PhD doctoral researchers in the School of Government
A research degree is a unique opportunity to develop new skills, develop problem-solving abilities and make a valuable contribution to new knowledge.
Current PhD profiles from across the School
International Development Department (IDD)
International Development Department (IDD)
- Learning from community conservation in Ghana
- Ellen's research aims to understand the perceptions of women of colour working in the international development sector who are experiencing or experienced obstacles.
- Investigating the implications of the Free Senior High School (FSHS) Policy on quality education and academic performance of students in Ghana.
- Subjectivities of Women's Political Participation.
- Hermawan is undertaking doctoral research on the relationship between multi-dimensions of decentralised system in Indonesia and corruption of local bureaucrats.
- Is Social Control through Menstrual Untouchability Changing in Urban Nepal?
- Contextualising the 'Conceptual-contextual' divide: A Case Study of the Political Culture Influence on Nigeria's Security Sector Reforms
- Jasmine's PhD research project examines the role played by economies of conflict in Myanmar's political transition, a process interrupted by the sudden military coup in February 2021.
- ICT and sustainability in the development of smart city initiatives.
- Exploring the effects of a development intervention: the Merhabete Integrated Rural Development Project, Amhara Region, Ethiopia
- Matt's research project draws upon his extensive and varied experience of working in the fields of international development and local government.
- The nexus between women in decision-making and leadership and gender responsive development outcomes.
- Paul's research focuses on how institutions mediate the capabilities of disabled people when confronted by extreme droughts and floods.
- Local government in China plays a crucial role in urban and rural development, and studying the power dynamics among local governments in developed cities
Department of Public Administration and Policy (DPAP)
Department of Public Administration and Policy (DPAP)
- Gender Dimension in Public Policy for Smallholder Agriculture.
- Performance of collaborative emergency management networks in Latin America.
- Interdisciplinary analysis of energy systems, considering technical, economic, social, environmental and policy aspects of small community systems, focussing on reduction of carbon emissions.
- Policy learning in times of failure: How English local government responds at times of central government intervention.
- Disaster risk management and community self-organization in the Asia-Pacific
- The Rules of the game: understanding the relationship between politicians in central and local government
- Dissecting the Governance Dynamics of Energy Decarbonisation Decision-Making.
- Sally Ward is undertaking doctoral research investigating temporal patterns of self-organising active citizenship based on the case of an urban neighbourhood in the UK.
- Collaborative localism: Community governments in the decentralisation process in Cameroon
Department of Political Science and International Studies (POLSIS)
Department of Political Science and International Studies (POLSIS)
- Abdi Garad is undertaking doctoral research into state-building and interventions using a case study approach and process-tracing method to unstructured interviews.
- Alice joined the ICCS at the University of Birmingham on the MSc Global Cooperation and Security, graduating with a Distinction in 2017.
- The Peace to Statehood Conundrum: Investigating Multiethnic Statebuilding in Kosovo
- The Limits of Parliamentary Privilege: Transparency and Accountability
- Bruno Sowden-Carvalho is researching the idea of a global island: emoceans, ontological security and Britain's political subjectivity in world politics
- D'arcy Ritchie is a doctoral researcher in the Department of Political Science and International Studies. D'arcy is researching the feminist politics of shame.
- Understanding the causal mechanisms generating cross-community ratification of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement in the May 1998 referendum
David J. Zell
- Major cultural commemorations and the construction of cultural & political identity in the GDR, 1959-1983.
- Does (Income) Inequality Predict Conflict Between Ethnic and Religious Groups in Africa?
- State management of technological and economic performance in industry: The Ministry of Technology in Britain, 1964-1970
- The Role of the Russian Orthodox Church in Supporting Russian Foreign Policy Objectives and Shaping Geopolitical and Religious Dynamics in Europe.
- South-South Cooperation
- Ioana Cerasella Chis is working on a qualitative research project that focuses on the politics of disablement and precarious work in the UK.
- Jaroslava Barbieri research into Russian foreign policy and post-Soviet affairs to European studies and political philosophy.
- Norm Contestation and the European Union
- José Pascal da Rocha is investigating the role of mediators in mediated ceasefires in the Sudan negotiations
- Marianna joined the University of Birmingham in 2019 to study a PhD in International Relations
- From 'Bridge of Cooperation' to Russia's Baltic Bastion: Exploring the Role of State Identity in Contemporary Russian Security Policy in Kaliningrad, 2000-2018.
- Paul's research focuses on how institutions mediate the capabilities of disabled people when confronted by extreme droughts and floods.
- Eurodollars and the British Route to Financialisation
- Pourya Nabipour is undertaking doctoral research into the role of national identity in Iran's nuclear policy
- Solomon Bunting Caulker is undertaking doctoral research focused on Post-Conflict security sector governance in Sierra Leone: Deficits as Inhibitors of National Development
- The politics of 'green' in civil conflicts: The environment as a political opportunity.
- Saudi Foreign Policy
- Yishu Ren's research focusses on the impact of foreign investments from emerging economies on the norms of global environmental governance and considers the resulting political affects.
Centre for Russian, European and Eurasian Studies (CREES)
Centre for Russian, European and Eurasian Studies (CREES)
Paul Michael Graystone is an ESRC-funded doctoral researcher. His work examines borderlands, exclaves and memory politics in Russia. Paul’s doctoral research focuses on Russian Borderlands in Crisis: Assessing Geopolitical Change in the Eastern Baltic 2008-2022
Viktoria Kobzeva is funded by an ESRC Midlands Graduate School DTP Studentship. She is working on a PhD project titled: Activism woven into relations, imbued with emotion: the case studies of Chechen and Azerbaijani transnational activists networks. The doctoral project is a comparative study that fills the gap in post-Soviet Area Studies, with its focus on Caucasian diasporas, activism and transnational communities. Viktoria is supervised by Cerwyn Moore and Deema Kaneff, CREES.
Annamaria Kiss is an LISS DTP ESRC-funded doctoral researcher based at King’s College London. Annamaria’s work examines high-risk transnational activism and Russian Perceptions of Transnational Armed Mobilisation. Annamaria is supervised by Samuel Greene at KCL and Cerwyn Moore at CREES, University of Birmingham.
Aleksandre Kvakhadze is an ESRC-funded doctoral researcher. His research focuses on violent social movements and transnational activism, examining volunteers from the Caucasus who have participated in hostilities in Syria. He has published work on these and related issues in journals, including Perspectives on Terrorism, and Caucasus Survey, while he also has an extensive record of policy work.
Yuxiang Lin’s doctoral work seeks to explain the exception and ongoing success of the Bulgarian conservative political party GERB (Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria) over the past two decades. Based on one year’s fieldwork in Bulgaria during which time interviews were conducted with relevant political figures across the country, the study aims to address the wider issue of party politics in eastern Europe and why some parties are short lived while others endure. Yuxiang is co-supervised by Tim Haughton and Deema Kaneff, both from CREES.
Leonid Nersisyan is a Gulbenkian Foundation funded doctoral researcher. His research focuses on irregular warfare in Nagorno-Karabakh, and his general areas of research interest include defence analysis, arms control, armed conflict, foreign and military policy in Russia and the CIS region. He has published work on these and related issues in journals and an edited collection (in Russian) while he also has an extensive record of policy work.