Mark Langan

Dr. Mark Langan is a Senior Lecturer in International Political Economy at King’s College London’s Department of European & International Studies, within the Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy. He holds a PhD (2010) and MA (2006) from the University of Manchester, and a first-class undergraduate MA in Politics & History from the University of Glasgow (2004). Prior to King’s, he taught at Newcastle University (2017-2021) and the University of Leicester (2015-2017). He is a British Academy Mid Career Fellow (2025-2026) and co-convenor of the UACES Network on EU-Africa Research (NEAR).

His research critically examines donor interventions in African development, focusing on EU trade and aid policies. Current projects include a British Academy-funded study of the EU-Africa trade-development-migration nexus, analysis of the EU’s strategic partnership with the OACPS under the Samoa Agreement, and applying African liberation thought to contemporary globalization debates. His work emphasizes neo-colonial dynamics in EU-Africa ties, drawing on field research in Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania.

Key publications include *Neo-Colonialism and the Poverty of ‘Development’ in Africa* (2018), *Global Britain and Neo-colonialism in Africa* (2024), and co-edited volumes like *Africa, the EU and the Samoa Agreement: Exploring African Agency Amid the ‘New Scramble’* (2025). He has reviewed for journals such as the *Journal of Common Market Studies* and chairs events on critical raw materials and conservation security.

Dr. Langan’s grants include a £139,000 British Academy fellowship and he serves as external examiner for the University of Warwick’s MA International Development. His academic networks include the European Politics and Society Research Group and the Geoeconomics and Technology Initiative at King’s.