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.”
The Oxford Handbook of International Refugee Law, a groundbreaking new book which critiques the status quo in international refugee law and sets the agenda for future research, has been published by Oxford University Press.
The handbook is edited by Cathryn Costello (ODID and Centre For Fundamental Rights, Hertie School, Berlin), Michelle Foster (Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School), and Jane McAdam (Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW),
A comprehensive, critical work that is global in scope, the Handbook analyses the state of research across the refugee law regime as a whole. Drawing together leading and emerging scholars, it provides both doctrinal and theoretical analyses of international refugee law and practice. It critiques existing law from a variety of normative positions, with several chapters identifying foundational flaws that open up space for radical rethinking. Many authors work directly in the field, and their contributions demonstrate how scholarship and practice can mutually inform each other.
Contributions assess a wide range of international legal instruments relevant to refugee protection, including from international human rights law, international humanitarian law, international migration law, the law of the sea, and international and transnational criminal law. Geographically, contributors examine regional and domestic laws and practices from around the world, with 10 chapters focused on specific regions.
Chapters by ODID academics include: 'Human Trafficking and Refugees', by Catherine Briddick and Vladislava Stoyanova; 'Non-penalization and non-criminalization', by Cathryn Costello and Yulia Ioffe; and 'The Right to Work', by Colm O'Cinneide and Cathryn Costello.
Cathryn Costello, Michelle Foster and Jane McAdam (eds) The Oxford Handbook of International Refugee Law, Oxford University Press.