Our Team

Dr. Harry Verhoeven

Founder and Convenor

Senior Adviser at the European Institute of Peace, Associate Member of the Department of Politics & International Relations, University of Oxford, and Editor of the Cambridge University Press book series on Intelligence and National Security in Africa and the Middle East

Nicolas Lippolis

Co-Convenor

Nicolas Lippolis is a doctoral candidate in Politics, as well as a researcher at the Oxford Martin Programme on African Governance and the Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford. His thesis research deals with the politics of industrial policy in Ethiopia and Angola. His broader interests are in development strategies, industrial policy, business-government relations, and the international political economy of development, with a regional focus on Africa and Latin America, as well as on China-Africa relations.

Prof. Ricardo Soares de Oliveira

Patron

Professor of the International Politics of Africa, Department of Politics & International Relations, University of Oxford

Yaowen Deng

Yaowen Deng is a second-year MPhil candidate in Development Studies at the Oxford Department of International Development (ODID). His research focuses on the politics of energy transitions and environmental justice in South Africa, specifically the emerging potential of legal mobilization in enabling resistance from below against further investment in coal. Prior to Oxford, Yaowen studied philosophy at Nanjing University. He is passionate about bringing a critical and evidence-based perspective to energy transitions and climate change, with a focus on China’s engagement with the Global South.

Mei Takehana

Mei Takehana is in her first year of the MPhil in Development Studies. She is interested in development in Africa, particularly Southern Africa, and the increasing role of China in international development. Her dissertation will be on the role of education in social mobility in South Africa. She has written research papers on the economic relations between China and Ethiopia and new core-periphery-like relations between China and Latin American countries, focusing on Chile and Brazil.

Witse Konings

Witse Konings is studying for an Msc in Economics for Development, 2020-2021, at the Oxford Department of International Development. He is interested in the economic transformation and growth that occurred in China and how China is becoming this involved in the transformation and growth of multiple economies in African countries. Witse is keen to expand his knowledge on the China-Africa economic relationship and is hoping to do so by continuing his studies at the PKU University in the Yenchin Academy in China.