PhD IDS: Welcome to the 15th Cohort

The IEE welcomes the 15th cohort of the PhD programme in International Development Studies (PhD IDS). This interdisciplinary structured PhD programme offered at the IEE was first launched in 2007.

The new PhD candidates and their projects

This year, six full members were newly admitted to the PhD IDS programme. We are glad that we were able to nominate two of them, Camilo Ucrós and Ricardo Paris, for the “Graduate School Scholarship Programme" (GSSP) of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Both of them were successful and ultimately selected by the DAAD for the 3-year scholarship. Congratulations to both!

The other new PhD IDS students, Irene Among, Akua Martinson, Muhammad Saleh and Natalia Zakharchenko, are Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) of the European Joint Doctorate, ADAPTED, which is coordinated by the IEE. They were selected in a competitive selection process based on a literature review about one of the 15 pre-defined ADAPTED projects, their qualifications, EU-specific requirements, and an interview conducted with the ADAPTED management team and the two supervisors of the specific ADAPTED research project. Each ESR will spend a minimum period of six months at one partner university; that is, one of the six European universities that are part of the ADAPTED consortium. The partner university will award a joint degree together with the IEE at the RUB based on project-specific binational agreements (cotutelles de these).

Please find further information on all six new PhD students below:

Camilo Ucrós from Colombia holds a Master of Science in Economic Development and Growth from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and a Master in Public Policy and Program Evaluation from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain. For his PhD, he will work on the topic “Political ecologies of peacebuilding and combatant reintegration in Colombia”. His project will be supervised by PD. Dr. Christian Gudehus from the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict (IFHV), RUB.

Ricardo Paris from Brazil completed his Master in Development Planning and Management at the TU Dortmund, Germany, and at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana. During his PhD studies, he will do research on the topic “Assessing the influence of urban planning and territorial strategies on regional food systems”. His PhD project will be supervised by Jun. Prof. Dr. Andreas Rienow from the Institute of Geography located at RUB.

Irene Among from Uganda completed the Master of Science programme in International Development at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. She holds a second Master degree in Public Administration and Management from the Makerere University, Uganda. Irene’s research project is on “Building coherent social protection systems” and part of ADAPTED. Her supervisors are Prof. Dr. Markus Kaltenborn (RUB) and Prof. Dr. Andrew Fischer (Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands).

Akua Martinson from Ghana graduated with a Master of Science in Development Economics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, United Kingdom. Her PhD project is part of ADAPTED and examines “The effects of governmentally enforced minimum wages on formal sector employment”. This research is supervised by Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Löwenstein (RUB) and Prof. Dr. Rémi Bazillier (Centre d’Economie de la Sorbonne, University Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne, UP1, Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, France).

Muhammad Saleh from Pakistan holds a Master in Economics from the University of the Punjab, Pakistan, and a Master in Development Studies from the Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands. In the context of ADAPTED, he will work on the project “The effect of foreign direct investment and official development assistance on job creation and poverty reduction”. He will be supervised by Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Löwenstein (RUB) and Prof. Dr. Lisa Chauvet (Centre d’Economie de la Sorbonne, University Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne, Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, France).

Natalia Zakharchenko from Kyrgyzstan completed the Master in Law and Politics of International Security at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands, and the Master of Arts Politics and Security at the OSCE Academy, Kyrgyzstan. Her PhD project within ADAPTED deals with “Rights-based social assistance schemes” and will be supervised by Prof. Dr. Markus Kaltenborn (RUB) and Prof. Dr. Galina Cornelisse (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands).

We wish all of our new PhD candidates much success for their doctoral studies and research projects!

Current state of the programme

Including the 2021 cohort, the PhD IDS currently hosts 35 full members and 8 active associates. Full members accomplish their doctorates at the IEE with a PhD degree in International Development Studies. Associates receive a doctorate from their respective faculty—either the RUB or one of the IEE's partner universities.

In the past 12 months, one PhD IDS candidate, Mariana Vilmondes from Brazil, completed her doctorate at the IEE.

Since the beginning of the programme in 2007, the PhD IDS degree has been awarded to 33 members.

Dr. Christina Seeger
PhD IDS Coordinator