Department of Development Studies
At the Department of Development Studies we offer a range of exciting degree programmes on-campus and online, at BA, MSc and PhD levels.
Our degrees are inter-disciplinary, combining political-economy, politics, anthropology, and history approaches to analyse processes of development in different contexts around the world.
Our academic staff create an intellectually engaged and challenging space across the many branches of international development and humanitarianism that make up Development Studies. They specialise in a range of thematic areas including sustainability and climate change, migration and displacement, conflict, humanitarian action, labour, political ecology, and aid and institutions.
Combined with exceptional resources and our interdisciplinary approach, we offer a unique learning and research opportunity for our diverse and vibrant student community
Development Studies is a live and evolving discipline, and our students and staff are challenged to refine our theoretical and practical understanding of why change happens, how power is exercised and in what ways inequalities can be explained and confronted.
Meet the academics
Learn about the academic staff who work at and support the department.
Tackling the World's biggest challenges
At SOAS we aim is to tackle the World's biggest challenges through academic collaboration and cooperation. In our latest series, we bring together academics and analysts from different disciplines to discuss topics from climate change to human rights.
In the Department of Development Studies
Centre for Development, Environment and Policy
The Centre for Development, Environment and Policy at SOAS University of London.
SOAS Voices
Blogs
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Department of Development StudiesThe BBC’s retraction of how to survive a war zone sets a dangerous precedent
The BBC recently removed its documentary Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone from iPlayer, apologising for “serious flaws” in its production.
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Department of Development StudiesThe BBC’s language games: How media distorts the Israel-Palestine narrative in the captive exchange
The past 16 months in Gaza have exposed not only the brutal reality of Palestinian suffering but also the moral failure of those watching.
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Department of Development StudiesCapitalism and conflict at the margins: Why online scams flourish in Myanmar’s borderlands
In their new research initiative, The Centrality of the Margins, Xu Peng, Jonathan Goodhand, Patrick Meehan and Naomi Yonder ask what explains the concentration and resilience of scam compounds in these remote, war-affected regions.
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College of Development, Economics and Finance & Department of Development StudiesBeyond repatriation: Building value through community spaces
Repatriation is shifting from returning objects to restoring relationships, as seen in the Gónô Tmutul Storytelling Festival, which fosters cultural continuity and community empowerment.
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College of Development, Economics and Finance & Department of Development StudiesReclaiming your digital space: Encouraging open-source thinking in an age of tech monopolies
Tech giants dominate our digital world, but their monopolistic grip isn’t inevitable. In this blog, Taylor D.H. Rockhill explores how we can push back and reclaim control of our data, privacy, and choices.
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SOAS Gallery, College of Development, Economics and Finance & Department of Development StudiesThe art of empathy: Three stories of migration
The Stories of Migration exhibition at the SOAS Gallery transforms complex research into compelling visual narratives, with empathy as the driving force behind a deeper understanding.
Research
Visibilising marginalised early career researchers in peace, conflict and security studies
View this projectThis programme built on the 2019 Workshop ‘Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Research on Peace and Security: Publishing and Grant Writing Workshop for Early Career Researchers in Eastern Africa’.
Border crossings: Exploring history and community through virtual reality at the 75th anniversary of the Partition
View this projectBorder Crossings examines how public narratives and memories of the 1947 partition are changing in Britain and how technology, specifically Virtual Reality (VR), can facilitate dialogue across generations and communities.
London International Development Centre Migration Leadership Team
View this projectDeveloping a shared and participatory global strategy for identifying and supporting migration research.
Research and Evidence Facility: Informing migration policy in the Horn of Africa
View this projectCollating and producing evidence and policy relevant knowledge to generate a better understanding of the drivers of instability, migration, and displacement in the greater Horn of Africa, and the dynamics of cross-border economies and centre/periphery relations.
Drugs & (dis)order
View this projectA SOAS-led consortium researching into the role of illicit drug economies in conflict-affected borderlands of Afghanistan, Colombia and Myanmar.
The AGRUMIG project: "Leaving something behind"
View this projectStudying comparatively the impact of large-scale labour out-migration on agricultural and rural change in seven countries (Morocco, Ethiopia, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Thailand, PR China) to inform regionally specific combinations of rural development and migration policies.
Industrial Development, Construction and Employment in Africa (IDCEA): A comparative analysis
View this projectExploring evidence on the employment effects of firms investing in manufacturing and building infrastructure in African economies.
