Aurelia Allagapen

Aurelia recently completed her undergraduate degree in History and Politics at the University of Oxford where she was awarded the Kirk-Greene Prize in Modern African History. Her final year thesis, based on archival research conducted at the University of Nairobi, re-examined the activities of Maendeleo ya Wanawake (a Kenyan women’s political organisation) in the 1960s. 

Her academic interests broadened during a summer internship with the International Team at UKRI, where she gained first hand insight into the allocation of funding for ODA-supported projects and the practical functioning of international partnerships. Building on this, her dissertation seeks to examine how categories such as neopatrimonialism and state failure continue to shape policy approaches and UK-Africa relations.