Maria Pereira da Costa

I am an International Relations DPhil candidate at Balliol College. My research examines how Lusophone African liberation movements engaged with the international system, particularly through the United Nations, to challenge Portuguese colonialism and the broader imperial order. Relying on archival research and interviews, my project highlights African political agency and the role of liberation diplomacy in the process of decolonisation. Fieldwork is being carried out in Maputo, Luanda, Praia, São Tomé and Lisbon.

Kendall Gardner

Kendall is a Marshall Scholar from the United States and a third-year DPhil in Politics candidate at the University of Oxford. Her doctoral research is in political theory, focusing on the relationship between climate-related land loss and liberalism. Specifically, she employs a critical methodology to challenge liberal theories of property and sovereignty through a "destabilised" land variable.

Exploring Transgender Politics: A Conversation with Catharine A. MacKinnon

Exploring Transgender Politics: A Conversation with Catharine A. MacKinnon with commentary by Clare Chambers, Sandra Fredman, and Mischa Shuman.

Professor Catharine A. MacKinnon is the Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at Michigan Law and the long-term James Barr Ames Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. She specialises in sex equality issues under international and domestic (including comparative, criminal, and constitutional) law.

PLP Colloquium: Catharine A. MacKinnon, 'Rape Redefined'

Rape Redefined: Kate O'Regan (Law) engages with Catharine A. MacKinnon.

Professor Catharine A. MacKinnon is the Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at Michigan Law and the long-term James Barr Ames Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. She specializes in sex equality issues under international and domestic (including comparative, criminal, and constitutional) law.

Kate O'Regan, the inaugural director of the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, will be opening the discussion.

Nature as an Asset or Nature as a Subject of Rights: Which way for addressing the global biodiversity crisis?

In 2021 and 2022, two high-level academic reports concerning the way humanity should deal with the fate of biodiversity were published: 'The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review' and the IPBES 'Assessment on Diverse Values and Valuation of Nature'. The former conceptualises nature as an asset, while the latter acknowledges a wide diversity of ways of conceiving of and valuing nature. As an expression of such diversity, for an increasing number of people across the globe, ecosystems should hold legal personhood as a way of gaining protection.

Economic Diversification in Nigeria: The Politics of Building a Post-Oil Economy

Nigeria has for long been regarded as the poster child for the ‘curse’ of oil wealth. Yet, despite this, Nigeria achieved strong economic growth for over a decade in the 21st century, driven largely by policy reforms in non-oil sectors. In “Economic Diversification in Nigeria: The Politics of Building a Post-Oil Economy,” Zainab Usman argues that Nigeria’s major development challenge is not the ‘oil curse’, but rather one of achieving economic diversification beyond oil, subsistence agriculture, informal activities, and across its subnational entities.
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