Ida D

My Passion & How I Inspire

Hands-on, creative, and down to earth. I tailor my classes based on each students' individual needs, and always strive to create a supportive environment which encourages learning. Laughter is—importantly—a common feature throughout all my classes.

My Experience

I'm currently a teaching fellow at LSE and SOAS, specialising in International Relations (IR) and Political Theory. I hold a PhD in IR from LSE, and was previously a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley in the United States.

I'm incredibly passionate about teaching and consider it one of the most rewarding aspects of academia. I've won one of the LSE's Teaching Excellence Awards, and have extensive experience of teaching students from a variety of cultural and educational backgrounds. Student feedback of my teaching is consistently excellent, and includes:

“Ida teaches a very complicated subject with grace. She always provides a clear outline of what we will discuss and carefully dissects the information. Without fail, she encourages us to contact her—I think we have had a constant stream of question and answer all year. She brings cinnamon rolls to class to make us feel welcome. She clearly loves the topic so much, that we love it for her. Students have literally said 'I only like this class because Ida is so great' or 'Ida is amazing.' She is always happy and makes us feel comfortable acknowledging if we are confused with the material, sometimes even sending us her class notes to clarify material. She even meets with us before every essay over coffee to discuss the topics and questions to ensure that we understand the material.”

“Ida's hands down the best teacher I've come across at the LSE.”

“She's fantastic and incredibly knowledgeable.”

“She is great, I love her.”

“Amazing teacher, has a really good understanding of the course and makes it very engaging!”

“Best teacher I have: very knowledgeable, well read on the subject, very prepared. Connects discussions to main themes, questions of the week, and broader world issues. Exceptional!”

Subjects That I Teach

  • Economics
  • Economics - IB
  • Economics - Undergraduate
  • Economics - University Admissions
  • Essay Writing
  • Essay Writing - IB
  • Essay Writing - Undergraduate
  • Essay Writing - University Admissions
  • International Relations
  • International Relations - IB
  • International Relations - Undergraduate
  • International Relations - University Admissions
  • Mentoring
  • Mentoring - IB
  • Mentoring - Undergraduate
  • Mentoring - University Admissions

My Qualifications

PhD International Relations, London School of Economics and Political Science

MPhil International Relations, University of Oxford (Distinction)

BSc Econometrics and Mathematical Economics, London School of Economics and Political Science (First)

International Baccalaureate (45 points)

I've won a number of awards for my teaching and research, including:

Edward Said Award (2017): best graduate paper in the ISA Global Development Studies Section

LSE Teaching Excellence Award (2016)

LSE PhD Studentship (full PhD funding)

Bapsybanoo Marchioness of Winchester Thesis Prize (2013): best MPhil thesis in International Relations, University of Oxford

I was previously an Editor for the peer reviewed journal Millennium: Journal of International Studies.

Fun fact

I can put both legs behind my head (but promise not to do it during tutorials!)