I am an economic and political geographer interested in questions around conflict, displacement, other forms of mobility and urbanization. I am particularly interested in the dynamic social assemblages that coalesce in times of uncertainty and flux, whether due to economic crisis, ongoing conflict, or the arrival of vast aid infrastructures after socio/natural disasters. In my scholarship, I draw on feminist, decolonial and critical readings of political economy to understand the conditions of produced hyper-precarity that shape livelihood and mobility strategies across much of Africa, and more broadly the developing world. I am deeply interested in the intersections between urbanization (and ideas around urban futures) and the viability of agricultural and pastoral lifeways. Methodologically, I value long-term ethnographic engagement, accountability, and co-production of knowledge.
In the past few years, I’ve been working across borders and disciplinary boundaries to build equitable research partnerships with Likikiri Collective and researchers in South Sudan in support of projects exploring work and livelihood, care, crisis response, generational change, displacement and climate impacts through arts-based participatory methods.
Past work has considered the political economies of refugee return migration to South Sudan (2009-2011) by exploring the relationship between migration, resource claims and livelihood practices in a small rural town. A related project examined the job-seeking strategies and political subjectivities of the many young returnees looking for work in rapidly urbanizing South Sudan (2011). More recently, I’ve explored to the ways in which large-scale humanitarian and state-building interventions reshape regional migration patterns, economies and social relations in urban centres in East Africa. At Durham, I continue to work on themes related to political and economic crises, conflict, humanitarian economies and the social infrastructures of care and distribution that’s people rely on in times of acute stress.
Research Interests
Conflict and post-conflict recovery; humanitarianism and humanitarian economies; migration and displacement; mutual aid and care; work and livelihoods; uncertainty; Sudan, South Sudan, East Africa, the Horn, and the Sahel.
Teaching and Learning
I am part of the core teaching team for Level 2 Geographies of Development and for Social Dimensions of Risk and Resilience at the Masters Level. At level three I teach 'Humanitarianism and the Human'.
End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
