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.”
Lise is a DPhil student in International Development. Her doctoral research focuses on access to healthcare for hurricane survivors in the Caribbean region, with a special interest in the treatment of chronic mental illnesses (e.g. depression, ADHD, bipolar disorders, ASD).
In particular, she uses mixed methods to explore the processes through which they gained, lost, or were denied access to emergency care in the aftermath of disasters related to the Atlantic hurricane season in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Haiti. Her comparative analysis uses a wide range of data (GIS, statistical data, ethnographic accounts, policy documents, poetry and fiction) to understand the determinants of such access, conceptualizations of emergency care, and how survivors describe their experience of loss.
She holds a Dual BA in Social Anthropology and Political Science (University of Louvain), and a MA in International Affairs (University of Ottawa). She previously worked with the Permanent Representation of Belgium to the UNHQ, UNEP, OCHA and the Stockholm Environment Institute.
Aside from her academic research, she writes poetry and paints semi-abstract, evocative seascapes. She is a member of St Anne’s College and the president of its Middle Common Room (MCR).
Lise has previously tutored undergraduate students on the BA in Political Science, Sociology and Anthropology, and Human Sciences courses of the University of Louvain (modules: Political Economy, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Introduction to Political Science, Foundations of Public and Private Law).
Health systems and emergency care, chronic mental illnesses, political theory and recognition, ontology, complex emergencies and systems thinking, climate change adaptation