People
Meet our faculty
Our staff have considerable experience in living and working in the developing world and most have engaged in policy-relevant research and consultancy work with international development agencies or non-governmental organisations.
Professor Tim Allen
Professor of Development Anthropology
Director of the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa
Dr Lydia Assouad
Assistant Professor in Development Management
(On leave from January 2024 to June 2025)
Professor Catherine Boone
Professor of Comparative Politics and African Political Economy
(Sabbatical 2024/25)
Professor Ernestina Coast
Professor of Health and International Development
Programme Co-Director, Health and International DevelopmentKeywords: Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice (SRHRJ), Gender, Evidence and Data
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Dr Tasha Fairfield
Associate Professor in Development Studies
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Professor Stuart Gordon
Professor (Education) in Managing Humanitarianism
Programme Director, International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies
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Dr Duncan Green
Senior Strategic Adviser, Oxfam UK, and Professor in Practice
Keywords: Influencing, Advocacy, NGOs
Professor Elliott Green
Professor in Development Studies
Programme Co-Director, Development Management
Dr Tine Hanrieder
Associate Professor in International Development
Programme Co-Director, Health and International Development
Professor Kathryn Hochstetler
Professor of International Development
(Sabbatical 2024/25)Keywords: Energy Transition, Climate Change, Emerging Powers
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Dr Myfanwy James
Assistant Professor in International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies
Dr Sohini Kar
Associate Professor International Development
Keywords: Economic Anthropology, Financialization, Poverty, Gender, South Asia
Professor Tiziana Leone
Professor in Health and International Development
Deputy Head of Department
Professor David Lewis
Professor of Anthropology and Development
(Sabbatical 2024/25)
Dr Philipa Mladovsky
Associate Professor in International Development
Programme Co-Director, Health and International Development
Professor James Putzel
Professor of Development Studies
Programme Director, Development Studies
Dr Sandra Sequeira
Associate Professor in Development Economics
Programme Co-Director, Economic Policy for International DevelopmentKeywords:Labor, Migration, Political Economy, Consumer Behavior
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Dr Mahvish Shami
Assistant Professor in Development Studies
Programme Co-Director, Development Management
Dr Diana Weinhold
Associate Professor in Development Economics
Programme Co-Director, Economic Policy for International Development
Tom Kirk
LSE Fellow
Dr Serdar Altay
Visiting Fellow
Dr. Serdar Altay is Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at Istanbul Technical University. With a robust background in international trade, investment, and development, he brings a wealth of experience from both practical and academic perspectives. Previously, Dr. Altay has held pivotal roles within the Turkish government, including trade negotiator and director for sustainable investment promotion. His expertise extends to U.S. think tanks focused on transatlantic economic cooperation and academia, where he excels in teaching and researching trade, finance, statistics and regional/European integration.
Dr. Altay’s recent research delves into the interconnectedness of international trade and investment with industrial and sustainable development, alongside global and regional governance. His published works cover topics such as multilateralism and the trade regime, deep trade agreements, Turkey's commercial engagement with the EU and the United States, and the political-economic ramifications of modernizing the Customs Union between the EU and Turkey.
Dr. Altay holds a PhD in International Studies from Trento University and in Economics and Social Sciences from Kassel University. He also earned an MA in International Political Economy from Warwick University and a BSc in International Relations from the Middle East Technical University.
Professor Alaka Basu
Visiting Senior Fellow
Alaka Basu is a Social Demographer and has published widely in the areas of reproductive health, gender and development, child health, the interface of fiction and the politics of population policy.
She served on the governing boards of the Population Association of America, the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, the Population Council and the Population Reference Bureau, was the chair of the IUSSP Scientific Committee on Anthropological Demography, a member of the Committees on Reproductive Health and on Population Projections of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and a member of the Lancet-Guttmacher Commission on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights.
She is on the Editorial Advisory Boards of Population and Development Review, Genealogy, and The Pakistan Journal of Applied Economics, and the series editor of the Policy Briefs produced by the Sociology of Development section of the American Sociological Association.
Professor Radhika Desai
Visiting Fellow
Political Economist and Political Scientist, Radhika Desai proposed geopolitical economyas a Marxist analysis of the international relations of the capitalist world that is historical, integrates the ‘political’ and the ‘economic’, class and nation, and imperialism and anti-imperialism in a single framework that is capable of anticipating and explaining the rise of the multipolar world. She also writes about US, UK and Indian politics and political economy, the dollar system and its contradictions, about Marx’s analysis of capitalism, the politics of right and left, including fascism, nationalism and other topics. Her journalism and commentary appear on The Guardian, The Hindu, Frontline, The Winnipeg Free Press, Canadian Dimension, China Global Television Network (CGTN), RT, Global Times, the Valdai Discussion Club, You Tube and other outlets, She is host of the popular You Tube show Geopolitical Economy Hour.
Dr Joseph Hanlon
Visiting Senior Fellow
Journalist and social scientist and Senior Lecturer in Development Policy and Practice
Dr Rishita Nandagiri
Visiting Fellow
Dr Rishita Nandagiri (she/her) is an LSE Visiting Fellow (11/2022 to 11/2025). She is a Lecturer in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, King’s College London. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on gender, abortion and reproductive (in)justices in the Global South; interrogating how power and politics manifest and are wielded at micro, meso, and macro levels. She has previously held postdoctoral positions at LSE, including an ESRC postdoctoral fellowship (2020-2021). She serves on the IUSSP Abortion Research Panel, is an editorial advisory board member of BMJ Sexual and Reproductive Health, and co-convenes the DSA Women & Development Study Group.
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View personal websiteVisiting (Senior) Fellow appointments are intended to help Departments, Institutes and Centres to invite staff who are either practitioners or academics in other institutions to conduct research, or be involved in other activities which will benefit the Department.
Please click here for more information about our Visiting Fellow Scheme
Duncan Green
Professor in Practice
Senior Strategic Adviser, Oxfam UKKeywords: Influencing, Advocacy, NGOs
Kate Gilmore
Visiting Professor in Practice
Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations
Mark Lowcock
Visiting Professor in Practice
Permanent Secretary for the Department for International Development between 9 June 2011 and 7 July 2017, and, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator between 2017 and 2021
Professor David Luke
Professor in Practice and Strategic Director
Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa
Professor E A (Teddy) Brett
Emeritus Professor of International Development
Professor Brett has been involved in research, teaching and practice in Development since the 1960s, first in South Africa at Witwatersrand University, then in Uganda at Makerere University in the 1960s and 1970s, and at Sussex University and the Institute of Development Studies from 1967 to 1992. He joined the Development Studies Institute, now Department of International Development at the LSE in 1993, and was a Visiting Fellow at Witwatersrand University from 2001 to 2005. He completed his PhD in Political Science at the LSE in 1966, and has published extensively on African Political Economy, with special reference to Uganda and Zimbabwe, on International Political Economy, Civic Institutions and Development Theory, and participated in research and consultancy projects sponsored by the World Bank, DFID, and DANIDA.
Allison Benson Hernandez
Allison received her PhD from the London School of Economics in 2020. Her Bachelor and Master Degrees are in Economics, from Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia. Her dissertation was titled "Sources of financial, social and political capital in rural Colombia". Her research interests include Political Economy, Rural Development, Inequality, Social Policy, Peace Building. She relies on both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies.
Chao-Yo Cheng
Chao-yo Cheng is a Lecturer in Quantitative Social Research at Birkbeck, University of London. He has a PhD in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles. He applies various quantitative and qualitative methods to address a range of topics in the political economy of institutions and development. His research focuses on unpacking the institutional and policy foundations of nation-state building and socioeconomic development in multi-ethnic societies.
Professor Tim Dyson
Emeritus Professor of Population Studies
Tim Dyson is Emeritus Professor of Population Studies. He has been a Fellow of the British Academy since 2001 and has held visiting positions at the Australian National University in Canberra, the International Institute for Population Sciences in Mumbai, and the American University of Beirut. In 1997 he was the lead speaker at the Oxford Farming Conference, and in 2015 he delivered the keynote address at the United Nations Commission on Population and Development in New York. Much of his research has involved studying aggregate demographic processes.
Francisco Ferreira
Francisco H. G. Ferreira is the Amartya Sen Professor of Inequality Studies and Director of the International Inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics. Francisco is an economist working on the measurement, causes and consequences of inequality and poverty, with an emphasis on developing countries in general and Latin America in particular. Some of his recent work has focused on the definition and measurement of inequality of opportunity.
Annie Kuse
Annie is currently working on research that explores the connections between the informal economy and revolution in North Africa. She received her MSc in Anthropology and Development from the LSE in 2020, and her undergraduate degree in Anthropology and Political Science from the University of Notre Dame in 2017.
Elizabeth Ngutuku
Elizabeth Ngutuku is a research fellow at the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa. She holds a PhD in Development Studies from the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam. Her PhD research explored children’s complex lived experience of poverty and vulnerability in Kenya. Eliza has over 20 years of experience, working on issues of children and youth in the Eastern Africa region, and her primary focus is on child poverty & vulnerability, social protection, youth activism, sexual and reproductive health & rights, and young people’s experience in conflict situations. Elizabeth speaks Swahili and English.
Reece Sisto
Reece is currently researching the relationship between liberalism and right- and left-wing revolutions in Chile and Bolivia. Before receiving his MSc in Development Studies from the LSE in 2020, Reece was conducting research on the triangular relationship between armed conflict, peace-building, and LGBTQ+ hate crimes as a Fulbright scholar in Bogotá, Colombia. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in Urban Studies in 2018.
James Walters
Dr James Walters is founding director of the LSE Faith Centre which works to promote religious understanding and interfaith leadership among the LSE’s global student body, in government and to the wider public. He is also a Senior Lecturer in the LSE Marshall Institute and Chaplain to the School. He works with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to promote diplomatic engagement with religious communities and contributes to several interfaith initiatives in the Middle East. He has published a number of books including Baudrillard and Theology, Religion and the Public Sphere: New Conversations, Religious Imaginations and Global Transitionsand Loving Your Neighbour in an Age of Religious Conflict. He was educated at Cambridge University and ordained priest in the Church of England in 2008 within which he is now a canon of Chichester Cathedral and represents universities on the General Synod, the Church’s governing body.
Andrea Merino-Mayayo
MSc Programme Manager
Course Administrator: MSc Development Management
Courses:
DV423, DV424, DV431, DV443, DV445, DV455, DV464, DV480
Contact: a.c.merino-mayayo@lse.ac.uk
Max Nichol
MSc Course Administrator: MSc Development Studies
Courses:
DV400, DV413, DV418, DV442, DV483
Contact: m.nichol@lse.ac.uk
Maria Do-Prado
MSc course Administrator: MSc Health and International Development, and MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies
Courses:
DV407, DV420, DV421, DV428, DV444, DV453, DV456, DV457, DV458, DV462, DV466, DV467, DV473
Contact: m.a.do-prado@lse.ac.uk
Ayman Hassan
MSc Course Administrator, MSc Economic Policy for International Developmen
Courses:
DV410, DV490, DV491, DV492, DV494, DV495, DV496
Dipa Patel
Communications and Events Manager
Managing Editor of the LSE ID BlogContact: d.patel20@lse.ac.uk
General communications enquiries: intdev.comms@lse.ac.uk
Maya Bullen
Communications and Events Officer
(Student Experience)Contact: m.r.bullen@lse.ac.uk
General communications enquiries: intdev.comms@lse.ac.uk
Dr Monika Kruesmann
PhD Programme Manager
Contact: m.h.kruesmann@lse.ac.uk
General enquiries: id.research@lse.ac.uk
Monika Walker
Departmental Senior Student Advisor
Contact: m.walker6@lse.ac.uk
To book an appointment with Monika, please visit the DSSA webpage.
Camilo Acero Vargas
Supervisors:Professor Catherine Boone and Professor Jean-Paul Faguet
Research interests: Inequality, land politics, political economy of agrarian development, illicit economies, Latin America
Contact:c.acero-vargas@lse.ac.uk
Rahma Ahmed
Supervisors:Dr Sandra Sequeira, Dr Diana Weinhold
Research interests: Inequality; Political Economy; Development Economics; Comparative Politics; Development; Sub-Saharan Africa; Migration
Contact:r.s.ahmed@lse.ac.uk
Faris Al-Sulayman
Supervisors:Professor Kathryn Hochstetler, Dr Steffen Hertog
Research interests: Political Economy of Development, State Capitalism, State-owned Enterprises, the Political Economy of Renewable Energy, Middle East and North Africa, the GCC states, Green Industrial Policy
Contact: F.Al-Sulayman@lse.ac.uk
Twitter: @FarisAlSulayman
Sophia Anders
Supervisor:Professor Jean Paul Faguet
Research interests: Local Democracy, Participation, Eurasia
Contact: S.M.Anders@lse.ac.uk
View Full Profile Sophia Anders
Lucas D. Arce
Supervisor: Professor Ken Shadlen
Research interests: International political economy, upgrading and innovation, global value chains, trade, business and corporate strategy, environment, Latin America
Contact: L.D.Arce@lse.ac.uk
Twitter:@larce26
Ritika Arora
Supervisor: Dr Rajesh Venugopal
Research interests: Education; Politics; Nationalism; Religious Conflict; South Asia; Political Psychology; Transparency and Accountability; Electoral Systems in Divided Societies; Vote-Bank Politics; Multiculturalism; Communalism
Contact: R.P.Arora@lse.ac.uk
Twitter:@RitikaAurora
Arbie Baguios
Supervisor: Professor James Putzel
Research interests:Refugee economy; anthropology of economy; institutions; emergence; capitalism and displacement; market disembeddedness; Karl Polanyi
Contact:a.baguios@lse.ac.uk
Parth Bhatia
Supervisor: Professor Kathryn Hochstetler
Research Interests: Energy Transition; India; Green Industrial Policy; Socio-Technical Transitions; Climate Policy and Law; Net Zero
Contact: P.Bhatia6@lse.ac.uk
Twitter:@parthbhatia92
Charlotte Brown
Supervisor: Professor Tim Allen, Professor David Lewis, Dr Liz Storer (QMUL)
Research Interests: Migration, Humanitarianism, Gender, Uganda
Contact:c.brown8@lse.ac.uk
Twitter: @C_L_V_B
Javiera Caceres
Supervisors: Professor Ken Shadlen, Dr Laura Mann
Research interests: Intellectual Property, AI, Trade Policy
Contact: j.p.caceres@lse.ac.uk
View full profile for Javiera-Caceres
Chiara Chiavaroli
Supervisors: Dr Tiziana Leone, Professor Tim Forsyth
Research interests: Environmental justice, Sexual and reproductive health, Gender, Environmental conflicts, Latin America
Contact: C.Chiavaroli@lse.ac.uk
Alice Chilcott
Superviors: Professor Ernestina Coast, Dr Eliza Ngutuku
Research Interests: Grassroots organisation, Gender, Youth, Reproductive Health, Kenya
Contact: A.E.Chilcott@lse.ac.uk
Tin Hinane El Kadi
Supervisors: Professor James Putzel and Dr Laura Mann
Research interests: Political Economy of Development, Digital Divide, Technology Transfers, Innovation Policy, China in Africa/MENA
Contact: T.El-Kadi@lse.ac.uk
Hosna Jahan
Supervisor: Dr Sohini Kar
Research interests: Gender and economic development, capability approach, microfinance, political Islam, poverty, political economy of development
Contact: H.Jahan@lse.ac.uk
Mina Kozluca
Supervisor: Dr Kate Meagher
Research Interests:Agrarian political economy; Rural development; Political economy of global value chains; Capital-labour relations; Rural labour migration; Informality; Labour regimes
Contact: m.kozluca@lse.ac.uk
Sophie Legros
Supervisor: Professor Naila Kabeer, Professor Wendy Sigle
Research Interests:Inequality; Gender and Development; Social Norms; Mixed Methods; Urban Informality; Gendered Peace-Building; Latin America
Contact: s.c.legros@lse.ac.uk
Jorich Johann Loubser
Supervisor: Professor James Putzel
Research interests: State-Capital Relations, Political Economy of Development, Mining, African Political Economy, Southern Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, African Studies, Local Content Policy, Local Ownership Policies, Taxation, Transnational Companies (TNCs) and the African State.
Contact: j.h.loubser@lse.ac.uk
Bincy Mathew
Supervisor:Dr Sohini Kar, Dr Philipa Mladovsky
Contact:B.Mathew@lse.ac.uk
Aoife McCullough
Supervisors: Rajesh Venugopal, Kate Meagher
Advisor:Rahmane Idrissa
Research interests:The War on Terror, militarisation, state legitimacy, conflict, state formation
Contact: a.j.mccullough@lse.ac.uk
Eduardo Mercadante
Supervisor: Professor Ken Shadlen
Contact:e.mercadante-santino@lse.ac.uk
Research interests: Intellectual property; Patent prosecution; Patent offices; Pharmaceuticals; Developing countries
Sheyla Enciso-Valdivia
Supervisor: Professor Jean-Paul Faguet
Contact: S.I.Enciso-Valdivia@lse.ac.uk
Research interests: Local politics, state capacity, territorial inequality, fiscal and political decentralisation, Latin America
View full profile: Sheyla-Enciso
Michael Mugisha
Supervisors: Professor James Putzel, Professor Catherine Boone
Contact: m.mugisha@lse.ac.uk
Claudia Rodriguez Castellanos
Supervisor: Professor Jean-Paul Faguet
Research interests: Conflict, illicit economies, peace building, mixed methods
Contact: c.j.rodriguez-castellanos@lse.ac.uk
Gijs van Selm
Supervisor: Professor Stuart Gordon, Professor David Lewis
Research interests:Power inequalities, Locally-led Aid; NGOs; humanitarian-development-peace nexus
Contact:g.m.van-selm@lse.ac.uk
Ciara Silke
Supervisor: Dr Elliott Green
Research interests: Shock responsive basic services, internal displacement, humanitarian, Ethiopia.
Contact: C.C.Silke@lse.ac.uk
Harshita Sinha
Supervisors: Professor Naila Kabeer, Dr Rajesh Venugopal
Research interests: Gender, migration, informal labour markets, marginal communities, South Asia
Contact: h.sinha@lse.ac.uk
The students listed below are supervised (wholly or partly) by faculty from International Development but are based in other departments at LSE.
Midanna De Almada
(Supervisors: Professor Ernestina Coast, Dr Tiziana Leone)
Katy Footman
(Supervisors: Professor Ernestina Coast, Dr Tiziana Leone)
Rosanna Le Voir
(Supervisors: Professor Ernestina Coast, Dr Tiziana Leone)
Beth Kreling
(Supervisors: Professor Ernestina Coast, Dr Justin Parkhurst, Dr Clare Wenham)
Sally Simmons
(Supervisors: Dr Tiziana Leone, Dr Grace Lordan)
Dijana Spasenoska
(Supervisors: Dr Arjan Gjonca, Dr Berkay Ozcan)
Joe Strong
(Supervisors: Professor Ernestina Coast, Dr Tiziana Leone)
Orsola Torrisi
(Supervisors: Dr Arjan Gjonca, Dr Berkay Özcan)