The Global South Research Group brings together scholars engaged in research on international political and economic trends, non-European perspectives, and south-south comparisons.
The group is immensely diverse in terms of geographical focus and disciplinary expertise. It includes economists, theorists, historical institutionalists, political sociologists and quantitative political scientists.

Dr Portia Roelofs and Dr Jonathan Leader Maynard are co-directors for the 2025/26 academic year. Professor Jeroen Gunning was the director for the 2024/25 academic year. 

Research Areas

• Revolutions and political movements
• Markets, culture and transnational governance
• Education policy
• Peace, conflict and tolerance
• Racism
• Religious mobilizations
• Justice
• Inequality
• Institutions and aid
• Political Ideology and identity

Upcoming events

All workshops in person on Wednesdays, 11-12.30, in Bush House North East 8.19 unless otherwise stated.

Semester 1:

8 October: Dr Jojo Nem Singh, Sussex.

22 October: Dr Olivia Cheung, KCL.

19 November: Cristina Ramirez, DPE KCL

26 November (15.30 - 17.00, BH NE 9.03) Dr Guoer Liu, UC San Diego. DPE Departmental Seminar

3 December: Dr Zeynep Bulutgil, UCL

Semester 2:

28 January: Dr Ammar Shamaileh, Doha Institute for Graduate Studies.

11 February: Dr Kofi Gunu, Boston University.

11th March: Dr Tariq Dana, Doha Institute for Graduate Studies.

18 March (15.30 - 17.00, BH NE 9.03) Prof Karuna Mantena, Columbia. DPE Departmental Seminar. Co-hosted with Political Theory Research Group.

25 March: Dr Aparna Ravi, UCL.

1 April: Dr Michael Odijie, Oxford.

Summer term

13 May (15.30 - 17.00, BH NE 9.03) Prof Adom Getachow, Chicago. DPE Departmental Seminar. Co-hosted with Political Theory Research Group.

Past events

2024-2025 academic year:

2024

25 September: Discussion - Decolonising/decentring teaching. Led by Prof Jeroen Gunning, KCL    

9 October: GS Departmental Seminar - 'Passing the Colonial Baton in Palestine: The British Mandate, Racial Militarism, and the Permissibility of Violence'. Dr Jasmine Gani, LSE.            

18 October: Politics of the Global South (London collective) Workshop: Towards decolonial research practices – fieldwork ethics, extraction and inclusivity             

23 October: The organisational dimension of network governance: bureaucratic capacity and environmental decentralisation in Colombia. Santiago Quintero, PhD Candidate, DPE KCL.            

6 November: Authoritarian Planning: speculation, spectral infrastructure, and extractivism in Angola. Prof Jon Schubert, Basel.     

28 November: Decolonising Journeys in Research and Evaluation. Pradeep Narayan.           

4 December: Beyond a Western Narrative of Terrorism: The Case of Egypt (1952-2011) from a Postcolonial Perspective. Lujain Al-Meligy, PhD Candidate DPE KCL.  

2025         

19 March: GS Departmental Seminar - 'The mobilization role of parliaments under autocratization'. Prof Rochana Bajpai, SOAS.             

26 March: Forest governance and researching power. Dr Rose Pinnington, KCL.       

14 May: Racial capitalism: Perspectives from Pashtun Tahafuz Movement and Black Lives Matter. Maria Tirmiz, PhD Candidate, DPE KCL.            

28 May: Caregiving at the centre of empire and the contemporary world order. Dr Shalini Grover, LSE.           

11 June: The value of difference: encounters between Hindus and Muslims in Karachi, Pakistan. Dr Ammara Maqsood, UCL.    

23/24 academic year

2023

11 October: Equality or Justice? Debates in South Asian Thought. Presenter: Professor Humeira Iqtidar. Discussant: Dr Poornima Paidipaty.

15 November: “Theorising Police Fetishism: From Revolutionary Egypt to Black Lives Matter”. Presenter: Dr Mike Farquhar. Discussant: Dr Sarah Bufkin.

29 November: Which Political Conditions Underlie the Success and Failure of Equity-Enhancing Reforms? Evidence from Brazil. Presenter: Daniel H. Alves. Discussant: Dr Jonathan Leader Maynard.

2024

24 January: Dr Claire Crawford, DPE, KCL and Dr Aasim Khan, IIIT-Delhi
Theorising the “Digital South”: Resisting a statist discourse.

7 February: Guest presenter: Dr Julia Chukwuma- Lecturer in Economics, Open University. Public-Private Partnerships and the Financialisation of Healthcare in the Global South.

21 February: Global South Departmental Seminar. Dr Edalina Sanchez – Lisbon
Political representation Africa: Insights from the case of Ghana.

6 March: Prof Amrita Dhillon, DPE, KCL. The political economy of activism. Discussant: Dr James Scott, DPE, KCL.

20 March: Dr Devika Dutt and Dr Ingrid Kvangraven - KCL Dept. International Development. Decolonising Economics: Theory and Pedagogy. Discussant: Dr Maia King, DPE, KCL.

25 March: PhD Seminar. Co-hosted with the Contemporary Marxism Research Group. Diego Macias Woitrin, PhD Researcher, EIS, KCL
Workers’ organising in Mexican export-agriculture: building farmworkers’ power amidst informality along Global Commodity Chains.

Other events:

25 October, 2023: Alternatives to War: Voices for Peace and Justice in Palestine and Israel. Speakers: Mariam Barghouti; Rabbi Jeremy Milgrom; Yara Eid; Dr Imad Karam; and Prof Robert Wintemute.

6 November, 2023: Brazilian Inequalities: Identifying Challenges, Seizing Opportunities. Joint webinar with INSPER, São Paulo
Presenters: Dr Andreza Aruska de Souza Santos and Dr Alysson Portella.