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International Development Events

Join the global debate


The department is involved in hosting an extensive series of events, ranging from research seminars to public lectures.

Our department has hosted a number of high profile speakers including: Winnie Byanyima, Professor Amartya Sen, Dr Ha-Joon Chang, Kate Raworth, Mark Lowcock and Alcinda Honwana.

Upcoming events

Book Launch - Worlding Home An Urban Ethnography of Peacekeeping Camps in Goma, DRC

Wednesday 28 January 2026, 4pm - 6pm. In-person, MAR.2.10, Marshall Building, LSE Campus

Worlding Home interrogates the social, spatial, and architectural lifeworlds of United Nations (UN) peacekeepers accommodated in contingent camps throughout Goma, the capital of North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Pushing against readings of Goma's peacekeeping camps as either more privileged enclaves or as outliers in camp studies when compared to refugee camps, Larsen argues for an understanding of "camp" as a process and practice. Between dwelling and journeying and "here" and "there," the everyday lives and embodied practices of Goma's peacekeepers and Congolese civilians co-construct a "city as elsewhere" in which camping is a vital urban practice.

Speaker: Maren Larsen is a Senior Lecturer in Urban Studies at the University of Basel. She coordinates the Masters program in Critical Urbanisms, chairs its Pedagogy Committee, and convenes core courses on interdisciplinary methods in urban research, theory in urban studies, emergency urbanism, and the settlement typology of the camp as an urban space.

Chair: Myfanwy James is an Assistant Professor in International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies at LSE.

Hosted by the Department of International Development

Book Launch - Capitalist Value Chains: Labour Exploitation, Nature Destruction, Geopolitics

Wednesday 18 March 2026 3.45pm - 6.15pm. In-person, MAR.2.08, Marshall Building, LSE Campus

Is it true that Global Value Chains (GVCs) 'boost incomes, create better jobs, and reduce poverty', as commonly claimed? In this compelling book, Benjamin Selwyn and Christin Bernhold show how the mainstream notion of Global Value Chains (GVCs) obscures their capitalist character. To transcend this shortcoming, the authors introduce the concept of Capitalist Value Chains (CVCs). They explore how and why CVCs generate many highly exploitative jobs, new forms of poverty, are stunting real human development, and are destroying the world's environment.

Speaker: Benjamin Selwyn, professor of international relations and international development at the University of Sussex.

Chair: James Putzel is Professor of Development Studies in the Department of International Development at LSE.

Hosted by the Department of International Development

Cutting Edge Lecture Series WT - Alternate Fridays 4pm-6pm, Old Theatre

Democratisation of data in conflict with a special focus on our mortality work in Sudan
Date: Friday 23 January 2026 
Speaker: Maysoon Dahab, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Discussants: Rosanna Le Voir, PhD candidate in Demography, LSE

Erased: A History of International Thought Without Men 
Date: Friday 06 February 2026 
Speaker: Patricia Owens, University of Oxford
Discussant: Aoife McCullough, PhD candidate at LSE and Associate Researcher at ODI

Education and majoritarian politics in India 
Date: Friday 20 February 2026 
Speaker: Ritika Arora, PhD candidate, LSE
Discussants: TBC

The expansion of global security agendas in times of crisis
Date: Friday 06 March 2026 
Speaker: Ruben Andersson, University of Oxford
Discussant: Myfanwy James, Assistant Professor in International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies, LSE

Trade Development Environment: The more things change, the more they stay the same
Date: Friday 20 March 2026 
Speaker: Silke Trommer, University of Manchester
Discussant: Kathy Hochstetler, Professor of International Development at LSE

Past events

Celebrating 35 years of LSE ID: Alumni Reflections and the Future of International Development

Tuesday 9 Dec 2025 6.30pm - 8pm, In-person and online public event (LSE campus, venue tbc ticketholders)

Marking 35 years of International Development at LSE, this special alumni panel brings together graduates who are shaping change across sectors and continents.

Speakers: 
Noble Kofi Nazzah, Founding Editor, The Gourd Magazine (MSc African Development, 2019)
Indranil Chakrabarti, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (MSc Development Studies, 1997)
Mia Fraser, Philanthropy Executive at Amnesty International UK (MSc Health and International Development, 2022)
Lisa Al Banyahyatiis, Assistant Vice President, Structuring & Origination, KfW IPEX-Bank (MSc Development Management, 2019)
Arbie Baguios, ESRC-funded PhD International Development researcher studying refugee economies (MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies, 2018)
Chair: James Putzel is Professor of Development Studies in the Department of International Development at LSE

Hosted by the Department of International Development

You can download the entire list of past events from 2012 - 2014 here.