Students and early career researchers are an important part of our community. To support this new generation of development scholars, we:

• offer membership to students at an accessible price so that they can benefit from DSA networking and development opportunities
• run an Early Career Researcher development fund to promote collaborative working
• offer an annual Masters Dissertation Prize
• offer an annual PhD thesis prize
• include a PhD Masterclass at our annual conference
• holding a drop-in session for students at our annual conference to help them find out more about DSA
• encourage a focus on early career researchers at DSA events

We have two student representatives on Council, and our student members are very welcome to contact them with any suggestions or concerns. There is also a popular DSA student group on Facebook with over 1,500 members.

This year at our virtual conference we held two sessions on getting published, one focused on journals and one on books, aimed primarily at PhD students and Early Career Researchers. You can view the recordings of these sessions here. 

Since 2015 the DSA has awarded an annual dissertation prize to Masters’ students working in the field of international development, development studies and development economics. This annual prize is awarded to the best masters’ level dissertation in these fields of study.

For the 2022 prize, all Development Studies and Economics departments in the UK were invited to submit one MA or MSc dissertation each for consideration. This year nominations were accepted between 29 October and 17 December. We asked all the Heads of Centres of DSA affiliated institutions in the UK to nominate the highest scoring masters’ dissertation (MA or MSc) awarded on their “international development” or related subject programmes in 2021. We were happy to accept nominations of extended essays but these needed to be of exceptional quality to win when compared to longer dissertations. The nominations were evaluated by an academic panel from the DSA. Decisions were made in mid-February 2022 and the winner and their department notified.

The winner of the 2022 DSA Masters Dissertation Prize is Joy Lin from the Institute of Development Studies for her thesis entitled “#MeToo with Chinese Characteristics– Analysis through The Lens of Chinese Feminism”. The judging panel agreed unanimously that this was an innovative and accomplished dissertation, notable for its embedding of the analysis and theory in a specifically Chinese literature tradition. The focus on the #MeTooCN movement, and thinking about the specific historic and cultural context from which it emerged from, and how that shaped it in ways that differed from other #MeToo movements gave it considerable originality. The methodological approach of the autoethnography was fully incorporated and embedded in the analysis. It spoke to the power of social movements and education as the author’s personal journey was reflected in their academic trajectory. This reflection on growth was embedded in the analysis in a deeply thoughtful and analytical manner, and the analysis overall was excellent with wonderful critical insight. We look forward to Joy presenting her research at the DSA2022 conference in July.

This year the DSA unveiled a new thesis prize for PhD students working in the field of international development, development studies and development economics. This will be an annual prize awarded to the best PhD thesis in these fields of studies from across current DSA institutional members.

For the 2022 prize, all Development Studies and Economics departments in the UK that are institutional members of the DSA were invited to submit one PhD thesis each for consideration. Nominations were accepted between 17th January and 8th March 2022. We asked all the Heads of Centres of DSA affiliated institutions in the UK to nominate the highest scoring/ most promising PhD thesis in their “international development” or related subject department(s) from a student who graduated* in 2021. The nominations were evaluated by an academic panel from the DSA. Decisions were made by early May 2022 and the winner and highly commended and their departments notified. The winner has been invited to present their research at the DSA annual conference held in early July this year.

Please note only PhDs by monograph or papers were eligible for consideration, NOT PhDs by publications or professional doctorates.
* The point at which a graduate is officially allowed to call themselves ‘Doctor’.

The winner of the 2022 DSA PhD thesis Prize is Ikuno Naka from the Oxford Department of International Development for her thesis entitled “The ‘Realty’ of Cochin: from the material to the spectacular, a story of India’s emerging city”.

There were also two highly commended entries in the 2022 DSA PhD thesis Prize: Arie Ruhyanto from IDD, University of Birmingham and Elizabeth Storer from the Department of International Development, LSE.

The judging panel made the following comments on Arie’s thesis:
“This is a very good thesis which makes a significant contribution to the literature and theory on state and governance, state legitimacy, and local government. Through its analysis of the literature, and the primary research on the case study, it makes a strong argument for understanding the state through not only a traditional Weberian institutional lens, but also as a creation and reflection of social relations. State legitimacy is therefore presented in a highly complex way, and the exploration of territorial administrative reform of local governance adds to our understanding of state legitimacy without undermining the complexity of the argument.”

and on Elizabeth’s thesis:
“This original and empirically-rich study explores “everyday” processes of social repair in contemporary West Nile (NW Uganda), focusing on dynamics of healing and spiritual governance/ordering among Lugbara communities. The thesis situates itself within the scholarly and policy/practice literature on transitional justice – and “everyday” peace – and makes a highly original and reflective critique of Western “template”-style approaches. It draws on an extensive set of ethnographic data collected during 3 phases of fieldwork, totalling 14 months in total. This allows for the development of a rich and nuanced explanation of a range of healing processes and dynamics across space and time. Conceptually, the study works hard to critically unpack and engage with terms and ideas deriving from Lugbara culture and society. Methodologically, the study is detailed and robust, with significant attention to the author’s positionality.”