DSA Council has been honoured to have Naila Kabeer and Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven on the Council, bringing their wealth of experience and insight as well as special support on topics including race, decolonisation and support to our study groups. We thank them for their time on Council and will continue to follow their work.

Their departure from Council is an opportunity to welcome new members and we are delighted that the AGM that took place at DSA2024 saw three new members appointed. After our next council meeting towards the end of the year, we can advise what specific areas these new members will help us with.

Claire Mcloughlin is an Associate Professor of Politics and Development in the International Development Department, University of Birmingham. She is the lead editor of the pathbreaking book The Politics of Development. She has more than 15 years of experience of researching, teaching, and working with aid agencies on development challenges, and established Birmingham’s first undergraduate programmes in development. Claire is best known for her work on the politics of service delivery and its effects on state legitimacy.

Claire said she wanted to be on the DSA Council to help promote its vital work in representing and supporting the development studies community in the UK and beyond. “As a now mid-career scholar, I have ‘grown up’ with the DSA and benefited greatly from the opportunities it provides for researchers to build solidarity networks, share and generate ideas, and enhance their work.” she explained. “I now want to give back. I’ve designed and delivered two successful undergraduate programmes in IDD (Birmingham), and I have a keen interest in enhancing discussions around education and innovative pedagogies in the field of development studies.

Ibrahim Natil is a Research Fellow at the Institute of International Conflict Resolution and Reconstruction at Dublin City University. He taught politics and business at DCU and diplomacy and international relations at Joaan Bin Jasim Academy for Defence Studies and design thinking at the University of Law, UK. Ibrahim is the Co-convenor of DSA’s NGOs in Development Study Group, and at DSA2024 co-convened a panel on interrogating localisation from social justice perspectives. He is also one of the editors of a special issue on the same topic, for Development in Practice journal. (Submissions open to 30 October 2024.)

“It is an honour to be elected a member of the DSA’s council for the coming three years by engaging with colleagues from the academia sector and development in practice to contribute to the DSA’s progress, network, research and administration,” Ibrahim said.

Kamna Patel is Associate Professor, Bartlett Development Planning Unit, UCL.

Kamna has also been the Chair of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Expert Advisory Group for Research England; the Principal Advisor on Race and Diversity for the INGO Christian Aid and served as the inaugural Vice-Dean Equality, Diversity and Inclusion for The Bartlett faculty. Her current research and field of practice concerns the relationships between race and development.

“I had varied encounters with development education and practice throughout my career as a consultant, NGO worker and academic. We’re at a time of profound questions being asked of the discipline and its future, and I want to help make the DSA the best place to drive disciplinary debate and change,” said Kamna.