and very comprehensive." Daniels also felt that Dashwood "presents a compelling case to back up many of her arguments." Likewise, Larry A. Swatuk, writing in the European Journal of Development Research, called Zimbabwe a "well-written, systematic analysis of the plundering of an African state."