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.”
Dan is an oral historian who uses ethnographic and archival methods to explore how people represent and reflect upon their past selves and actions during periods of dramatic political and social change. In doing this, he tries to understand the formal and informal rules that govern the institutions which regulate people’s lives, as well as the moments of discursive innovation or violent upheaval through which people reconfigure their place within institutions. His empirical approach is informed by new approaches to oral history and ethnographies of story-telling as well as a long-standing interest in phenomenology and intellectual history. He focuses on Southern Africa, specifically Zimbabwe, but has a wider interest in East and Central Africa.
Dan recently completed his doctorate that explored several generations of university student activists in Zimbabwe and Rhodesia who used their elite status to challenge the state and other political authorities. This project is now being converted into a book. Prior to this, Dan worked for several years as a strategy consultant on Central Africa programmes with a private philanthropy organisation and a private consulting firm for clients that included the UN-Global Compact, Save the Children, and the Council for Europe.
He was born and raised in Manchester, where his footballing loyalties lie.
Please note Dr Hodgkinson is not available to supervise doctoral students.
Dan has taught on the Core Course (a year-long course) for the MPhil in International Development, a broad-ranging course which explores the key debates and issues in the field of International Development. Teaching duties included leading weekly seminar discussions (of around 13 students), setting readings across three terms, and supporting students with any additional concerns they had.
For the past three years, he has also run the mentoring programme for the MSc in African Studies, which involves supporting masters’ students in approaching their academic studies. He is also completing the HEA accredited DLT award with the Oxford Learning Institute and has experiences in secondary school teaching.
In addition to teaching, Dan over the last year has convened two seminar series here at Oxford: the Southern African Discussion Group (covering Professor Alexander on sabbatical) and the ODID DPhil Seminar Series (co-convened with Felipe Roa-Clavijo).
Southern and Eastern Africa; Zimbabwe; protest and political order; race and nationalism; intellectual and social history; oral history.