Researching Nigeria Workshop

Interesting seminar coming up in London, May 15:

Most of you indicated 15 May as the preferred option, so the workshop will be held on Friday, 15 May from 11.00 to 17.30 at the Strand campus of King’s College London.

We hope to make the workshop an informal and friendly setting for exchanging ideas, methods and experiences on researching Nigeria. To aid the discussion, every participant should prepare a 10-15 minute presentation that includes a brief discussion of their research topic, hypotheses and proposed methodology. The presentation can focus on a particular paper or aspect of your work, a dissertation/research proposal, or on your experiences in the field—whatever you want to get feedback on and think will be useful to the group.

We then envisage that other participants will provide questions, comments and feedback on each presentation. See the draft programme on the next page for more. Those with more field research experience are towards the front, and could consider gearing their presentations towards summarizing lessons learned during their research.

We are still getting the word out about the workshop and therefore anticipate that a few more people will be added to the programme. Still other participants will contribute to the discussion without making formal presentations.


How to get there
The seminar will be held at the Strand campus of King’s College London, WC2R 2LS. Underground stations in the vicinity are Temple, Holborn and Covent Garden. See a map here. The room is K6.07 (the ‘War Studies seminar room’, 6th floor). To find this, ask at the front desk in reception or walk down the main hallway, pass the Great Hall and use the lifts on the left to go to the 6th floor.

Coming from outside London
Participants coming from outside London will have their train/bus fare reimbursed. Please bring a receipt for the reimbursement form (if you would rather have the money transferred rather than sent by cheque in the post, bring a note of your sort code and account number as well).


If you have any questions or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Look forward to seeing you all next Friday!

Alex Gillies Thomas Hansen
Cambridge University King’s College London
Alexandra.gillies@googlemail.com Thomas.hansen@googlemail.com
Mobile: 07760 393664 Mobile: 07590 259161



Draft programme

(People’s thesis titles are listed below, though presentations can address other projects or sub-sections if preferred)

11.00 Welcome
11:10 Alexandra Gillies, Cambridge: The Political Economy of Oil Sector Reform in Nigeria
11:40 Hanaan Marwah, Oxford: Building and Construction in Nigeria, 1960-2000
12: 10 Charlotte Hastings, Edinburgh: Colonial Schooling in Nigeria
12:40 David Ehrhardt, Oxford: Citizenship, Conflict, and the City, comparing Kano and Amsterdam.

1:10 Lunch-- Sandwiches and tea/coffee will be provided.

2:10 Lizzy Donnelly, Chatham House: Introduction of Chatham House’s Africa and Nigeria work

2:40 Olly Owen, Oxford: Institutional Ethnography of Policing in Nigeria
3:10 Thomas Hansen, KCL: Development and Conflict in the Niger Delta
3:40 Cosanna Preston, Oxford: Anti-corruption Institutions in Nigeria
4:10 Ben Clench, LSE: State Level Accountability in Nigeria
4:40 Sharon Shochat, LSE: The Status and Agency of Women in Oil Exporting West Africa

Conclusion: Best practices in researching Nigeria, keeping in touch, etc.

We are grateful to the King’s College London Graduate School for their financial support of this workshop.