Swansea University - Centre for Development Studies
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Welcome
Welcome to friends, colleagues, alumni and prospective students of the Centre for Development Studies. With chronic poverty, inequality, population displacement, and environmental sustainability firmly on the international agenda, the importance of Development Studies has never been greater. CDS has made an internationally-recognised impact on this agenda over the past 50 years, establishing a reputation for excellence in commissioned research, policy advice and postgraduate teaching, within the broad field of social development.
News
Some of our students who attended the Graduation Ceremony in July 2008
Dr Gerard Clarke and Dr Mary Ssonko
Gerard Clarke was the joint winner of the European Journal of Development Research Prize for the best paper at the annual conference of the Development Studies Association in London on 8 November for a paper entitled ‘Faith-Based Humanitarianism: Muslim Aid and the United Methodist Committee on Relief’. He shared the prize with Olivier Rubin of the University of Copenhagen. The paper is available at : http://www.devents.org.uk/Religion-Clarke.doc
A British Academy Research Grants Development Award (£141,378) was recently awarded to Dr Tim Bowyer for a three year research programme into social support amongst post-conflict communities in the Peruvian Andes. The study is looking at how opportunities for social integration and social support amongst rural people have been affected by conflict, discrimination and remoteness. Working with former members of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and a range of rights based organisations working in the area this research has undertaken to 1) Stock take and assess the character, extent and trends of horizontal and vertical forms of social capital 2) Identify key threats and priority issues and suggest guidelines which will strengthen the idea of integrated individual, population, community and health service.
Congratulations to Neil Price on becoming a Professor after being awarded a Personal Chair by Swansea University.
Continuing with his on-going research on faith-based organisations and international development, Gerard Clarke is currently undertaking research funded by the Commonwealth Foundation which looks at ground-breaking cooperation between Muslim Aid (UK) and the United Methodist Committee on Relief (US). The research involves fieldwork in the UK, the US and Sri Lanka between February and August 2008 and the results will be presented at the Development Studies Association annual conference in London in November 2008 and at the International Studies Association annual conference in New York in February 2009.
Eleanor Fisher has been awarded a prestigious Leverhulme Trust Visiting Fellowship to research how some of the world’s poorest communities can adopt more sustainable approaches to managing their natural resources. Dr Fisher also has a research grant from the Welsh Assembly Government to conduct baseline research on the capacity of Welsh public bodies to expand the quantity of fair trade products they procure. This helps ensure public money is spent ethically supporting the livelihoods of poor producers in developing countries; it is also a means for Wales to contribute to the worldwide Millennium Development Goals on poverty reduction. This research has enabled Dr Fisher to provide policy advice to the Welsh Assembly Government, contributing to Wales becoming the first Fair Trade Nation in June 2008.
The British Academy Grants Committee has recently awarded Dr Tim Bowyer a research grant for a three year research programme into social support amongst post-conflict communities in the Peruvian Andes. The study will look at how the opportunities for social integration and social support amongst rural people who have been affected by conflict, discrimination and remoteness.
This year, Swansea welcomed its largest cohort of Chevening Scholars in any academic year. CDS is honoured to report that nine out of the 12 Scholars are studying Development Studies programmes. Seven of the students had their photograph taken with Dr Neil Price, Director of CDS. MSc Social Development students Mayoro Cisse from Senegal, Sewit Desta from Ethiopia, Nagwa Konda from Sudan, Michael Lotyam from Sudan, Christopher Mweembe from Zimbabwe, Hannan Tabor from Ethiopia, and Clive Smith from Anguilla; Ana Bianchi from Brazil, studying MSc Social Development and Communication; and Basem Sbaih from Palestine, studying MSc Development and Human Rights.
Neil Price was recently appointed to the Commissioning Panel of the ESRC-DFID Research Scheme on International Poverty Reduction. He was also recently awarded a second Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with funding until May 2009 from the DTI and ESRC. This follow-on from Neil’s earlier KTP is adapting the Peer Ethnographic Evaluation & Research method (PEER) for the development of behaviour change communications. Neil's first KTP project was graded 'very good' by the KTP. The project will be added to the short list from which KTP Case Studies will be developed.
Neil has a journal article forthcoming in Global Public Health, co-authored with Kirstan Hawkins, on research undertaken using PEER in Mozambique on young women’s HIV risk in age-disparate transactional sexual relations. See Neil’s and Kirstan’s CV for further details.
