Broderick McDonald is a Research Fellow at Kings College London’s XCEPT Research

I am a doctoral student at Merton College. I am researching the kind of people (in terms of sociodemographic characteristics, with a particular focus on education, former occupation, and class) who act as politicians in modern Britain, testing whether they are the kind of people whom Britons want to act as their representatives (at the experimental and electoral levels), and exploring what British politicians publicise - and don't publicise - about themselves with regard to the sociodemographic characteristics listed above.

I received my DPhil (PhD) from the Department of Politics and International Relations in May 2025. 

My thesis, Back to the Homeland: The Politics of Return Migration in Mexico 1929 to 2018, explored how the Mexican government has managed flows of return migration from the U.S to Mexico and the processes that have shaped Mexico's management preferences over time. My thesis was supervised by Professor David Doyle. 

Cecilia started her DPhil in International Relations at Oxford in 2019. Her research interest lies in the areas of global governance, humanitarian action and global health. For her DPhil project, Cecilia investigates the causes of competition and cooperation failures among UN agencies operating in humanitarian emergencies.