Dr Susan Dodsworth joins DPIR as the first Political Economy of Democracy Promotion Post Doctoral Fellow

On 20 January Susan Dodsworth joined the Department of Politics and International Relations as the first Political Economy of Democracy Promotion Post Doctoral Fellow. 

The Political Economy of Democracy Promotion research project is a new and exciting collaboration between the Department of Politics and International Relations of Oxford University and the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, which is the main democracy promotion organization of the UK, funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) of the UK government.  The project is designed to draw on the analytical strengths of the DPIR and the experience of the WFD over the last ten years to identify key lessons regarding the conditions under which democracy promotion activities are succesful, and how such interventions can be improved.

Dr Nic Cheeseman is the lead investigator for the Political Economy of Democracy Promotion project on the Oxford side.

Susan arrives fresh from reading for a doctorate in Political Science at McGill University, where she researched the political impact of the provision of budget support by international donors to governments in sub-Saharan Africa, conducting fieldwork in Malawi, Uganda and Zambia. Susan also has a background in law and a Masters in Development Studies from Uppsala University in Sweden, and therefore brings a range of valuable skills to the project.