Our Aims and Objectives

We are the UK association for all those who research, study and teach global development issues

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What is Development Studies

What is development studies and decolonising development.

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Our Members

We have around 1,000 members, made up of individuals and around 40 institutions

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Governance

Find out about our constitution, how we are run and meet our Council

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People

Meet our Council members and other staff who support the running of DSA

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About

The DSA Conference is an annual event which brings together the development studies community

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DSA2025

Our conference this year is themed "Navigating crisis: dangers and opportunities in development"

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Past Conferences

Find out about our previous conferences

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Study Groups

Our Study Groups offer a chance to connect with others who share your areas of interest

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Students and ECRs

Students and early career researchers are an important part of our community

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Publications

Our book series with OUP and our relationship with other publishers

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Decolonising Development

The initiatives we are undertaking that work towards decolonising development studies

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Membership Directory

Find out who our members are, where they are based and the issues they work on

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IDD, University of Birmingham News – July

Publications

Mujuru, Sithandiwe. (2025). Pathways to Increase Rural Women’s Agency Within Social Protection Programmes. K4DD Rapid Evidence Review 238. Brighton, UK: Institute of Development Studies. DOI: 10.19088/K4DD.2025.038, https://k4d.ids.ac.uk/resource/pathways-to-increase-rural-womens-agency-within-social-protection-programmes/

Mia Hyun, IDD, together with Huong Thu Nguyen (Department of Anthropology, National University of Hanoi) recently published an article in a special issue of the Journal of Global Political Economy, Bristol University Press Digital: At the nexus of violence, trade sanctions and vulnerabilities: women garment workers in Myanmar following the 2021 military coup.

Scott, Emily K. M. Negotiating for Autonomy: How Humanitarian INGOs Resisted Donors During the Syrian Refugee Response. Perspectives on Politics. Published online 2025:1-23. doi:10.1017/S1537592725000635 

Marianna Karakoulaki (POLSIS), Mia Hyun (IDD), Scarlet Vass (POLISIS), and Thomas Bobo (POLSIS) published an op-ed in E-International Relations: Donald Trump’s War on Global Development, based on a round table discussion on the same topic they organised at the School of Government Research Conference in May 2025.

Grant and project news

Dr Emeka Njoku was awarded the British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants | The British Academy for a project titled “Everyday Violence and (Im)mobility Experiences of LGBTQ+ Persons in Nigeria and the UK”

William Avis and colleagues from the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences have been awarded funding from the Research England International Strategy and Partnership Follow on Fund to implement a project titled ‘Bridging Science, Policy, and Community: Enhancing Air Quality Research, Advocacy, and Capacity Building in North Macedonia’. This project will deliver a range of outputs and outcomes aimed at addressing air pollution challenges in North Macedonia, particularly Tetovo, while building sustainable capacity for research, policy influence, and public engagement.

Zenobia Ismail will be working with Nic Cheeseman and Caryn Peiffer (University of Bristol) on a new research project funded by the GIACE programme on testing state capture messaging.  A survey will be conducted to ascertain how South Africans respond to two different messages about high level corruption involving politicians and private interest groups. Caryn and Zenobia will travel to South Africa in June for project set-up meetings and in-depth interviews.

Siân Herbert received support from CEDAR to engage with the GSDRC’s and CEDAR’s policy partners in Mozambique and to support our policy impact work. She is in Maputo for a month May-June, hosted by UNU-WIDER’s Mozambique office in the Ministry of Planning and Development. While there she is writing a rapid evidence review to support the FCDO’s engagement with the recently declared national political dialogue.

Presentations

Gilanis Changachirere a 3rd Year PhD student in IDD gave a talk on the Interlinkages of Shrinking Civil Space and Gender Equality through the Lens of Development Cooperation at the OCED DAC Civil Society Conference that took place in Paris from 18-19 June 2025.

Rachel Gisselquist discussed her new book, Fragile Aid: Development Cooperation in Weak States and Conflict Contexts (edited with Patricia Justino and Andrea Vaccaro; Oxford University Press, 2025) at a fireside chat in the UNU-WIDER conference, ‘Safeguarding tomorrow – innovative approaches to growth and equity’, Helsinki, 9-11 June 2025. The book is now fully available online: https://fdslive.oup.com/www.oup.com/academic/pdf/openaccess/9780198960287.pdf.