Dr. Charles Laurie
Dr. Charles Laurie is Managing Director of the Institute for Methods Innovation, the organization that delivers Fast Track Impact. He draws on more than 20 years of research and advisory experience to strengthen methodological practice and evidence-informed decision-making across research, evaluation and engagement work.
Dr. Laurie supports Fast Track Impact courses that focus on evaluation design, evidence synthesis and the practical use of mixed methods. His training reflects experience designing and delivering field research in sensitive settings, with attention to clear questions, proportionate methods, data quality, participant risk and communication of findings for policy and organisational decisions.
Publications
His doctoral research at the University of Oxford produced the first evidence-based account of Zimbabwe’s violent farm invasions, published as The Land Reform Deception: Political Opportunism in Zimbabwe’s Land Seizure Era (Oxford University Press, 2016). He co-authored, with Professor Eric Jensen, Doing Real Research: A Practical Guide to Social Research (SAGE, 2016), a guide that connects research design choices with practical decisions about data collection and analysis. He is also the author of Every Man Has His Price: The Story of Collusion and Corruption in the Scramble for Rhodesia (2008) and has contributed to commercial risk reports and analytical publications on global risk trends.
Academic and professional background
- PhD in political sociology, University of Oxford.
- MPhil in social and political science, University of Cambridge.
