The 2020 DSA dissertation prize has been awarded to Euan Crispin of the SIID, University of Sheffield, for his work “The Dubai of Africa? Exploring the role of aesthetic representation in the construction of Eko Atlantic City, Lagos”. Euan Crispin will be awarded the prize money of £500.

The DSA has awarded an annual dissertation prize to Masters’ students working in the field of international development, development studies and development economics each year since 2015. The prize is awarded to the best masters’ level dissertation in these fields of study. 

For the 2020 prize, all Development Studies and Economics departments in the UK were invited to submit one MA or MSc dissertation each for consideration. 

Speaking about Euan’s work, the judges said, “Euan’s dissertation, an analysis of the visual images of the Eko Atlantic City development project in Lagos, Nigeria, was exceptional in the way that it bridged visual analysis and architectural analysis on the one hand with urban anthropology, behaviours and political economy at the other. It generated a sound understanding of the complex challenges of urban economic development and how the projection of certain ‘ideal’ ways of living individualises urban lived experiences. We felt the student had taken a rigorous and conscientious approach to the research and through this had produced something truly original, and of near publishable standard“.