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.”
Having completed the MPhil in Development Studies here at ODID, I loved it so much that I chose to stay on for the DPhil. My research examines identity development and expression among LGBTQ+ refugees and forced migrants in Nairobi, Kenya. I’m primarily interested in how the stories and perspectives of my participants help re-shape our thinking about ‘global’ LGBTQ+ identities; challenging long-worn and universalising tropes about queer and trans self-making. I’m also excited about the intersection of this work with emerging studies in the social science of social media, in particular thinking about how LGBTQ+ refugees both instrumentalise social media in the pursuit of self-expression, citizenship, and survival, whilst also thinking about the more nefarious means through which they are made more vulnerable by it.
Outside of the DPhil, I am pursuing a career in UX Research. In 2022, I will begin working at Meta, where I hope to draw upon my research on the DPhil to help shape safer, more inclusive social media platforms.
Other interests include watercolour painting and illustration (see here); spending time with my dog, Cleo; and watching The Great Pottery Throwdown.
Queer and trans refugee and forced migration; queer theory; identity; storytelling; social media and identity; online identities; identity politics