Elizabeth McGowan

Profile

After three years working in the private sector of international development cooperation, I decided to return to the UK and academia to start my PhD in October 2024 in the School of Politics and International Studies at the University of Leeds. This has been an opportunity for me to explore what I have perceived as gaps in international development discourse and climate initiative design and delivery in the Pacific.

Previously, I obtained a BA in History and German (2020, University of Oxford) and an MSc in International Relations (2021, London School of Economics). My core interest areas during my masters were Conflict and Peacebuilding and the International Politics of the Asia-Pacific. My dissertation explored whether China is socialising into international norms of intervention, or whether it is playing the part of both norm-taker and norm-shaper to maintain and improve its position in international society. It analysed UN discourse and, in particular, China’s use of language on international platforms to discuss intervention in the Middle East and Israel-Palestine.

Research interests

My research interests lie in interdisciplinary approaches to global challenges. My PhD research focuses on international development approaches to water management and climate resilience in the Pacific. I challenge frameworks of ‘inclusive development’ and ‘community engagement’, questioning normative development epistemologies and knowledge-power balances in development aid. International development has traditionally favoured scientific ‘modern’ (Western) knowledge and solutions over Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems, reinforcing colonial international hierarchies and disempowering local actors. There is extensive discourse about different climate change adaptation and management initiatives, with increasing emphasis on nature-based solutions and ecosystem-based adaptation. There is a wealth of knowledge and experience to be integrated into climate solutions from local/indigenous populations in the Pacific. My research looks at how we identify different forms of knowledge and give them credibility and value in climate adaptation discourse and climate action policy and practice. It considers the political and social implications of the terms ‘indigenous’ and ‘indigeneity’, considering how intersectional indigenous identities have been homogenised and undermined in the metanarrative of development and progress.

Furthermore, from my previous background as an historian, I believe it is important to understand the historical context when exploring contemporary dynamics in international affairs. This has led me to apply a critical post-colonial lens on development studies and international relations both between individual states and between the so-called ‘Global North’ and ‘Global South’. My research considers how the history of colonialism and missionaries in the Pacific has shaped traditional and indigenous knowledge and identities and affected attitudes towards externally led development actions.

Finally, I am also interested in how the concept of the state is not a universal given and how this shapes epistemologies, perspectives and relations in the international sphere. I am interested specifically in how the concept of the state and the nation in the Pacific interacts with global challenges of climate change and security, as well as sovereignty and identity in a changing geographical and political landscape.

Qualifications

• MSc International Relations
• BA (Hons) History and german

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Global Development