The department is a lively community that is recognised internationally as one of the top centres for research and teaching in development studies.

Our courses offer excellent training for a career in international development or for advanced study, and attract students of the highest calibre from across the world.
“I had waited for 10 years before my dream to study in Oxford became a reality and the experience was truly beyond expectation”
Our students are taught to develop as critical and independent thinkers and when they leave us they are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to bring about real change.
“My time at Oxford strengthened my critical analysis and provided me with a unique interdisciplinary grounding in history, politics and economics that has equipped me well in dealing with public policy issues and program development strategy.”
Our courses offer excellent training for a career in international development or for advanced study, and attract students of the highest calibre from across the world.
“I had waited for 10 years before my dream to study in Oxford became a reality and the experience was truly beyond expectation”
Our courses offer excellent training for a career in international development or for advanced study, and attract students of the highest calibre from across the world.
“I had waited for 10 years before my dream to study in Oxford became a reality and the experience was truly beyond expectation”
Our students are taught to develop as critical and independent thinkers and when they leave us they are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to bring about real change.
“My time at Oxford strengthened my critical analysis and provided me with a unique interdisciplinary grounding in history, politics and economics that has equipped me well in dealing with public policy issues and program development strategy.”
Our students are taught to develop as critical and independent thinkers and when they leave us they are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to bring about real change.
“My time at Oxford strengthened my critical analysis and provided me with a unique interdisciplinary grounding in history, politics and economics that has equipped me well in dealing with public policy issues and program development strategy.”
My research seeks to understand the differences between the indigenous and the non-indigenous populations in Mexico in terms of poverty and to analyse the reasons for that difference. In particular, the aim is to explore the lack of mobility of the indigenous population, both geographical and social, as well as the role that ethnic discrimination plays.
In terms of the lack of geographical mobility, the investigation will focus on segregation patterns, since a high percentage of the indigenous population live in small isolated rural communities, and there is also an inverse relationship between the village size and the incidence of poverty. It is thus an objective to understand how segregated the indigenous population is, and their reasons for remaining so, instead of migrating to more urbanized places where better employment opportunities may be found.
The thesis will also explore how different social mobility for the indigenous is - at this it is stage expected to be found to be lower for indigenous groups. If measures of mobility show what is expected, interviews and qualitative analysis will help to explore why the indigenous groups are less mobile. Finally, this thesis will explore how these issues relate to ethnic discrimination.