Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search
Profile image of Christopher Cramer

PROF Christopher Cramer

Biography Christopher Cramer is serving a life sentence at SOAS - before joining SOAS part-time in 1993 and full-time in 1996 he taught in Cambridge and in Maputo, Mozambique, he worked for the EIU, and he worked for the Macroeconomic Research Group (MERG) in South Africa during its democratic transition. Much of his primary research has been in Southern Africa and Ethiopia, though he has also been involved in research in Colombia and Brazil. He was for a long time Vice Chair of the Royal African Society, he was Chair of the University of London's Centre of African Studies, worked on Norwegian Research Council boards, and has sat on a range of SOAS committees including the Honorary Degrees Committee and the project board for the Paul Webley Wing aka Senate House North Block construction project. He has been Head of the Department of Development Studies. His publications include Civil War is Not a Stupid Thing: Accounting for Violence in Developing Countries (2006) and African Economic Development: Theory, Evidence, Policy (2020, open access, co-written with John Sender and Arkebe Oqubay). Currently, he is Co-Director of Development Leadership Dialogue (DLD), an institute based at SOAS. He designed and launched the MSc Violence, Conflict and Development, which marked its 25th year in 2025.
Research Interests structural change; high value agriculture; industrial policy; development strategy; extreme deprivation; war to peace transitions; labour in value chains
Teaching and Learning I have taught for many years on the Political Economy of Violence, Conflict and Development and taught for many years on Political Economy of Development and on War to Peace Transitions. In 2025 I started the pioneering module, Structural Change and Economic Development in Africa (SCEDA) - co-designed and co-taught with the Mandela School of Public Governance in South Africa and taught to cohorts at SOAS and the Mandela School synchronously when timetables overlap.
PhD Supervision Availability Yes
PhD Topics High-value agriculture and structural change; the political economy of war to peace transitions; labour markets in the global coffee business; potentially other relevant political economy of development projects.