Week beginning 21st October 2024 :Online meeting 1:  Introduction to the programme 

Week beginning 25th November 2024 : Online workshop 1: on research methods development 

Week beginning 9th December 2024: Online workshop 2: research outputs, dissemination and impact 

Week beginning 13th January 2025: Online meeting 2: Preparing for inperson workshop 

Week beginning 3rd February 2025: In person workshop, University of Johannesburg

We are currently accepting applications for the second cohort of workshop participants. The deadline for the current call is 4th October 2024. Applications should be submitted via this link: Apply 

Chris is professor and SARChI Chair of African Diplomacy and Foreign Policy at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), and Senior Associate at the UJ School of Leadership. He is the former Head of politics and International Relations at UJ. Landsberg was educated at Rand Afrikaans University (now University of Johannesburg); Rhodes; and Oxford, and holds MPhil and DPhil international relations degrees (Oxon). He studied as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, and is a former Hamburg Fellow at Stanford University in the United States (US). Previously he was director of the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) in Johannesburg, and co-founder and former co-director of the Centre for Africa's International Relations at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. He is a co-editor of seven books, including From Cape to Congo: Southern Africa's Emerging Security Challenges, South Africa in Africa: The Post-Apartheid Era. Landsberg’s single-authored titles include The Diplomacy of Transformation: South African Foreign Policy and Statecraft; and The Quiet Diplomacy of Transition: International Politics and South Africa's Transition.

Dr Lena Rethel will give the keynote address to Workshop 2: Writing for Publication.

Dr Rethel is an Associate Professor of International Political Economy in the Department of Politics and International Studies, and the Director of the Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation at the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. Her research has been grounded primarily in insights from the Southeast Asia region. Her current research examines the growth of transnational Islamic economic flows and their governance and is funded by a Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust. She has widely published on Islamic Finance and Global Governance. Her books include The Political Economy of Financial Development in Malaysia (Routledge), The Everyday Political Economy of Southeast Asia (co-edited with Juanita Elias, Cambridge University Press), Global Governance in Crisis (co-edited with Andre Broome and Liam Clegg) and The Problem with Banks (co-authored with Timothy J. Sinclair). In 2016-17, Lena was a Fung Global Fellow at Princeton University and in 2017-18 a Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. Lena currently serves as the lead editor of the Review of International Political Economy and is a founding co-editor of I-PEEL.org: The International Political Economy of Everyday Life.

Emily began her academic career in social policy before specialising in criminology. In the early 2000's she was employed by the University of Oxford to examine the impact of 'intensive supervision' on a cohort of persistent and serious young offenders in England and Wales. It was this subject that eventually became the focus of her doctoral thesis, which sought to identify the long-term effect of the disposal as the respective cohort entered adulthood. The study combined longitudinal statistical analyses on a national data-set with biographical interviews on a discrete regional sample.

Since then Emily's work has diversified to examine the relationship between crime, social policy, and politics. She is particularly interested in how political leadership impacts our experience and attitudes toward crime and criminal justice. These projects have led to a series of interdisciplinary academic publications, as well as two short films.

Her broader work (funded by the ESRC, the Youth Justice Board, The Police Knowledge Fund) has focused on emotional responses to crime, young people and organised crime, and restorative policing.

She joined the University of Derby in 2019, after holding posts at the University of Sheffield, Keele University, and the University of Oxford. 

Prof. Kamil Ometeso will give the keynote presentation to Workshop 3: Career Development for Researchers and Project management.

Prof. Ometeso is PVC-Dean of the College of Business, Law and Social Sciences, at the University of Derby. 

As Dean, he provides executive leadership for the College. He is also responsible for driving change, growth and sustainability across the College and its component Schools.

As a Pro Vice-Chancellor, he supports University-wide initiatives, programmes and projects. He is the executive lead on the University’s Access and Participation Efforts.

Prof. Ometeso began his academic career in 2001 at Lagos State University, Nigeria, after six years of working in different accounting and auditing roles in both public and private sectors. Between 2003 and 2013, he held different academic positions including Principal Lecturer and the Director of Postgraduate Programmes in Accounting at De Montfort University, Leicester. Prior to joining the University of Derby, he was the Head of the School of Economics, Finance and Accounting at Coventry University. He is the Chair of the Centre for African Resources Research and Development.

Prof. Ometeso sits on the Council of Chartered Association of Business School (Chartered ABS). 

Before working at Leeds University, Charlie held positions at the LSE, Warwick and Manchester where he developed an interest in exploring international political economy through small business policy. 

Until the financial crash he actively pursued engagement in policy debates. My work was recognised in UK government responses to Select Committees (on the value of social science research), in FCO publicity materials (Turkish Lisbon Agenda project) and in his appointment as expert for the Economic and Social Committee opinion on the EU Commission's proposal for a Single Market for a C21st Europe and in projects won with the TUC to help develop Trade Union capacity in Turkey for the FCO.

After the 2008 crisis he chaired a 400 scholar EU wide network on the systemic causes of the financial crash that explored new phenomena (eg shadow banking) and old (variates of capitalism) through new lenses (eg agent based modelling) and established critiques against mainstream economic thinking (cultural political economy). Since then he has been exploring the economic production of non-quantitative forms of value and their expression in post crash politics. This has included projects comparing how value was constituted in social investment policies with open water swimming in an ISRF funded network project and a showing how the construction of human value used in the EU's Capital Market Union strategies chimed with practices used in C18th slavery (Dannreuther & Kessler 2017). 

Charlie is Chair of the European Association of Evolutionary Political Economy and is a committed teacher.  He convenes modules in Leeds which help students become researcher-practitioners and researcher-activists, embedded in, and making a difference to their local economy.

Riana Coetsee is currently the Group Manager & Head: International & Early Career Research Grants at Stellenbosch University. She did her postgraduate studies at the Université de Nantes, France (Diplôme d'Études Supérieures, with distinction) and Stellenbosch University (Master's degree, cum laude) in French. Among other, she held the positions of Interim Regional Manager of the Africa Office for the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trial Partnership (EDCTP) of the European Union, and Executive Director of the South Africa-USA Fulbright Commission. She also served as an advisor to the South African Minister of Science and Technology with regard to international science and technology agreements. A recipient of the Rector's Award for Professional Excellence, the United States Government Distinguished International Visitor's Award and the United Nations' award to participate in the UN International Leadership Academy Programme in Jordan, Riana has developed a full-day workshop for researchers on grant proposal writing, in English and French respectively, which has been offered at international conferences and at various tertiary and research institutions across the world. She wrote a chapter on grant proposal writing in the book, Get Ready…Get set..Go! (SUNMedia 2017) aimed at doctoral students and supervisors.

Peter leads on the RED fund which invests in university-level innovations in research and knowledge exchange.  To-date over £90M has been invested in over 60 projects which can be viewed on the Research England website.  Prior to Research England, Peter held a number of policy roles in the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), often involving funding developmental activities in universities.  These included implementing new capital funding for research facilities, and leading a programme for universities to upskill employees in the workforce.

Chrispas joined the University of Derby in October 2021. Prior to this, he worked at Canterbury Christchurch University (Reader in International Commercial law) and the University of Bedfordshire (Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in Law). He is also a Visiting Professor of Law at Makerere University. He has to-date held a number of leadership positions in Higher Education (Postgraduate Portfolio Leader, Director of Research, REF leadership, Acting Head of School etc), supervised several PhD students to successful completion and authored (and co-authored) over 40 publications (books, chapters and journal papers). This includes “The International Investment Agreements of the IGAD Member States” (Wildy, Simmonds & Hill Publishing, 2019) and “Towards a New World Economic Order: Proposal for a Pan-African Investment Court” in Emilia Onyema “Rethinking the Role of African National Courts in Arbitration” (Kluwer Law International, 2018). His peer-reviewed articles have been published in prestigious journals such as the Journal of Business Law, International Arbitration Law Review, North Carolina Journal of International Law etc. He regularly receives invitations to speak at national and international events (over 20 countries around the world) concerning all aspects of International Commercial Law. Some of these engagements have included addressing audiences such as the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UCITRAL) (2019); the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) (2018); SOAS Arbitration in Africa Conferences in Egypt (2017), Rwanda (2018) and Tanzania (2019); the East African Community (EAC) (2019); the Inaugural African Arbitration Academy Lecture (2019) etc. He on the EAC Panel of Experts for the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA) negotiations. He is a member of a taskforce constituted by the Djibouti Chamber of Commerce and supported by the IGAD and its respective Member States for the establishment of an International Arbitration and Mediation Centre for the Horn of Africa. Between 2018-2019, he led the Ugandan delegation during the EAC Investment Policy 2019-2024 negotiations. He regularly peer-reviews articles for journals including the International Journal of Economic Law, International Company and Commercial Law Review (Sweet & Maxwell) and International Trade Law and Regulation (Sweet & Maxwell). Chrispas’ the current Chairperson of the Arbitration Fund for African Students (AFAS), a UK registered Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) founded by Professor Emilia Onyema (SOAS) and constituted in 2019 for the purpose of capacity building by advancing education in the knowledge, skills, techniques, use and methods of arbitration in Africa.

Dr. Moses Okech is an International Development professional with over 15 years’ experience in Consultancy, Research, Lecturing and Livelihoods Programming. He has recently worked on refugee livelihoods as the Technical Coordinator for Economic Recovery and Development at the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Uganda. He has conducted a number of development consultancies for reputable organizations including The World Bank, Overseas Development Institute, GIZ, CRS and Bank of Uganda, among others. His professional background includes working on financial inclusion with Equity Bank, CARE International and lecturing at Leeds Beckett University in the United Kingdom. Moses holds a PhD in Political Economy of Development from Leeds Beckett University (UK), Masters in International Development Management from the University of Bradford (UK), a Postgraduate Diploma in Project Planning and Management from Uganda Management Institute and a BA Hons. (Social Sciences) from Makerere University. Moses is an Associate Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy. Currently, he is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow with Uganda Martyrs University (Uganda) in partnership with Northumbria University (UK).