People

Staff, researchers & visiting fellows at the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa

 Professional services staff

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Professor Tim Allen | Director

Ask me about: Institute affiliation, philanthropy and prospective research collaborations

Email: t.allen@lse.ac.uk

 

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Fadil Elobeid Africa Engagement Programme Manager

Ask me about: external engagement, strategic partnerships, alumni relations and donor stewardship

Email: e.elobeid@lse.ac.uk

 

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Dr Martha Geiger Mwenitete | Chair of Strategic Development and Institute Manager

Ask me about: Institute strategy, HR, finance and research grant applications

Email: m.geiger@lse.ac.uk

 

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Dr David Luke | Professor in Practice and Strategic Director

Ask me about: building partnerships, training and capacity development, African trade programme, workshops

Email: d.luke@lse.ac.uk

 

Lesly Orero

Lesley Orero Africa Engagement Programme Officer

Ask me about: engagement, programme development, AEP activities and events

Email: l.orero@lse.ac.uk

 

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Anna Williams | Research Programme Manager

Ask me about: Research development and research partnership engagement

Email: a.c.williams1@lse.ac.uk

 

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Tosin Adebisi | PfAL Senior Programme Manager

Ask me about: leadership development, youth empowerment collaborations, student voice, stakeholder engagement, strategic partnerships, international student experience, and business development.

Email: o.adebisi@lse.ac.uk

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Mark Briggs | Communications Manager and Blog Editor

Ask me about: The Africa@LSE blog, communications.

Email: m.a.briggs@lse.ac.uk

 

Sofija Spasenoska

Sofija Spasenoska | Communications and Events Officer

Ask me about: Events supported by FLIA, social media and communications. 

Email: s.spasenoska@lse.ac.uk

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Eunice Asantewaa Hansen-Sackey | Research Grants Officer

Ask me about: Research grants administration, project partnerships, access to finance and grant reporting. 

Email: e.hansen-sackey@lse.ac.uk

Internal board


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Robtel Neajai Pailey | Assistant Professor

Dr Robtel Neajai Pailey is Assistant Professor in International Social and Public Policy. She centres her research on how structural transformation is conceived and contested by local, national and transnational actors from ‘crisis’-affected regions of the so-called Global South.

Research interests: development, citizenship, migration, conflict, governance, race
Regions of focus: Liberia, Sierra Leone

Email: r.n.pailey@lse.ac.uk

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Claire Mercer | Professor

Professor Claire Mercer is a human geographer working at the intersection of human geography and African studies. Her work has developed a critique of the NGO-ization of development and postcolonial approaches to civil society.

Research interests: class, suburbs, architecture, civil society, diaspora
Region of focus: Tanzania

Email: c.c.mercer@lse.ac.uk

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Catherine Boone | Professor

Professor Catherine Boone is Programme Director in African Development at the LSE Department of International Development. Her work focusses on commercial land tenure policies in West Africa.

Research interests: political economy, political development, property rights, land
Regions: Kenya, Côte d'Ivoire

Email: c.boone@lse.ac.uk
X: @cboone2023

Laura Mann

Laura Mann | Assistant Professor

Dr Laura Mann is an Assistant Professor in the LSE Department of International Development and focusses on the political economy of African development, communication technologies and data in East Africa.

Research interests: political economy, knowledge production, communication technologies and data
Region of focus: Kenya

Email: L.E.Mann@lse.ac.uk

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Wendy Willems | Associate Professor

Dr Wendy Willems is Associate Professor and Deputy Head of the Department of Media and Communications at LSE, where she also serves as Programme Director for the MSc Global Media and Communications.

Research interests: global digital culture, postcolonial approaches
Region of focus:Africa

Email: w.willems@lse.ac.uk

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Katrin Flikschuh | Professor

Professor Katrin Flikschuh's work explores connections between African and Western social and political thought. She is Principal Investigator of a Leverhulme Trust International Networks Project.

Research interests: political philosophy, political thought, modern African philosophy
Region of focus: West Africa

Email: k.a.flikschuh@lse.ac.uk

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Lucy Kanya | Assistant Professorial

Dr Lucy Kanya has a health economics and policy background with experience working in Sub-Saharan Africa. She has in the past worked on the evaluation of health financing programmes in Kenya and Uganda.

Research interests: health care financing, maternal and child health
Regions of focus: Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and Senegal

Email: L.Kanya@lse.ac.uk

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Declan Conway | Professional Research Fellow

Dr Declan’s research cuts across water, climate and society, with a strong focus on adaptation and the water-energy-food nexus. He has over 20 years of experience working in the UK/Europe, sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. 

Research interests: water security, climate change
Regions of focus: Kenya, Zambia, Botswana

Email: d.conway@lse.ac.uk

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Deborah James | Professor 

Professor Deborah is a specialist in the anthropology of South and Southern Africa. Her work is broadly political and economic in focus. She is a Faculty Associate in the LSE International Inequalities Institute.

Research interests: ethnography of advice, aspiration and indebtedness
Region of focus: South Africa

Email: d.a.james@lse.ac.uk

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Leigh Gardner | Associate Professor

Dr Leigh's work focuses on the economic and financial history of sub-Saharan Africa during 19th and 20th centuries, with an emphasis on Africa’s global connnections. Her work focuses on the relationship between African countries and international financial and monetary systems.

Research interests: economic development, monetary policy, public finance
Region of focus: Liberia

Email: l.a.gardner@lse.ac.uk

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Joanna Lewis | Associate Professor

Dr Joanna is a historian of Britain in Africa and Africa in Britain, covering the precolonial to the contemporary time periods. Currently she is researching the history of Somali women who fled conflict in the 1990s and settled in London.

Research interests: migration, refugees, modern African history 
Region of focus: Somalia

Email: j.e.lewis1@lse.ac.uk

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Chaloka Beyani | Associate Professor

Dr Chaloka Beyani is an Associate Professor of International Law at LSE Law School, a member of the Centre for the Study of Human Rights and Chair of its Advisory Board, and a member of the Centre for Climate Change at LSE. 

Research interests: International law, human rights, treaty & constitution making, peace making
Region of focus: Africa

Email: c.beyani@lse.ac.uk

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Jo Beall | Professor

Professor Jo Beall is an Emeritus Professor and Distinguished Research Fellow at the LSE. She has conducted research in Africa and Asia on urban development and governance as well as cities in situations of conflict and state fragility.

Research interests: urban policy, sustainability, Asia, Africa, cultural engagement
Region of focus: South Africa

Email: j.beall@lse.ac.uk

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George Ofosu | Assistant Professor

Dr George K. Ofosu received his PhD at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2017. His research focuses on political accountability, election integrity, legislator behaviour, and the quality of democracy.

Research interests: comparative politics, elections, political accountability, African politics
Region of focus: Sub-Saharan Africa

Email: g.ofosu@lse.ac.uk

Affiliated faculty

Laura Mann

Laura Mann | Assistant Professor

Dr Laura Mann is an Assistant Professor in the LSE Department of International Development and focusses on the political economy of African development, communication technologies and data in East Africa.

Research interests: political economy, knowledge production, communication technologies and data
Region of focus: Kenya

Email: L.E.Mann@lse.ac.uk

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Catherine Boone | Professor of African Political Economy

Professor Catherine Boone is Programme Director in African Development at the LSE Department of International Development. Her work focusses on industrial, commercial, and land tenure policies in West Africa.

Research interests: political economy, political development, property rights, land
Regions: Kenya, Côte d'Ivoire

Email: c.boone@lse.ac.uk
X: @cboone2023

Laura Bear

Laura Bear | Head of Department of Anthropology

Professor Laura Bear specialises in the anthropology of the economy, infrastructures and time. Bear has assumed positions as a board member in the Economy and Society editorial collective, the LSE International Inequalities Institute and ESRC Rebuilding Macroeconomics Research Network.

Research interests: anthropologies of the economy, state, infrastructures, time
Regions: South Asia

Email: l.bear@lse.ac.uk
X: @BearLauraLSE

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Teddy Brett | CPAID Consultant

Professor Teddy Brett has been involved in research, teaching and practice in development since the 1960s and joined the LSE Development Studies Institute in 1993. He is currently a consultant for the LSE Centre for Public Authority and International Development at the FLIA.

Research interests: political economy, institutional reform, reconstruction
Regions of focus: Uganda, Zimbabwe

Email: e.a.brett@lse.ac.uk

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Dr Simidele Dosekun | Assistant Professor 

Dr Simidele Dosekun is Assistant Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. 

Dr Dosekun's research centres African women to explore questions of gender, race, subjectivity, and power in a global context. She is the author of Fashioning Postfeminism: Spectacular Femininity and Transnational Culture, and co-editor of African Luxury: Aesthetics and Politics. Her work has appeared in the journals Feminist Media Studies, Feminism and PsychologyQualitative Inquiry, and Feminist Africa, among others. 

Research interests: political economy, institutional reform, reconstruction

Email: S.O.Dosekun@lse.ac.uk

Research staff

Constanza Torre

Costanza Torre | Research Assistant

Costanza Torre is a PhD Candidate at the LSE Department for International Development. Her research employs ethnographic methods to investigate mental health and psychosocial humanitarian interventions in refugee settlements in northern Uganda. 

Research interests: post-conflict reconstruction, mental health interventions
Region of focus: Uganda

Email: c.torre@lse.ac.uk
X: @costi_torre

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Tom Kirk | Research Fellow

Dr Thomas Kirk is a researcher and consultant based at LSE. His research interests include the provision of security and justice in conflict-affected regions, exploring how power works from top to bottom in ongoing development programmes.

Research interests: security, authoritaniasm, power, water governance
Region of focus: DRC

Email: t.kirk@lse.ac.uk

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Elizabeth Ngutuku | Research Officer

Dr Elizabeth Ngutuku is an interdisciplinary scholar-activist. Her work specialises in voice and the lived experience of marginalised children and youth, sexual and reproductive health and rights as well as young people's experience in conflict situations.

Research interests: child poverty, social protection, youth activism, sexual health
Region of focus: Kenya, East Africa

Email: E.M.Ngutuku@lse.ac.uk

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Colette van der Ven: Research Consultant

Colette is an international trade lawyer and policy expert specialized in sustainable development. As founder and director of TULIP Consulting, a boutique Geneva-based consultancy, Colette advises the public sector on legal and policy issues at the trade, environment, and development nexus. She is also a visiting lecturer in international law at the Graduate Institute, where she teaches the TradeLab International Economic Law Clinic. Previously, Colette worked as an international trade lawyer at Sidley Austin’s international dispute settlement practice, representing governments in their disputes at the World Trade Organization. Colette holds a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School, a Master in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and is a member of the New York Bar.

Research interest: international trade and sustainable development

Region of focus: Africa, Asia

Email: cvanderven@tulipconsulting.ch
X: @ColettevdVen

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Oluwasola Omoju: Research Consultant

Oluwasola Omoju is an Economist and Senior Research Fellow at the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), where he provides research and technical support to the Nigerian parliament.

Research interests: energy and climate policy, public financial management, Africa trade policy, macroeconomic modeling and applied development economics
Region of focus: Africa

Email: shollcy@yahoo.co.uk

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Geoffroy Guepie: Research Consultant

Geoffroy Guepie is an economist at the African Trade Policy Center of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), where he provides research support for the effective implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement.

Research interests: trade policy, economics
Region of focus: Africa

Email: geoffroy.guepie@univ-pau.fr

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Julian Hopwood | Research Fellow

Dr Julian Hopwood has lived in Gulu, northern Uganda for much of the time since 2006, where his work for CPAID is mainly focused, and where he teaches on the Medical Anthropology programme at Gulu University. He recently completed his PhD at Ghent University on land ownership in Acholi, following earlier careers in community mental health in UK and humanitarian-development work in Uganda.

Research interests: ‘Customary’ communal land; environmental, state and community-level justice issues; mental health and resilience.

Region of focus: Northern Uganda, South Sudan

Email: j.hopwood@lse.ac.uk

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Innocent Anguyo | Research Assistant

Innocent Anguyo is a consultant and researcher with interest in politics, livelihoods, and migration, especially in contexts of fragility, conflict, and violence. He has worked on projects for the LSE, the Government of Uganda, Samuel Hall International and several UN agencies.

Research interests: Politics, livelihoods, and migration in contexts of fragility, conflict and violence.

Region of focus: Uganda

Email: i.anguyo@lse.ac.uk

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Gedion Onyango | Research Fellow

Gedion Onyango is a Research Fellow at the LSE’s Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa. Gedion has more than a decade of teaching experience and student mentorship in Higher Education. He is also a senior research associate at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, and an associate editor for the Evidence & Policy Journal. His areas of expertise include African public policy, public administration, and technological transformations in Africa. 

Email: G.Onyango@lse.ac.uk

Centennial and visiting professors

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Professor Richard Fardon | Visiting Professor

Professor Richard Fardon is a social anthropologist specializing in West Africa, particularly Nigeria and Cameroon, where he began fieldwork in the second half of the 1970s. He is author or editor, often collaboratively, of over two dozen books and fifty plus essays and articles. He taught at the University of St Andrews in Scotland and SOAS University of London, where he is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology and was at various times Chair of the Centre of African Studies, University of London, and founding Head of the SOAS Doctoral School. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2004. 

Research interests: social anthropology

Region of focus: West Africa, Nigeria and Cameroon

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Professor Alcinda Honwana | Visiting Professor

Alcinda Honwana is former Strategic Director at the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa and Centennial Professor at the LSE Department of International Development. She is also Visiting Professor of Anthropology and International Development at the Open University and a UN adviser.

Research interests: youth movements, youth activism, social networks, datafication
Region of focus: North Africa, Mozambique

Email: A.M.Honwana@lse.ac.uk

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Professor Leonard Wantchekon | Centennial Professor

Professor Leonard Wantchekon is a Centennial Professor at LSE for 2018/2019 academic year. He is a Professor of Politics and International Affairs and associated faculty in the Economics Department at Princeton University.

Research interests: democratisation, clientelism, redistributive politics
Region of focus: Africa

Email: lwantche@princeton.edu
X: @lwantchekon

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Professor Tony Barnett | Visiting Professor

Tony Barnett is an interdisciplinary social scientist based at the Royal Veterinary College where he is Professor of Social Sciences. He is currently co-investigator on the One Heath Poultry Hub, funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund.

Research interests: zoonotic diseases, qualitative data, infectious disease models
Region of focus: Uganda, South Africa

Email: abarnett@rvc.ac.uk

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Professor Gibril Faal | Visiting Professor in Practice

Prof. Gibril Faal is a multi-disciplinary business and development executive. He is the co-founder and director of GK Partners, specialising in socially responsible business models, sustainable development and programme implementation. 

Research interests: development, migration and diaspora
Region of focus: Africa, Europe

Contact: LinkedIn

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Dr Piroska Nagy Mohácsi | Visiting Professor in Practice

Piroska Nagy Mohácsi is an Academic Partner of Macroeconomic Advisory Group (MAG), New York. Previously Piroska was Interim Director and Programme Director of the LSE Institute for Global Affairs (2015-2021) leading the institute and its academic programme.

Research interests: monetary and fiscal policy, financial resilience, digital currencies
Region of focus: Europe

Emrail: P.Nagy-Mohacsi@lse.ac.uk

Visiting senior fellows

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Dr. Rachel Ibreck | Visiting Senior Fellow

Dr Rachel Ibreck is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa and Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Goldsmiths, University of London.  She is Director of the British Institute in Eastern Africa, one of the British International Research Institutes with a research centre in Nairobi, promoting research in the humanities and social sciences across the region.

Research Interests: politics, civil society, human rights, justice, conflict and genocide

Region of Focus: East Africa

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Dr. Hany Besada | Visiting Senior Fellow

Dr. Hany Besada is a  Visiting Senior Fellow at FLIA. He is also a Non-Executive Director, MAFCO Capital and Executive Director, Institute for Natural Resources and Sustainable Development; Senior Research Fellow, United Nations University-Institute for Natural Resources in Africa; and Senior Fellow, Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History, University of Toronto. 

Research Interests: Natural Resource Governance/Management, Sustainable Development, Digital Economy and Technologies for Sustainable Development, Trade and Investment Promotion & Facilitation, Climate Change and Environment Sustainability, South-South Cooperation, Peacebuilding and Economic Reconstruction

Region of Focus: Africa, Middle East, Global South, BRICS

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Dr. Desné Masie | Visiting Senior Fellow

Dr Desné Masie is an economist and journalist, and has held several senior roles in media, academia and financial services in the UK and South Africa. Dr Masie has advised governments and major multinational corporations on geopolitical risk, economic policy, sustainable finance and wider financial sector policy. She has been awarded a Pulitzer Grant for her work on carbon markets, and is an accomplished public speaker and author.

Research interests: geopolitics, economics, international finance, carbon markets, nature markets, news media, public affairs 

Louise Arimatsu

Louise Arimatsu | Visiting Senior Fellow

Dr Louise Arimatsu is Distinguished Policy Fellow in the Centre for Women, Peace and Security, where she works on the AHRC project 'A Feminist International Law of Peace and Security' and the ERC project 'Gendered Peace'. Her current research projects include 'A Feminist Foreign Policy' and 'Women and Weapons'.

Research interests: International Human Rights Law

Email: l.arimatsu@lse.ac.uk

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Souad Mohamed | Visiting Senior Fellow

Dr Souad Mohamed  is an experienced CEO, consultant, and academic specializing in UK higher education and learning development. With a successful record in global partnership development, she currently leads the Women in Local Governance program in Saudi Arabia, while serving as CEO at IEL International. She has driven impactful women leadership projects, advocating for policy reforms and women's participation. 

Research interests: gender-responsive policies, strategic partnership development, women leadership development and youth development

Region of focus: Middle East & Northeast Africa

Email: s.mohamed7@lse.ac.uk
X: @DRSouadmohamed

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Fatima el Issawi | Visiting Senior Fellow

Dr Fatima el Issawi is a Senior Lecturer in Journalism at the University of Essex, focussing on the intersection between media, politics and conflict in North Africa. She is the Principal Investigator for project Arab Media and Transitions to Democracy.

Research interests: journalism, media, politics, conflict, media policy
Region of focus: North Africa

Email: f.el-issawi@lse.ac.uk
X: @elIssawi

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Vanessa Iwowo | Visiting Senior Fellow

Dr Vanessa Iwowo is Lecturer in Organisational Psychology. She is an award-winning management scholar whose research focuses on ways of enhancing leadership development in international contexts.

Research interests: management, leadership development, organisational psychology,
Region of focus: Africa

Email: v.iwowo@bbk.ac.uk
X: @DrVanessaIwowo

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Anna Macdonald | Visiting Senior Fellow

Dr Anna Macdonald works at the LSE Centre for Public Authority and International Development and the Conflict Research Programme, where she researches ideas of public authority and legal pluralism in the Horn of Africa.

Research interests: law, justice, statehood and social order
Region of focus: Uganda

Email: A.Macdonald1@lse.ac.uk

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Holly Porter | Visiting Senior Fellow

Dr Holly Porter is a Lecturer in Gender Studies in the Department of Politics and International Studies at Oxford University. Her work centres on issues of gender, sexualities and violence after war, particularly in northern Uganda.

Research interests: politics, sexual violence, displacement
Region of focus: Uganda

Email: h.e.porter@lse.ac.uk

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Shirley Yu | Visiting Senior Fellow

Dr Shirley Ze Yu is a leading voice on China’s political economy, an Asia Fellow with the Ash Center of Harvard Kennedy School, an adjunct professor with the IE Business School and a member of the Davos Expert Network on 5G, geopolitics and geoeconomics

Research interests: political economy, business, trade
Region of focus: China, Africa

Email: s.yu19@lse.ac.uk
X: @shirleyzeyu

Visiting fellows

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Anne-Line Rodriguez | Visiting Fellow

Dr Anne-Line Rodriguez is an anthropologist specialising in the ethnographic study of local interactions in West Africa with the global mobility regime.

Research interests: ethnography of West Africa; governance of migration; temporality; social becoming; economic inclusion; livelihood; moral economy.

Region of focus: Senegal, West Africa

Email: a.rodriguez3@lse.ac.uk

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Iliana Sarafian | Research Fellow 

Dr Iliana Sarafian is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Public Authority and International Development at FLIA, LSE. Iliana’s research is in the fields of minority health and wellbeing, gender, ethnicity, and social inequalities in European contexts. 

Research interests: Resilience, gender, social inequality, ethnicity, European Roma populations. 

Region of focus: UK, Poland, Italy, Bulgaria. 

Email: I.Sarafian@lse.ac.uk

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William Davis | Visiting Fellow

Will is an economist who has worked with organizations across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. During most of his career he has focused on Africa, covering trade, fiscal and industrial policies as well as illicit financial flows. He is currently an independent consultant supporting a range of organizations on the economics of Africa, including the continent's food trade, opportunities for economic development linked to green minerals, illicit financial flows, and domestic resource mobilization, fiscal policies for the mining sector, emissions taxes and voluntary carbon markets. He is an invited participant in the United Nations sub-committee on Extractive Industries Taxation and the technical advisory board of the Global Mining Tax Initiative. 

Research interests: international trade, industrial policies, illicit financial flows, taxation

Region of focus: Africa with in-depth work on Senegal and Zambia

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Kasper Vrolijk | Visiting Fellow

Kasper Vrolijk is the Managing Director of the Asser Institute, a leading institution on international law based in The Hague, working at the intersection of research, education and policy. Kasper is also affiliated to the University of Goettingen, with research interests in international trade and development, particularly on Africa. Kasper holds a PhD in Economics from SOAS, University of London, and a MSc in Public Policy from Maastricht University.

Research interests: international trade and development

Region of focus: Africa

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Francesca Beausang | Visiting Fellow

Francesca has experience in both the academic and corporate worlds. She left academia in 2004 to become a macroeconomist in finance, covering emerging markets. She has since moved into philanthropy as Global Director of Communications and Partnerships at Pharo Foundation, where she combines her private sector experience with her commitment to Africa’s economic and social development. 

Research interests: philanthropy, economic development, education, international finance, news media
Region of focus: East Africa

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Kara Blackmore | Visiting Fellow

Kara Blackmore is an anthropologist, curator and writer working at the intersection of arts, culture and social repair after conflict. For more than a decade she worked with NGOs, governments, corporate entities, cultural institutions and local communities across East and Southern Africa.

Research interests: post-conflict reconstruction, arts, curation, local governance
Region of focus: Uganda

Email: K.A.Blackmore@lse.ac.uk

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Dr Mebratu Kelecha | Visiting Fellow

Mebratu Kelecha holds a PhD in Politics from the University of Westminster. Mebratu has a background in youth activism for positive social change on the African continent and publishes political commentary on Ethiopia's democratisation, protest movements and peacebuilding.

Research interests: conflict, peace studies, authoritaniasm
Region of focus: Ethopia

Email: mebratu2006@yahoo.com
X: @MebratuDugda

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Naomi Pendle | Visiting fellow

Dr Naomi Pendle has carried out ethnographic and qualitative research in South Sudan since 2009, with a particular focus on Nuer and Dinka communities. Naomi has advised the UK and US governments and researched for the ICRC.

Research interests: public authority, patterns of violence, local governance, political marketplace
Region of focus: South Sudan

Email: n.r.pendle@lse.ac.uk

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Juliet Bedford | Visiting Fellow

Dr Juliet Bedford is a leader in the application of anthropology to global health and has extensive experience managing complex qualitative and mixed-methods research and evaluations. Juliet founded the organisation Anthrologica in 2008.

Research interests: humanitarianism, anthropology, global health
Region of focus: Africa, Southeast Asia

Email: julietbedford@anthrologica.com
X: @bedford_juliet

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Paroma Bhattacharya | Visiting Fellow

Dr. Paroma Bhattacharya is the Head of Social Innovation at LSE Generate. She leads Research and Programme Delivery in the domain of Social Innovation for LSE Generate, the Entrepreneurship Hub at the LSE (part of the LSE Research and Innovation Division). She is also a visiting fellow at FLIA, the LSE Department of Management and the LSE Social Innovation Lab.

Research interests: humanitarianism, anthropology, global health
Region of focus: Africa, Southeast Asia

Email: P.Bhattacharya@lse.ac.uk
X: @Paroma

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Ponsiano Bimeny | Visiting Fellow

Dr Ponsiano Bimeny specialises in state formation from the perspective of violence, conflict and displacement with a focus on South Sudan and northern Uganda. He has previously worked for more than six years as a development professional in northern Uganda, where he grew up.

Research interests: development, humanitarian development, violence, conflict
Region of focus: South Sudan

Email: 615790@soas.ac.uk
Contact: LinkedIn

Uche Igwe

Uche Igwe | Visiting Fellow

Dr Uche Igwe is a political economy analyst, legislative scholar and communications expert with twenty years of practical experience working with parliament, government agencies, local and international NGOs, the media, research think tanks and the private sector.

Research interests: legislative ethics, anti-corruption, open government partnerships
Region of focus: Nigeria

Email: u.igwe@lse.ac.uk
X: @uche_igwe

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Theresa Jones | Visiting Fellow

Dr Theresa Jones is a mental health specialist, currently leading the mental health and psychosocial support unit at Anthrologica, where she works across emergency response and humanitarian preparedness.

Research interests: clinical psychology, Mental health, Humanitarianism
Region of focus: Liberia, DRC

Email: theresajones@anthrologica.com

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Esther Marijnen | Visiting Fellow

Dr Esther is a political ecologist working on nature-society relations in areas of armed conflict. She studies specifically the militarisation of nature conservation, processes of environmental change in violent environments and the intersection between geography, authority and war.

Research interests: conservation, environment, conflict, war, violence
Region of focus: Central Africa, DRC

Email: esther.marijnen@wur.nl
X: @Esthermarijnen

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Flora McCrone | Visiting Fellow

Flora McCrone is a political anthropologist and conflict specialist focusing on the Horn of Africa. She is currently undertaking a PhD in Politics at Goldsmiths, University of London. Flora has worked as a researcher and independent consultant in South Sudan, northern Kenya and Somalia.

Research interests: conflict, armed violence, public authority, political marketplace 
Region of focus: Horn of Africa

Email: floramccrone@gmail.com

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Georgina Pearson | Visiting Fellow

Dr Georgina is a research fellow on the LEAD Project at the FLIA and is a Clinical Lecturer in Public Health in the Population Health Research Institute at St George’s University of London. She holds a PhD from LSE's Department of International Development.

Research interests: ethics in health research, public health
Region of focus: Uganda

Email: g.f.pearson@lse.ac.uk
Contact: LinkedIn

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Maria del Pilar Lopez-Uribe | Visiting Fellow

Dr Maria works at the intersection of Development Economics, Economic History and Political Economy, interested land, conflict, gender and social movements. She is Assistant Professor in at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá.

Research interests: development economics, political economy, applied microeconomics
Region of focus: Latin America

Email: m.d.lopez-uribe@lse.ac.uk
Contact: LinkedIn

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Cristin Alexis Fergus | Visiting Fellow

Cristin Alexis Fergus is Lead Investigator for the LEAD Project and PhD researcher in the LSE Department of International Development, where she examines aspects of evidence for decision-making within global health. 

Research interests: public health, global health interventions
Region of focus: Uganda

Email: c.fergus@lse.ac.uk
X: @FergusCristin

Claire-Elder

Claire Elder | Visiting Fellow

Dr Claire Elder completed her DPhil in Politics at Oxford University after working for the International Crisis Group and years of experience in north-eastern Africa. Her research focuses on public authority and the political economy of state-building in weak states.

Research interests: political economy, diaspora, statebuilding, weak states
Region of focus: Somalia

Email: c.m.elder@lse.ac.uk
X: @celder_m

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Nikita Simpson | Visiting Fellow

Nikita is a Lecturer in Anthropology at SOAS, University of London. She researches, develops interventions, and provides policy advisory on mental health and inequality in India, Southern Africa, and the UK. Prior to joining SOAS, Nikita was a postdoc at the LSE, where she founded the Covid and Care Research Group. 

Research interests: India, South Asia, UK, Southern Africa, Mental health, HIV, Sexual and Reproductive Health, Digital health, Feminist anthropology, Covid-19 pandemic policy
Region of focus: UK, India, Southern Africa

Email: n.simpson@lse.ac.uk
X: @NiksSimpson

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Jonathan Bashi | Visiting Fellow

Dr Jonathan Bashi is a Law Lecturer at SOAS, University of London. His work and research interests focus on the correlation between international law, trade, and development. His work experience spreads across various sectors, with roles assumed in higher education, the private sector, as well as in international development. 

Research interests: Public International Law; International Trade Law and Development; Regionalism; Regional Development

EmailJ.Bashi@lse.ac.uk

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Maudo Jallow | Visiting Fellow

Maudo is an economic development consultant who focuses on advising governments in Africa and the Middle East in the areas of investment, governance, foreign policy, international development and trade.

Research interests: political economy, international development, industrial policy, international trade
Region of focus: West Africa

Email: contact@maudojallow.com
X: @maudojallow

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Liz Storer | Visiting Fellow

Dr Liz Storer researches health and well-being in East Africa. Her PhD research explored social healing in the West Nile sub-region of Uganda. She is currently working on projects exploring epidemic preparedness and protection in Uganda/ South Sudan.

Research interests: religion, health
Region of focus: Uganda

Email: e.storer@lse.ac.uk
X: @lizziestorer

Photo of Dr Ryan O'Byrne

Ryan Joseph O’Byrne | Visiting Officer

Dr Ryan O’Byrne researches the migration experiences of South Sudanese in Uganda and the international diaspora. He holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from University College London based on ethnographic fieldwork in South Sudan.

Research interests: migration, displacement, resilience, public authority
Region of focus: Uganda, South Sudan

Email: r.obyrne@lse.ac.uk

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Jonah Lipton | Research Officer

Dr Jonah Lipton is an anthropologist at LSE where he attained his PhD examining family life, work and coming of age among young men in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Jonah gained a BA in Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Oxford.

Research interests: political economy, urban neighbourhood life, crisis and humanitarianism
Region of focus: Sierra Leone

Email: j.h.lipton@lse.ac.uk
X: @Jonah_Lipton

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Alice Robinson | Visiting Fellow

Alice Robinson is a PhD student at the Department of International Development at LSE. Her doctoral research focuses on the histories and everyday practices of local NGOs in South Sudan and their role in humanitarian response.

Research interests: humanitarianism, NGOs, anthropology

Region of focus: South Sudan

Email: A.M.Robinson@lse.ac.uk

X: @alice_miranda1

PhD candidates


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Charlotte Brown | PhD Candidate

Charlotte Brown is a PhD student at the Department of International Development at LSE. Her doctoral research focuses on the fractured mobilities resulting from humanitarian policies in Uganda.

Research interests: Humanitarianism, mobilities, gender

Region of focus: Uganda and South Sudan

X: @C_L_V_B