Dr Eris D. Schoburgh, lecturer in public policy and public sector management in the Department of Government, University of the West Indies, Mona and coordinator of the Public Sector Management Unit has been awarded a Commonwealth Fellowship for 2010/11 tenable at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom (UK).

Dr. Schoburgh’s research interests are in public policy and public sector management with emphasis  on comparative local governance/local government policy. She is currently engaged in studying the institutional and organizational capacity of Caribbean local governments, facilitated by a Mona Research Fellowship.

As a Commonwealth Fellow, Dr. Schoburgh follows in the  tradition of some 17,000 individuals who, since the inception of this prestigious and competitive scheme fifty years ago, have come from a variety of disciplines and subdisciplines and who have gone on to assume prominent leadership positions in their organizations and countries.

The Commonwealth Fellowship provides Dr. Schoburgh with an opportunity to hone competencies in comparative and policy analytic methods; access primary and secondary data on her research questions through study tours of select sites in Europe such as local authorities, policy institutes and universities that have a policy-orientation. She will also be able to cross-reference her findings with international theoretical norms and best practices; and establish research partnerships that may be mutually beneficial.

Dr. Schoburgh will also seek to develop new research projects around new and different propositions that link the field of local governance/local government policy with issues such as citizenship rights; self-regulation; environmental protection and security. At the University of Manchester, Dr. Schoburgh will be attached to the Institute of Political and Economic Governance (IPEG) under the mentorship of Professor Alan Harding, Director.

Her most recent contribution to the development/governance discourse is the concept of informal citizenship, as an explanatory framework for understanding socio-political relations in Caribbean. This was made possible by the 2007 Visiting Fellowship Award from the Centre for Caribbean Studies, University of Warwick, UK.  Her publications appear in leading regional and international journals.