Department of Development Studies

At the Department of Development Studies we offer a range of exciting degree programmes on-campus and online, at BA, MSc and PhD levels.

Our degrees are inter-disciplinary, combining political-economy, politics, anthropology, and history approaches to analyse processes of development in different contexts around the world.

Our academic staff create an intellectually engaged and challenging space across the many branches of international development and humanitarianism that make up Development Studies. They specialise in a range of thematic areas including sustainability and climate change, migration and displacement, conflict, humanitarian action, labour, political ecology, and aid and institutions.

Combined with exceptional resources and our interdisciplinary approach, we offer a unique learning and research opportunity for our diverse and vibrant student community

Development Studies is a live and evolving discipline, and our students and staff are challenged to refine our theoretical and practical understanding of why change happens, how power is exercised and in what ways inequalities can be explained and confronted.

— Professor Carlos Oya, Head of the Department of Development Studies

Meet the academics

Academics from the Department of Development Studies boast a wide range of expertise from across the World.

Tackling the World's biggest challenges

At SOAS we aim is to tackle the World's biggest challenges through academic collaboration and cooperation. In our latest series, we bring together academics and analysts from different disciplines to discuss topics from climate change to human rights.