SOAS University of London

Department of Development Studies

Development Studies Staff

Head of Department
Dr Zoë Marriage

Director Learning & Teaching

Dr Adam Hanieh

REF/Research coordinator for staff

Professor Carlos Oya

BA Development Studies Programme Convenors & Admissions Tutor
Postgraduate Admissions Tutors
Postgraduate Programme Convenors
Research Admissions Tutor
 Director Doctoral Studies
 Director Student Support & Experience
Centre for Development Policy and Research
Dr Zoë Marriage
Head of Department
Reader in Development Studies; Learning & Teaching Coordinator
Zoë Marriage
The political economy of security, DR Congo, demobilisation, emergency assistance to countries at war
  • Tel: 020 7898 4437
  • Email: zm2@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 259
  • Academic Support Hours: Thursdays 3.30 - 5.30pm
Professor Gilbert Achcar
Professor of Development Studies and International Relations
Gilbert Achcar

Political economy and sociology of globalisation; global power structure and grand strategy; empire theory and US hegemony; politics and development of the Middle East and North Africa; sociology of religion; Islam and Islamic Fundamentalism; social change and social theory.

  • Tel: 020 7898 4557
  • Email: ga3@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 292b
  • Academic Support Hours: Mondays 3-5pm
Professor Christopher Cramer
Professor of the Political Economy of Development
Chris Cramer
Africa: economics of Africa, political economy of development, political economy of war and peace in southern Africa, and the economics of cashew production, processing and trade
  • Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4492
  • Email: cc10@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 288
  • Academic Support Hours: Tuesday 11-1
Dr Jonathan Di John
Senior Lecturer in Political Economy
Jonathan Di John
Development economics, economic growth, institutional economics, taxation in less developed countries, the political economy of oil states, political economy of industrial policy in Latin America, especially of Venezuela, Colombia and Brazil. 
  • Tel: 020 7898 4087
  • Email: jd5@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 370
  • Academic Support Hours: Thursdays 2pm - 3.30pm
  • On Sabbatical:Term 2 & 3 (2019/20)
Professor Jonathan Goodhand
Professor in Conflict and Development Studies
Jonathan Goodhand
South and Central Asia; complex political emergencies, humanitarian aid; NGO capacity building, aid, conflict and development
  • Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4483
  • Email: jg27@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 258
  • Academic Support Hours: Wed 1 - 2 and Thurs 3 - 4
Professor Laura Hammond
Professor of Development Studies
Laura Hammond

Africa; Horn of Africa; refugees and forced migration; post-conflict social integration; violence and conflict analysis; humanitarianism and humanitarian assistance; globalisation, transnationalism, diasporas and remittances; famine and food security; livelihoods in emergency contexts.

  • Tel: 020 7898 4654
  • Email: lh4@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 371
  • Academic Support Hours: By appointment only. Please email.
  • On Sabbatical:Full Year (18/19 )
Dr Adam Hanieh
Reader in Development Studies
Adam Hanieh

Political economy of labour migration, class and capitalism in the Middle East. With a focus on the the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Palestine, and the dynamics of regional accumulation.

  • Tel: 020 7898 4784
  • Email: ah92@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 4419
  • Academic Support Hours: Fridays 3-5pm
Dr Colette Harris
Reader in Gender and Development
Colette Harris

Violence and conflict, governance, post colonial state building, Muslim societies, sexualities, (reproductive) health, migration, and community development/transformative education - all explored through a gendered lens. Central Asia, Latin America but currently focus mainly on West and East Africa.

Dr Feyzi Ismail
Senior Teaching Fellow
Feyzi Ismail

NGOs and social movements, politics and development in Nepal and South Asia, global protest and change, alternatives to neoliberalism and imperialism.

  • Tel: 020 7898 4723
  • Email: fi2@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 4418
  • Academic Support Hours: Thursdays, 2-3pm
Dr Tania Kaiser
Senior Lecturer in Forced Migration Studies
Tania Kaiser

East Africa, particularly Uganda and Sudan, West Africa; conflict and development; forced migration; refugees; humanitarian interventions

  • Tel: 020 7898 4484
  • Email: tk51@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 290
  • Academic Support Hours: https://goo.gl/L4KXfA
Dr Jens Lerche
Reader in Agrarian and Labour studies
Jens Lerche
India; labour, social movements and globalisation; labour and the ILO; labour and caste in India; agrarian political economy.
  • Tel: 020 7898 4505
  • Email: jl2@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 295
  • Academic Support Hours: Wed 12-2pm (by appointment: https://goo.gl/JncG4b)
Dr Anna Lindley
Senior Lecturer in Migration, Mobility and Development
Anna Lindley
Global migration dynamics, politics and experiences: displacement & refugees; transnationalism & remittances; Somali mobilities; UK immigration policy; detention; access to justice; civic mobilization.
  • Tel: 0207 898 4690
  • Email: al29@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 257
  • Academic Support Hours: By appointment (see link below)
  • On Sabbatical:Term 2 & 3 (2019/20)
Dr Michael Jennings
Reader in International Development
Michael Jennings

Politics, governance, and civil society in sub-Saharan Africa; non-governmental organisations; faith and development; history of development processes and interventions; issues in international health and non-state actors in health delivery.

  • Tel: +44(0) 207 898 4268
  • Email: mj10@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 261
  • Academic Support Hours: By appointment only
  • On Sabbatical:Full Year (2019/20)
Dr Thomas Marois
Senior Lecturer in Development Studies
Thomas Marois

Political Economy; Emerging finance capitalism; Privatization; Alternative development; Banking, finance, and development; Mexico, Turkey, other emerging capitalisms; State-capital-labour relations; State theory; Internationalization.

  • Tel: 0207 898 4503
  • Email: tm47@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 293
  • Academic Support Hours: Bookable online here: https://goo.by/YQbfP.
  • On Sabbatical:Term 2 & 3 (2019/20)
Dr Alessandra Mezzadri
Senior Lecturer in Development Studies ; BA Admissions Tutor
Alessandra Mezzander
International trade, global commodity chains; production networks and industrial systems; informality and processes of labour informalisation; inequality and social structures of oppression; gender, feminisms and reproduction; the political economy of the garment industry; the political economy of India  
  • Tel: 0207 898 4533
  • Email: am99@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 4421
  • Academic Support Hours: Thursdays 10am -12 noon
  • On Sabbatical:Term 2 & 3 (2019/20)
Professor Peter P Mollinga
Professor of Development Studies
Peter Mollinga
South Asia, Central Asia; comparative political sociology of water resources and development; technology and agrarian change; boundary work in natural resources management; interdisciplinary social theory.
  • Tel: +44(0) 20 7898 4631
  • Email: pm35@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 4415
  • On Sabbatical:Terms 2 and 3 (18/19)
Dr Andrew Newsham
Senior Lecturer in International Development
Andrew Newsham

Research: Vulnerability to climate impacts, climate change adaptation and locally held knowledge, the political economy of climate-compatible development, knowing and deciding for conservation and development.

  • Tel: 020 7898 4884
  • Email: an14@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 255
  • Academic Support Hours: By appointment: http://bit.ly/2xS56rg
  • On Sabbatical:Term 3 (2019/20)
Dr Paolo Novak
Lecturer in Development Studies
Paolo Novak

Trans-nationality with particular reference to migration; refugee regime; borders and NGOs.

Professor Carlos Oya
Professor of Political Economy of Development; Research (REF) Coordinator
Carlos Oya
West Africa, Southern Africa, agrarian political economy; poverty; rural labour; development aid; research methods
  • Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4566
  • Email: co2@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 292a
  • Academic Support Hours: Tuesday 11am-1pm or via https://goo.gl/PxhHTT
  • On Sabbatical:Term 2 & 3 (2019/20)
Dr Suda Perera
Senior Teaching Fellow in Conflict and Migration
Perera Suda
  • Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4654
  • Email: sp68@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 371
  • Academic Support Hours: Mondays 12 - 2 and by appointment via email
Dr Tim Pringle
Senior Lecturer in Labour, Social Movements and Development
Tim Pringle

East Asia, labour relations in China and Vietnam, trade union reform in China and Vietnam, labour and social movements in China, labour migration in China.

  • Tel: 020 7898 4678
  • Email: tp21@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 260a
  • Academic Support Hours: Tuesdays 1.30pm - 3.30pm
Professor Navtej K Purewal
Professor in Political Sociology and Development Studies
Navtej K Purewal

Bordering logics; feminism; gender and social policy; reproductive rights; girls' education; coloniality; neoliberal development; South Asia; India and Pakistan

Dr Matteo Rizzo
Senior Lecturer in Development Studies
Matteo Rizzo

Political economy of development, labour markets and informalisation, agrarian change, urbanisation, privatisation, aid effectiveness, Africa, Tanzania.

Professor Alfredo Saad Filho
Professor of Political Economy
Alfredo Saad-Filho
Latin America; political economy of development; industrial policy; pro-poor economic policy; neoliberalism; value theory
  • Tel: 020 7898 4504
  • Email: as59@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 294
  • Academic Support Hours: Thursdays 12 noon - 1pm
Dr Subir Sinha
Senior Lecturer in Institutions and Development
Subir Sinha
South Asia: institutions of development, NGOs, social movements; the environment, common property institutions and resource use
  • Tel: +44(0) 20 7898 4495
  • Email: ss61@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 287
  • Academic Support Hours: Mon. 11 - 1
Dr Grace Iara Souza
Senior Teaching Fellow in Political Ecology of Development
Souza Iara Grace
  • Tel: 020 7898 4884
  • Email: gs55@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 255
  • Academic Support Hours: https://bit.ly/2AaY6FE (by appointment)
Dr Leandro Vergara-Camus
Senior Lecturer in the Theory, Policy and Practice of Development
Leandro Vergara-Camus

Political economy of Latin America, social and peasant movements, alter-globalisation movements and social change, alternative development, agrarian issues, and bio-fuels and energy politics.

  • Tel: 020 7898 4228
  • Email: l.vergara-camus@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 260
  • Academic Support Hours: Weds 10-12 (by appointment),https://goo.gl/FRvock
  • On Sabbatical:Term 1 (2019/20)
Dr Carlos Zepeda
Senior Teaching Fellow - Distance Learning
Carlos Zepeda
  • Tel: +44(0) 20 7898 4631
  • Email: cz6@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 4415
  • Academic Support Hours: Tuesdays and Fridays 1-2pm

Part-Time Teaching Staff

Mrs Anna Bilous
Teaching Fellow
Anna Bilous

Anna joined the Faculty as a teaching fellow in 2017. At SOAS, Anna tutors on the Political Economy of Development module. 

Ms Maya Goodfellow
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Staff Silhouette

Maya Goodfellow is a Graduate Teaching Assistant for the Department of Politics and International Studies and Development Studies.

Ms Karen Schouw Iversen
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Karen Schouw Iversen

Graduate teaching assistant in the department of development studies, teaching Security (Ba) and Issues in Forced Migration. Current PhD candidate in development studies, studying the relationship between activism by internally displaced persons and government policies in Bogota, Colombia.

Dr Mark McQuinn
Senior Teaching Fellow
Mark McQuinn

Convenor of the Aid and Development unit on the MSc in Development Studies. Aid policies and practices, role of foreign and indigenous civil society organisations in Africa, issues affecting informal sector workers. Doctoral research on trade unions and NGOs in Tanzania, published as Civil Society as a Conflictual Sphere in Post-liberalization Tanzania. Currently researching the influence of trade unions on labour practices in Sierra Leone and Tanzania and working on a project to build a database on labour issues for use by African labour organisations. Also researching Chinese aid policies and practices. Worked in the aid sector and on political economy issues in the Sudan and Bulgaria.

  • Tel: 020 7898 4818
  • Email: mm22@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: F101
  • Academic Support Hours: Mondays 2.00-4.00pm
Dr Veli Yadirgi
Teaching Fellow
Post-Doctoral Research Associate
Veli Yadirgi

Political, Economic and Social History of Turkey and the Middle East with special reference to the Kurdish Question in Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria; Politics and Development Economics of the Countries of the Middle East; Social Change and Social Theory.

  • Email: vy1@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 289
  • Academic Support Hours: Wednesday 12-2pm

Administrative Staff

Research Fellows

Mr Marc DuBois
Research Fellow
Marc DuBois

Marc DuBois is an independent humanitarian analyst and consultant based in London; and a Senior Fellow at SOAS (University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies).

Research Project Staff

Research Associates & Visiting Scholars

Dr Matilde Adduci
Research Associate
Staff Silhouette

Matilde holds a PhD degree in ‘Civilization, Society and Economy of the Indian Subcontinent’ from the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’ (thesis title: ‘Social Movements and Development:

Professor Jairus Banaji
Professorial Research Associate
Jairus Banaji

Agrarian history; Late Antiquity and early Islam; historical materialism; and, contemporary India, with a special interest in issues like the critique of minimalist stereotypes of the ancient economy; Marx’s method in Capital; modes of production; the fate of the peasantry under capitalism; and, labour and capital in India’s economy.

Dr Stephen Biggs
Research Associate
Stephen Biggs

Political economy of rural and agrarian change, Patterns of rural and agricultural mechanization, Fairer trade, Politics of global agricultural Science and Technology assessments, Rural development, Research methods.  Mainly worked in Nepal, Bangladesh and India.

Dr Artur Colom-Jaén
Research Associate
Artur Colom

Political economy of aid systems in Africa; natural resources exploitation and management; regional and global integration.

Dr Edwige Fortier
Research Associate
Edwige Fortier

Research interests include the Middle East and North Africa, international development, civil society, transitions from authoritarian rule, democratisation, neoliberalism, vulnerable and marginalised groups, human rights, multilateralism, non-governmental organisations and HIV/Aids.

Professor Cristobal Kay
Professorial Research Associate
Cristobal Kay
Latin American theories of development, political economy of agrarian change, rural livelihoods, farming systems, land reform, peasant movements, historical comparative analyses of the European and Latin American rural economy and society
Miriam Nabarro
Research Associate
Staff Silhouette

Art and theatre in conflict and post conflict settings; psychosocial and humanitarian programming in emergencies, participatory methods, community engagement; political economy of violence and conflict, cultural genocide, resilience and survival, representations of violence, politics of memory. Thematic interests in youth, migration, borderlands, Great Lakes, Sudan, Caucasus and the Balkans. Works with printmaking, photography and performance.

Dr Orzala Ashraf Nemat
Research Associate
Orzala Ashraf Nemat

Orzala Nemat is an Afghan scholar and civil society activist. Dr Nemat holds PhD in Development studies from School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), MSc from University College London (UCL) and has been a Yale World Fellow class of 2008.

Professor James Nickum
Professorial Research Associate
James E. Nickum

Comparative water governance, with focus on China and other Asia; water economies of global cities. 

Fellow of the International Water Resources Association (IWRA) and has served as Editor-in-Chief of Water International since 2007. International Advisor, Water Engineering and Policy Centre, the University of Hong Kong;  Adjunct Senior Fellow, the East-West Centre, Honolulu.

Dr Francesca Pusterla
Research Associate
Staff Silhouette

Humanitarian crises/policies; foreign aid allocation; refugees, conflict and natural disaster crises; international cooperation; European Union Humanitarian Aid policy.

Dr Vitor Eduardo Schincariol
Visiting Scholar
Vitor Eduardo Schincariol

Associate Professor of Economic History and Political Economy at the Federal University of ABC (UFABC - Brazil); PhD in Economic History - University of São Paulo (USP - Brazil); Associate Editor of Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy

Dr Claudia Seymour
Research Associate
Claudia Seymour

Young people’s experiences of and means of coping with violence in North and South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo

Dr Victoria Stadheim
Research Associate
Victoria Stadheim

Research interests include the global financial crisis, neoliberalism and capitalist transformation, financialisation, labour and trade unions, and the political economy of development.

Professor Guy Standing
Professorial Research Associate
Guy Standing

Economic security/insecurity, labour and work, cash transfers, basic income, social protection and the 'precaritat'

Dr Luciana Zorzoli
Post-Doctoral Research Associate
Luciana Maria Zorzoli

Holds a PhD in Social Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and works as Postdoctoral Fellow from the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) at the Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales (IdIHCS) in the University of La Plata (UNLP).

Emeritus Professors

Professor Henry Bernstein
Emeritus Professor of Development Studies
Henry Bernstein
East Africa and South Africa; sociology of development; agrarian political economy; social and political theory; food commodity chains; governance and development.
Professor John Weeks
Professorial Research Associate
Emeritus Professor
John Weeks

Macroeconomics and poverty reduction, classical political economy, and labour markets