Dr Roelofs is a Lecturer in Politics in the Department of Political Economy. She has degrees from Oxford, SOAS and LSE. She has held post-doctoral fellowships at the LSE and St Anne’s College, Oxford. She has been a visiting researcher at the universities of Maiduguri and Ibadan, Nigeria. She sits on the editorial board of the African Arguments book series. Dr Roelofs has served on the council of the African Studies Association UK (2020-2024) and as co-convenor of the Political Studies Association Special Group on Global Development Politics (2020-2025). She is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy and convened the Global South Research Group 2023-24 and 2025-26. 

In 2026-27, Portia is the GTA co-ordinator for the Department of Political Economy and a committee member of the department's Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

Her personal website can be found here.

Office hours

Tuesday 13.30-14.30 in person

Thursday: 11.30-12.30 online

Bookable here or drop in for in person: https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/?anonymous&ismsaljsauthenabled

Research

Dr Roelofs’ research lies at the intersection of development studies, African politics and political theory. Her work brings a critical approach to questions of governance, democracy and accountability, and problematises the methodologies and political-economies that shape knowledge production in these fields.

Dr Roelofs’ book Good governance in Nigeria: Rethinking accountability and transparency in the twenty-first century draws on in-depth qualitative fieldwork in southwest Nigeria to propose new, socially-embedded conceptions of accountability and transparency. She has convened workshops and panels on ideas, ideology and values in African politics.

Dr Roelofs’ ongoing research explores new frontiers of privatisation, looking how new configurations of public and private actors, and states and markets, are shaping governance whether in the UK, Nigeria or beyond. This research focuses on two themes: the role of management consultants in government and public-private partnerships (PPPs). Her emerging research agenda takes the idea of face-to-face accountability, commonly referred to as ‘accessibility’, derived from her fieldwork in Nigeria, and applies it to the dilemmas of contemporary British political economy and democratic disaffection.

She also has interests in the politics of public sector reform, parties and ideology, elite social networks, the politics of knowledge production, and the possibilities for decolonising the study of politics and development.

Teaching

For the 2026-27 academic year Dr Roelofs will be convening:

• 5SSPP266 Introduction to Climate Policy
• 6SSPP404 African Politics: Ideas and Issues
• LISS377 Knowledge Production in and about Africa (Doctoral Course)

Dr Roelofs has previously taught:

• 6SSPP358 Politics of Trade
• 5SSPP African Political Economy
• 6SSPP392 Political Effects of Climate Change

• 6SSPP375 Race and Racism in Political Theory
• 6SSPP342 International Institutions and Global Governance

PhD supervision

Current PhD students:

• Tobechukwu Nneli - Diaspora Social Media Use and State Legitimacy in Nigeria
• Chibuikem Ugo-Ngadi
• Will Edmonds
• Maria Tirmizi

Dr Roelofs is not currently accepting PhD applications.

Publications

Good governance in Nigeria: Rethinking accountability and transparency in the twenty-first century (Cambridge University Press, 2023). Nigerian edition published by Noirledge Publishing, Ibadan August 2024. Reviewed in Democratization, Journal of Modern African Studies, Perspectives on Politics,
Journal of Development Studies. Progress in Development Studies, Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, and LSE Review of Books. Podcast discussion of the book here: Dr Portia Roelofs & Anna Thurl…–Global Development Institute podcast – Apple Podcasts

Large Grant-Funded Research Centres and Concept Generation in Development Research, Journal of Development Studies, Dec 2024 (Online)
DPE Policy brief based on the paper: Against the centralization of development research funding

Hidden contestation: Valence issues, methodological blindness and the politics of development in Nigeria Democratization, Early view 1-24 2024. Blog: African parties are more ideological than you think | Democracy in Africa

Urban renewal in Ibadan, Nigeria: World class but essentially Yoruba. African Affairs, 2021 (open access) 120 (480)

The death of political possibility? Reading State and Society in Nigeria 40 years on. Review of African Political Economy, 2022.

Contesting localisation in interfaith peacebuilding in Northern Nigeria. Oxford Development Studies, 2020. (Open access via this link.)

Making pandemic politics transparent: lessons from Nigeria, Renewal: A Journal of Social Democracy (2020) Vol 28 (3).

Flying in the univer-topia: white people on planes, #RhodesMustFall and climate emergency, Journal of African Cultural Studies, 2019.

Beyond programmatic versus patrimonial politics: Contested conceptions of legitimate distribution in Nigeria. Journal of Modern African Studies, 2019, 57 (3). Blog: Should politicians in Nigeria give money to the poor? | Africa at LSE

Transparency and mistrust: Who or what should be made transparent? Governance, 2019, 32 (3)

Writing for non-academic audiences

The Unintended Effects of Development Research Funding Structures Should be a Europe-wide Conversation | Debating Development Research

Nigerians have a name for what Zohran Mamdani is doing | The Loop

President Tinubu: An Ambivalent Record? | African Arguments

The Solid Facts of a Life | Wasafiri

Clickbait and impact: how academia has been hacked LSE Impact Blog

Consultancy

Civil Society, Religion and the State: Mapping of Borno and Adamawa A Stakeholder Analysis | Prepared for the programme GIZ 'Support for to strengthening resilience in North-East Nigeria' 2017