Dr Zoe Pflaeger Young

Zoe Pflaeger Young joined the Department of Politics, People and Place at DMU in September 2013 as a lecturer in International Relations. Prior to this she was a lecturer in Global Political Economy at the Department of International Relations at Sussex University.

She completed her PhD in 2011 at the Department for Political Science and International Studies at the University of Birmingham. Her research offers a critical engagement with approaches to empowerment within development theory and practice. Focusing on the case of Kenya's coffee industry, it seeks to identify not only the possible tensions between World Bank policies aimed at producer empowerment and the restructuring of the coffee industry, but also possible alternative approaches to empowerment and poverty alleviation, such as fair trade.  During her doctoral research, she was a visiting fellow in the School of International Service at American University in Washington DC under the supervision of James Mittelman. She also undertook participant-observation research both here in the UK whilst based at the Fairtrade Foundation and in Kenya, predominantly in Nairobi and Central Province. This included working in collaboration with the UK registered charity Lorna Young Foundation on a youth project and a peer partnership project based at a local college and a Fairtrade coffee cooperative.

In 2011, she was awarded the Robert and Jessie Cox Award for best graduate student paper of critical inquiry into international relations for a paper entitled ‘Decaf Empowerment? Post-Washington Consensus Development Policy and Kenya’s Coffee Industry’. She is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Authority.

Zoe's current research is focused on gender in the profession, examining the status of women in UK Politics and International Studies departments. She has conducted research in collaboration with Dr Sadiya Akram at Manchester Metropolitan University into early career researchers' (ECRs) experiences of post-maternity/parental leave provision to support the return to work. 

Another strand of her current research concentrates on shared parental leave and childcare policies in the UK in the context of prolonged austerity and the crisis of care, examining their amibiguous relationship with gender eqaulity.  

Click here to view a full listing of Zoe Pflaeger's publications and outputs.

• Making of a Global World
• Globalisation and Democracy
• MA Globalisation
• Contemporary International Relations Theory

PhD Political Science, Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham (2011)

MA (Distinction) Political Science (Research Methods), Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham (2006)

BA (Hons) (I) Political Science, Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham (2005)

• Development Studies Association 
• British International Studies Association, International Political Economy Working Group and Africa and International Studies Working Group 
• International Studies Association 
• Political Studies Association, Women and Politics Group 

2018 Pflaeger Young, Z. ‘The Crisis of Care and Gender Equality: The Case of Shared Parental Leave in the UK’, IPE Workshop, University of Birmingham

2018 Pflaeger Young, Z. 'Early Career Researchers and Post-Maternity/Parental Leave Provision in UK Politics and International Studies Departments’, PSA Annual Conference, Cardiff

2017  Pflaeger Young, Z. ‘Care and Gender Equality as a Frontier: The Case of Shared Parental Leave in the UK’,ISA Annual Conference, Baltimore 

2016 Pflaeger Young, Z. ‘Care and Gender Equality: The Case of Shared Parental Leave in the UK’ IPEG Annual Conference ‘International Political Economy?’, Leeds Beckett University

2015 Pflaeger, Z.‘The Cost of your Conscience: Fair Trade and the Global Economic Recession’ New Directions in IPE Conference, University of Warwick  

2014 Pflaeger, Z. ‘Fair Trade and the Global Economic Crisis: Decline or Resilience?’, SPERI Annual Conference, University of Sheffield

2012 Pflaeger, Z. ‘Women’s Empowerment, Fair Trade and Kenya’s Coffee Industry’, paper presented at the BISA-ISA Joint Conference, Edinburgh

2012 Pflaeger, Z. ‘Producer Empowerment and Partnerships in Fair Trade’, paper presented at the ISA Annual Conference, San Diego

2011 Pflaeger, Z. ‘Contesting Neoliberalism? Fair Trade as an Alternative Approach to Empowerment in Kenya’s Coffee Industry’, paper presented at the The Global Political Economy in Uncertain Times Workshop, University of Manchester

2011 Pflaeger, Z. ‘The Poverty of Development Ideas: A Conceptual History of Empowerment’ paper presented at the ISA Annual Conference, Montreal

2011 Pflaeger, Z. ‘Alternative Approaches to Empowerment: Fair Trade Initiatives in Kenya’s Coffee Industry’ paper presented at the ISA Annual Conference, Montreal