Abstract
Ankie Hoogvelt's interest in development studies predates her arrival at Sheffield University to teach sociology. Her own undergraduate and graduate studies laid the groundwork for a political economy approach to both sociology and the field of economic development. When she was invited to teach a first-year course on the sociology of development, she transformed the topic into a challenging course of study that burst the boundaries of the traditional disciplines.
As her academic life work progressed, she took on the larger questions of development economics, the politics of development, colonialism, imperialism, and globalisation. She shaped a unique position in development studies, leading to organizing conferences and seminars on the field that helped to define the new development studies as both formal academic study and worldwide intellectual debate.