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Congratulations, Dr. Engelbert!

After successful defense of her PhD Thesis on Tuesday, November 29, 2016, Annika Engelbert from Bochum, Germany, has been awarded the degree of a Philosophiae Doctor (Ph.D.). Her thesis on "Public Procurement Law in Sub-Saharan Africa - a means to curb corruption?" was supervised by Prof. Dr. Markus Kaltenborn and Prof. Dr. Christof Hartmann. Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Löwenstein chaired the oral exam.

2016-12 Annika-Engelbert
Prof. Christof Hartmann, Prof. Wilhelm Löwenstein, Annika Engelbert, Prof. Markus Kaltenborn

Congratulations, Annika!

PhD Student Themba Nyasulu has won this year’s global "Microeconomics of Competitiveness" Team Project Competition

2016-11 ThembaNyasuluThemba Nyasulu, member of the PhD IDS and Research Cluster 1, has most successfully participated in the course "Microeconomics of Competitiveness" (MOC) offered by Prof. Kiese (RUB, Institute of Geography). Together with three other fellow students from the Institute of Geography and the Faculty of Management and Economics he co-edited a paper on ‘The Frankfurt Financial Service Cluster’ and participated in the MOC project competition. The MOC panel of judges at Harvard Business School selected the paper to be the winner of this year’s global paper competition. More than hundred papers from all over the world participated in this competition organised by Harvard’s MOC network, which is led by Prof. Michael Porter. If you want to repeat Themba’s success in the next year, you may register directly for Prof. Kiese’s next MOC course starting 18 April 2017 (email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Welcome to the 10th Intake of the PhD IDS!

With an opening reception on 23rd November, the IEE welcomed the latest intake of the PhD programme in International Development Studies (PhD IDS). The interdisciplinary, structured PhD programme offered at the IEE was first launched in 2007. In the shadow of the IEE’s 50th birthday, we are thus celebrating yet another small anniversary in 2016: the 10th intake of the PhD IDS programme! This year, four full members and eight associate members were newly admitted to the PhD IDS Programme.

2016-11 PhDIDS-Opening-Intake2016

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

PhD IDS German-Arab Programme: Autumn School 2016 - Lebanon

Autumn School 'Forced Displacement and Regional politics in the Middle East'

2016-11 Autumn-School smallIn October 2016, the joint Autumn School 'Forced Displacement and Regional politics in the Middle East' took place in Byblos and Beirut, Lebanon. The course was part of the German-Arab Joint Research, Training and Networking Programme 'From Responsibility to Protect to Responsibility to Assist: Conflict, Reconstruction and Sustainable Development in the Middle East' and was jointly organised by the Department of Social Sciences at the Lebanese American University, the UA Ruhr Graduate Centre for Development Studies and the Institute for Development Studies and Development Policy at Ruhr University Bochum. It was funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) as part of the 'Hochschuldialog mit der islamischen Welt'.

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50 Years Institute of Development Research and Development Policy, Alumni Conference & 6th Development Day

On the eve of the Alumni-Conference "Doing Good with Business? Corporate Social Responsibility, Social Entrepreneurship, and Fair Trade" the IEE celebrated its 50th anniversary. IEE Alumni, starting from the founding generation, current institute members, students and partners met for an event which included a keynote speech of Prof. Christof Hartmann on Perspectives of Democracy in the Global South as well as a review of the institute’s activities over the last 50 years.

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Workshop on "Reintegration into Domestic Job Markets – Vietnam"

On September 9th and 10th 2016, the third workshop on "Reintegration into Domestic Job Markets – Vietnam" was held at the Vietnamese-German Center at the Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST) in Hanoi.

The event was organized and facilitated by a team from the Institute of Development Research and Development Policy.

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International Alumni Conference from 9-11 of November 2016

The Institute of Development Research and Development Policy (IEE) of Ruhr-University Bochum (Germany) is happy to host the international conference:

"Doing Good with Business?
Corporate Social Responsibility, Social Entrepreneurship, and Fair Trade"

taking place 9-11 of November 2016.

On three days, approximately 200 conference participants – practitioners, researchers, and students – discuss different approaches which aim at improving the social and environmental effects of production standards and business models: Corporate Social Responsibility, Fair Trade, and Social Entrepreneurship. Diverse questions are addressed, like to which extent those approaches actually fulfil the expectations set in them, whether they are economically viable, what the dominant current challenges as well as the prospects for future developments of these concepts are.

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Congratulations Dr. Chattoraj!

After successful defense of her PhD Thesis on Monday, April 25, 2016, Diotima Chattoraj from Kolkata, India, has been awarded the degree of a Philosophiae Doctor (Ph.D.).

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IEE PhD Students join the ISS

IEE-Students Raffael Beier and Britta Holzberg were accepted for the joint programme of the ISS and the Ruhr-University Bochum. On side of the ISS, Raffael’s PhD project will be co-supervised by Erhard Berner and Sylvia Bergh and promoted by Irene van Staveren; Britta’s PhD project will be co-supervised by Peter Knorringa.

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Cluster 2 organised a panel at DSA 2016, Oxford

Research Cluster 2 at the Institute of Development Research and Development Policy organised the panel 'The regional politics of forced displacement in the Middle East' at the Development Studies Association Conference 2016, 13-14 September 2016, in Oxford.

The panel was chaired by the cluster members Jasmin Fritzsche, Loubna Abi Khalil and Raffael Beier, and addressed the questions and problems that shape the local response to the Syrian refugee crisis in light of the regional political environment.

Cluster member Assem Abi Ali presented his paper `The Challenge of Syrian Refugee Settlement on Lebanese Consociationalism`.