IDS celebrated winter graduation with 48 Masters students and four Doctoral researchers, all of whom returned to Brighton to receive their certificates from IDS Director Melissa Leach and the University of Sussex Chancellor Sanjeev Bhaskar.
Image: IDS graduands wrote on a whiteboard a short statement of what they are working for and towards as part of the #IDSGrad Twitter campaign.
This year the winter graduation saw IDS and Sussex return to the Brighton Centre in what was the first of a five year run. Located on the Kings Road, Brighton, the venue was gifted with the iconic backdrop of Brighton beach and the pier. IDS graduands joined course convenors, lecturers, teaching and alumni staff at a pre-ceremony reception in one of the unique seafront venues, where the atmosphere of anticipation and joyous reunions set the scene for a memorable day.
Development leaders of tomorrow
Professor Melissa Leach, congratulated all the graduands saying “You are our development leaders of tomorrow, and our challenging world of inequalities, unsustainability and insecurity needs you more than ever. Go forth and transform it”
IDS graduates shared their development commitments and passions in a @IDSAlumni twitter photo campaign celebrating the diversity of our students and alumni. Graduates posed with an #IDSGrad white board and shared what they are currently ‘working for…’ This year’s cohort are already actively contributing to transformations in Turkey and Bangladesh, the US and the Middle East through working for social protection; social justice; liberty and civil rights; youth participation in social change; gender and entrepreneurship in conflict zones; food justice; fair trade; and sustainability and progress amongst others.
The IDS Alumni Network
With alumni in over 125 countries we look forward to continuing the #IDSGrad ‘working for…’ campaign to share and celebrate the reach and impact that IDS Alumni are already having. The IDS alumni network – a body of people who share the capacity to think critically, challenge orthodoxies and unpick assumptions – is a valued and critical part of the IDS community, linking past students with IDS and each other.
Our latest Doctors of Philosophy
Alia Aghajanian, for the thesis; Social capital and conflict: impact and implications
Lídia Cabral, for the thesis; Priests, technicians and traders: actors, interests and discursive politics in Brazil’s agricultural development cooperation programmes with Mozambique
Marika Djolai, for the thesis: When the rooftops became red again: post war community dynamics in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Rachel Godfrey-Wood, for the thesis; An ethnographic study of the relationship between the Renta Dignidad and wellbeing in the Bolivian Altiplano
Studying at IDS
Postgraduate studies have been central to IDS for over 50 years, and we offer seven specialised MAs and a PhD programme. IDS’ teaching and learning is shaped by our distinctive ‘engaged excellence’ approach. This means working in partnership with those at the heart of the change we wish to see, including policymakers, civil society, activists and practitioners, to produce and mobilise rigorous and operationally relevant research and evidence.
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