Secular imaginaries within the African National Congress in South Africa

Why is it that South Africa has a secular and liberal state, even though its population appears to be mostly religious and socially conservative? This paper studies the African National Congress (ANC) which has dominated electoral politics in the country since 1994. I explore two questions. How is that, despite representing a religious-conservative electorate as a 'people's party', the ANC has openly pursued a secular-liberal legislative agenda? And how is it that, despite pursuing a secular-liberal legislative agenda, the ANC embraces religious rhetoric in the public sphere?

Maria Puolakkainen

I am a DPhil student in Politics at the Department of Politics and International Relations and a member of Nuffield College. My research is motivated by the persistence of extreme economic inequality and I am working on questions on the politics of industrial policies, structural upgrading, and informal labour, with a regional focus on Latin America.

Iuliana Nyerges

Iuliana (Julie) Nyerges is a second year MPhil student in European Politics at Balliol College. Her research focuses on political behaviour, far-right politics, populism and democratic (de)consolidation in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Her Masters thesis analyses voter demand for democratic reconstruction in countries undergoing backsliding, with a focus on Hungary. More broadly, Julie is interested in quantitative and experimental methods, as well as the political consequences of globalisation in Post-Communist EU Member States.

Joseph Ward

I am a DPhil in Political Theory at Corpus Christi College and the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford.

My work sits at the crossroads of intellectual history, black critical theory and methodology in political thought. My DPhil project focuses on the methods used by black scholars after the black studies movement. In particular, I am interested in the twin concepts of 'interdisciplinarity' and 'disciplinarity' and how they have been influential in both normative philosophy and Caribbean history.

Elina M Dilger

I am a broadly educated social scientist who’s research focuses on future-oriented monetary and fiscal policy, with a particular emphasis on climate. As a trained economist and political scientist, I possess a wide skill set ranging from classical quantitative to qualitative and machine learning methods.I joined Oxford as an MPhil student of European Politics and Society in 2023. Before this, I studied Philosophy, Economics and Protestant Theology at the Universities of Bayreuth and Heidelberg, Germany, and the University of Granada, Spain.

Nobel Peace Laureate in Oxford, Juan Manuel Santos Book Launch 'The Battle against Poverty, Colombia: A Case of Leadership’

We are delighted to announce that Juan Manuel Santos, Nobel Peace Laureate and former President of Colombia, who is currently a Visiting Professor at OPHI, will be launching his most recent book in a conversation with Tshering Tobgay, former Prime Minister of Bhutan. This special event will take place on Tuesday, 31st of October 2023, from 5 pm to 6.30 pm at Rhodes House, Oxford.

Governing Market Access: How Index Providers Gatekeep Local Currency Sovereign Debt

A government’s ability to borrow in its own currency is thought to increase control over debt repayments and enhance national policy autonomy. Yet access to local currency bond markets remains relatively limited for many developing countries. In particular, access to a vast pool of passive capital in the market is heavily influenced by index providers that actively curate local currency bond indexes.
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