PhD Scholarships at Global Development Institute
Thinking of doing a PhD at the Global Development Institute? Then you might be interested in a number of scholarship opportunities to help fund your study. Below are some of the available awards but you can find the full selection, including country-specific awards, on our website.
GDI Lecture Series: Women – Equality – Power with Helen Clark
Rt. Hon Helen Clark, former Administrator of UNDP and former Prime Minister of New Zealand presents the Global Development Institute Annual Lecture. Helen Clark addresses the issues of women’s leadership and gender equality and their importance to a sustainable world.
Listen to the lecture in full below.
Chasing the Lion: Command-and-Control Conservation or Why Small Is Beautiful
Ethan Hall, International Development MSc
The eco-tourist bubble is the concept that animals, landscapes and ecological processes appear as if by magic, with no reference to the historical and social pressures that has allowed them to emerge; this was not a problem that I encountered as I stared at the lion. Mixed with my feelings of spectacle were ones of guilt and an acute awareness of the conflict that established and perpetuates this lion’s home. This was not undisturbed nature; boundaries do not fall naturally, with people removed from the picture.
The disparity of power that established Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda’s largest national park, is perpetuated today. The name itself, a reference to the then president of the British Royal Geographic Society, is a reminder of the colonial past that laid the foundations of the park. read more…
Hillary Clinton is wrong about European immigration: insiders, outsiders and the rise of populism in gated communities
Hillary Clinton ran for the US presidency against a man arguing that building a wall was the solution to so-called ‘migration problems’ in the USA. Having no clear alternative vision of her own, she lost ground even among voters with migration backgrounds. Strange then, that her recent interjection into European politics is to recommend wall-building over here.
Wall-building – whether physical or symbolic – is not only a misapplied remedy to a mis-identified problem, but it can exacerbate the very problems it claims to eliminate. Drawing on what we know of gated communities, it is clear that building walls around Europe will only add to its troubles. And it is worth pointing out that there are already walls being built within Europe – see for example the Hungarian wall at the border with Serbia and Romania.
Clinton has argued that in order to stem the spread of populism, Europe needs to get a handle on immigration and stop migrants from crossing borders into Europe. She links a rise in right-wing populism to fears around immigration and proposes drastically curbing immigration in order to assuage those fears and the appetite for populism which emerges from them. read more…
In Conversation: Helen Clark and Uma Kothari
As part of her visit to the Global Development Institute Rt Hon Helen Clark sat down with Prof Uma Kothari to discuss her career, the UN, Hillary Clinton and intersectionality.
Decolonising development – what, how, by whom and for whom?
Dr Judith Krauss, Lecturer in Development Pedagogy, Global Development Institute
“Rhodes must fall”, decolonising knowledge, decolonising the curriculum, decolonising the university: against the backdrop of these ever-growing debates in the higher education sector, there is an urgent need to consider what decolonising development might mean. Given the extensive and far-reaching issues involved, the below is not meant as an exhaustive answer, but an initial attempt to reflect on some key questions. Thoughts very welcome!
What is decolonising?
As with many terms used in academia, the meaning of ‘decolonising’ is contested and varied. In development studies, different strands of literature and thought, such as post-development approaches, post-colonial critiques and critical or radical perspectives (e.g. Escobar, 1992; Kothari, 2005; Langdon, 2013; Rivera Cusicanqui, 2012) address issues of decoloniality. Fundamentally, for many authors, it means questioning and unpacking how colonial and hegemonic structures of power continue to produce contemporary inequalities, and reflecting on how these highly unequal structures can be addressed.
In efforts to decolonise knowledge and the curriculum, this has often meant paying attention to voices that have long been excluded or marginalised, such as those from the global South, voices of people of colour (from global North and South), women and indigenous people, among many others. However, scholars (e.g. Noxolo, 2017) have also pointed out the risk that incorporating marginalised voices can become a fig leaf and cop-out, leaving unchanged most unequal, excluding and marginalising structures within academia and higher education. Thus, including marginalised perspectives can only be the first step towards more profound change.
GDI Lecture Series: How lives change: a study of Palanpur, India with Nick Stern & Himanshu
Professor Lord Nicholas Stern, LSE and Professor Himanshu, Jawaharlal Nehru University gave a lecture entitled: ‘How Lives Change: Palanpur, India and Development Economics’. The lecture draws on a 7-decade detailed data collection in a single village. The study of Palanpur, India illuminates the drivers of change, why some people do better or worse than others, and what influences mobility and inequality.
Listen to the lecture in full below.
In Conversation: Jonathan Glennie & Pablo Yanguas
On the latest episode of the Global Development Institute podcast researchers, Jonathan Glennie and Pablo Yanguas discuss how and why we need to rethink aid.
GDI Lecture Series: How the west got China wrong with Yuen Yuen Ang
Professor Yuen Yuen Ang gave the Adrian Leftwich Memorial lecture entitled ‘Autocracy with democratic characteristics: How the West got China wrong’. You can listen to the podcast, or watch the lecture below.
Good life never comes like dreams: a discussion of young people in cities
Global Development Institute hosted a special screening of the Ugandan film Boda Boda Thieves at the Millennium Powerhouse in Moss Side, as part of the ESRC’s Festival of Social Sciences.
A group of young people from Hulme and Moss Side, youth workers and those working in or from East Africa, as well as members of the public, attended the open event which also formed part of our ongoing commitment to public engagement around global inequalities – one of our five research beacons at The University of Manchester.