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Rama Salla Dieng

Rama Salla Dieng
Name
Dr Rama Salla Dieng
Title
Lecturer in African Studies and International Development, Programme Director MSc Africa and International Development
Address
4.06 Chrystal Macmillan Building 15a George Square Edinburgh UK
Telephone
+44 (0)131 651 1636
Email
Research Interests
Political economy of agrarian transformation, Land, Capital and Labour, Gender and Development, African economies, Social Reproduction, Research methodology, Parenting and Care, Critical Race & Decolonial thought, Intersectionality, Rural Development, care, work, African & Transnational feminisms
URL
http://www.cas.ed.ac.uk/people/core_staff/rama_salla_dieng

Guidance and Feedback Hours

  • Wednesday: 9-11am

I am a Lecturer in African Studies and International Development and the Programme Director for the MSc Africa and International Development. I am a member of the Governing Council of the Development Studies Association UK ( my role concerns: Decolonising Development Studies), and the African Studies Association UK. 

QUALIFICATIONS

  • PhD in Development Studies, SOAS, University of London
  • MSc/Research for International Development, SOAS, University of London
  • MA International Cooperation & Development AND Risks Management in Developing Countries, Science Po Bordeaux- IEP, France
  • Maîtrise in Political Science, Université Montesquieu, Bordeaux, France
  • BSc/Economic & Social Administration (AES) (Economics, Sociology, Politics and Management) Specialising in Labour, Université De La Méditerranée, Aix – Marseille, France

POLICY RESEARCH AND ACADEMIC BACKGROUNG 

My main research interests are at the intersections of Feminist Political Economy and Critical Agrarian Study with a focus on Land, Labour, Social Reproduction, Food and Capitalism in Africa. I am also interested in Work, Gender and Development, African feminisms,  Care and Parenting. 

Before my PhD at SOAS as a Mo Ibrahim Governance and Development in Africa Scholar, I worked in policy-oriented research at the Dakar-based African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP), United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (4 years), and at the United Nations: at the UNDP Office in Mauritius and Seychelles (6 months).  In the UK, I coordinated a Leverhulme-funded Research Network involving Universities in the UK and in Africa (Ghana, South Africa, Senegal and Kenya). I served on the Board of FRIDA (the Young Feminist Fund) and collaborated with several Feminist Political economy research networks in Africa and the Global South. I also taught at the SOAS Department of Development Studies , the SOAS Understanding Africa Summer School, as well as the CAS SOAS-Mo Ibrahim Foundation Residential School in Governance and Development in Africa.

My PhD thesis focused on the differentiated agrarian change outcomes of selected horticultural projects in Northern Senegal during what has been dubbed “the land rush”. I take a critical and intersectional feminist political economy approach to analyse rural labour markets and global food value chains in Senegal and the UK using mixed research methods.

TEACHING:

I am the co-convenor of:

- Africa in the Contemporary Word (UG)

- Politics and Theories of International Development (PG)

PHD SUPERVISION:

Francisca Anita Adom Opare (African Studies)

Emma Taylor (International Development)

RESEARCH:

My research focuses on Critical African studies andPolitical Economy and Agrarian Change, Food, Land and Labour, The politics of Policy Making, "Emergence" in Francophone Africa, Indian Investments in Africa, Gender and Development, Social Reproduction, African feminisms. I am also interested in the role of Culture and the Creative sector in Development.

I was awarded a £19,942 GCRF Theme Fund Award for a Research project on Food Security, Migration and Innovation in Senegal and Zimbabwe: Lessons for Africa,  with 4 other UoE researchers

SELECTED:

PEER-REVIEWED BOOK

BOOK CHAPTERS

  • DIENG, R. S. (2019) ‘Gone Native?’: Reflections of a feminist tightrope walker’s research on ‘land grabbing’ and the dilemmas of ‘Fieldworking while Parenting at home', in Jackson, R. & Kelly, M. Women Researching in Africa. The Impact of Gender, Palgrave , ISBN 978-3-319-94502-6
  • DIENG, R. S. (2013) Le rôle de la culture dans le développement en Afrique in the collective book ed. Aboa, Pokam, Sadio et Tandia (Eds) (2013) Démocratie et Développement: Perspectives des Jeunes Chercheurs Africains, L’Harmattan, Paris
  • DIENG, R. S. (2009) Polygamy: At the heart of the Matter, published by Gender Links

PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLE

BOOK REVIEW

POLICY ARTICLE

  • DIENG, R. S. (2015) Third Financing for Development Conference: A missed opportunity for African Women in DAWN Informs (Newsletter of Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN), August 2015

NOVEL

  • DIENG, Salla (2008), La Dernière Lettre, Présence Africaine 

PUBLIC SCHOLARSHIP

Interview Series:

In my work, I use a lot semi-structured interviews as a way to co-generate knowledge. I believe in the inclusive power of video and interview based qualitative research methods to render academic knowledge more accessible to a greater (maybe not academic) audience. I believe these digital tools offer us valuable avenues to elicit critical insights and acknowledge and include participatory ways of knowing and sharing. 

New interview series, African Feminisms, on AfricaIsACountry

First Interview: Women’s political consciousness in Senegal (Literary Activism in French) with Dr Ruth Bush, Senior Lecturer, University of Bristol (December 2019)

https://africasacountry.com/2019/12/literary-activism-in-french

Talking back: African feminisms in Dialogue - new interview series for the Review of African Political Economy (RoAPE.net) Blog by Rama Dieng

Introduction (November 2019):
http://roape.net/2019/11/01/talking-back-african-feminism-in-dialogue/
 
First interview wIith Dr. Lyn Ossome, MISR, Uganda(November 2019):
http://roape.net/2019/11/07/talking-back-a-conversation-with-lyn-ossome/

Second interview with Hilina Berhanu and Aklile Solomon, The Yellow Movement Addis Ababa University(November 2019):
http://roape.net/2019/11/14/talking-back-hilina-berhanu-and-aklile-solomon/

Third interview with Dr. Divine Fuh, CODESRIA and University of Cape Town (December 2019)

http://roape.net/2019/12/05/talking-back-a-conversation-with-divine-fuh/

Interview with Jessica Horn, Programme Director of the African Woman Development Fund and Writer (January 2020)

Talking Back: an interview with Jessica Horn – ROAPE

Governance and Development in Africa (SOAS Radio):

Governance and Development in Africa with Onyekachi Wambu

http://governanceinafricasoas.org/governance-in-africa-onyekachi-wambu/

Youth and Governance in Africa (RFI Radio):

http://www.rfi.fr/emission/20170409-jeunesse-africaine-richesse-handicap​

Blog posts and public engagement:

I regularly write blogs/commentaries on Senegalese, Francophone and more generalist media outlets on Literature, Politics, Gender and Women's Rights .

Politics

In Senegal, the left has given up fighting for its ideals - on the Mo Ibrahim Foundation Blog

http://mo.ibrahim.foundation/news/2019/senegal-left-given-fighting-ideals-interview-mif-scholar-rama-salla-dieng

La gauche sénégalaise a renoncé à défendre ses idées (Le Monde Afrique February 2019)

https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2019/02/16/au-senegal-la-gauche-a-renonce-a-defendre-ses-idees_5424285_3212.html

Courte Histoire de la Gauche Senegalaise

https://www.seneplus.com/opinions/courte-histoire-de-la-gauche-senegalaise

Literature:

Les couleurs de l'Ecrivain, Interview avec Mohamadou Mbougar Sarr

https://www.seneplus.com/culture/la-couleur-de-lecrivain

Advocacy: Financing for Development

Women's Working Group on the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (2015)

https://wwgonffd.wordpress.com/2015/07/13/wwg-and-addis-cso-group-address-member-states-at-the-opening-plenary-of-the-ffd-conference/

DAWN - Women's Working Group on the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (2015)

http://dawnnet.org/sites/default/files/articles/2015.07_awg_ffd3_recommendations.pdf 

More on my website.

Topics interested in supervising

- Agrarian Change and Agrarian Political economy (Labour, Land and Capitalism) - Rural Development - Care & Social Reproduction - Agriculture, Export horticulture and Global Value Chains, - Food Security - Development Policy, - Governance, the role of the State and social movements in Africa - India in Africa - Gender and Development, - African Feminism(s), Feminist Parenting - Francophone Africa, - West and Central Africa, - Mauritius.

If you are interested in being supervised by Rama Salla Dieng, please see the links below for more information:

PhD In African Studies; PhD in International Development; MSc (R) African Studies