King’s Department of International Development has appointed Professor Laura Camfield as its new Head.

Professor Camfield comes to King’s from the University of East Anglia, where she was a Professor of Development Research and Evaluation, with six years’ experience as Head of the School of Global Development.

King’s Professor Clare Herrick, Head of the School of Global Affairs said she was delighted to welcome Professor Camfield to the School and Department.

“Laura has an exceptional research profile in the fields of wellbeing, poverty and resilience, and children and young people, as well as research ethics. I am sure I speak for all my colleagues when I say how pleased we are that Laura has agreed to join us, and we look forward to a long and successful period for the Department under her leadership.”

Professor Camfield takes over a department on the rise, as the latest global university rankings has Development Studies at King’s College London leaping from 50th to 30th place.*

This is alongside strong performance in undergraduate and postgraduate satisfaction surveys and growing student numbers on its BA in International Development, as well as master’s courses in Development Studies, Emerging Economies and International Development, and Political Economies of Emerging Markets.

This year it also launches a new online, part-time MSc in International Development, supported by four scholarships. This will make its innovative research and pedagogy accessible worldwide.

In terms of research, the Department at King’s has particular strengths in political economy, poverty, inequality, gender, and social justice, grounded in deep contextual knowledge from Brazil, India, China and South Africa, as well as much of Latin America, East and Southeast Asia and parts of Africa and the Middle East.

Professor Camfield said: “Coming from a development institution that celebrated its 50^th to one that is only in its second decade feels like an incredible opportunity. The distinctive agenda set by DID in 2012, which focused on the dynamic countries of the global South where wealth sits alongside persistent poverty and precarity, and traditional aid is no longer significant, is undeniably relevant.

“Now global inequality sits alongside stagnation, populism, and the challenges of climate change, and our critical scholars explore how to address this.”

Professor Camfield is a council member for the two main organizations for development studies, the European Association of Research and Training Institutes and the UK Development Studies Association. She has served on the International Accreditation Council for master’s in development studies.

 

*The Quacquarelli Symonds Top Universities guide is an annual score of the world’s leading universities, ranking them at an institutional level and by a range of subjects. The rating considers research and teaching and is the only ranking emphasising employability.