The School of International Development (DEV) invites applications by prospective PhD students on all topics related to international development.  Please consult the pages on research and faculty for information on current research at DEV.

The following topics are of particular current interest to our members of staff.  Funding may be available for UK students conducting research on these topics.  Prospective applicants are welcome to contact the listed faculty members for further information on these topics.
 

Topics (and supervisors)

• Indigenous peoples in Latin America, self-determination and land rights (Natalia Alvarez)
• The use of force in international law (Natalia Alvarez)
• Resilience and adaptation to environmental change (Kate Brown)
• Ecosystem services and human well-being (Kate Brown)
  Studying experiences of poverty and resilience using qualitative and mixed methods approaches (Laura Camfield)
• Children and young people (Laura Camfield)
• Linkages between coastal and marine ecosystem services and poverty alleviation (Tim Daw)
• Governance of small-scale fisheries as part of social, economic and ecological systems (Tim Daw)
• Microfinance and rural development (Ben D’Exelle)
• Social networks and social exclusion in small-scale communities (Ben D’Exelle)
• Distributional analysis (Lucio Esposito)
• Social choice (Lucio Esposito)
• The anthropology of non-renewable resource extraction –the impact of industrial processes on sociality (Emma Gilberthorpe)
• Indigenous livelihoods – ethnographic analysis of socio-economic change (Emma Gilberthorpe)
• Conflict, gender/masculinities and religion (Colette Harris)
• Masculinity issues more broadly (Colette Harris)
• Social change in Hausaland, Northern Nigeria. (Cecile Jackson)
• Intrahousehold relations and development (Cecile Jackson)
• China's impact on developing countries (Rhys Jenkins)
• Corporate social responsibility and development  (Rhys Jenkins)
• Intra-household allocations: Quantitative and experimental analysis (Bereket Kebede)
• Social preferences (envy) and innovation (Bereket Kebede)
• Cash transfers and social protection programmes (Peter Lloyds-Sherlock)
• Social policies for older people in developing countries, including pension and health policies 
• Payments for Environmental Services (Adrian Martin) - abstract
• Post-conflict natural resource management (Adrian Martin) - abstract
• Land resources management and change (John McDonagh)
• Rural livelihoods (John McDonagh)
• Crop breeding or the poor –politics of new partnerships in agricultural research (Shawn McGuire)
• Large scale international land deals in Africa – new colonialism, or opportunities? (Shawn McGuire)
• The political economy of climate change and development (clean development, carbon markets, energy politics and the international politics of climate change) (Peter Newell)
• Corporate accountability for development (strategies for corporate accountability, global business regulation, and CSR) (Peter Newell)
• Micro- and behavioural economics (Pieter Serneels)
• Human capital, human resources and development (Pieter Serneels)
• Political ecology of forests and climate change mitigation (Thomas Sikor)
• Post-socialist transformations of rural livelihoods and resource use in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and East Asia (Thomas Sikor)
• Social aspects of HIV (Steve Russell and Janet Seeley)
• Health and Livelihoods(Steve Russell and Janet Seeley)
• Risk preferences of small farmers in developing countries – experimental analysis (Arjan Verschoor)
• Behavioural economics in developing countries - quantitative and experimental analysis  (Ben D’Exelle, Bereket Kebede, Pieter Serneels and Arjan Verschoor)