Global South Research Group

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

25 September: Discussion - Decolonising/decentring teaching (tbc). Jeroen Gunning

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

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

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.

2026

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

26 March: Forest governance and researching power. Rose Pinnington.

14 May: Racial capitalism: Perspectives from Pashtun Tahafuz Movement and Black Lives Matter. Maria Tirmiz.

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

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

Past events

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 - 3.30-5pm BHNE 9.03

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 - 16.00 - 17.00, BH NE 8.19

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.