Doctoral Research
At present there is no doctoral programme attached to the African Studies Centre, or to any other Area Studies Centre in the University. All doctoral degrees are offered through disciplinary departments, but supervision is offered across a number of Departments by members of the African Studies Centre.
The University attracts a large number of doctoral students (currently over 150) working on topics relating to Africa across the disciplines, and many of them attend the research seminars, workshops, lectures and other events organized through the African Studies Centre. Professor Beinart, Professor Anderson, Dr Pratten and Dr Cheeseman all supervise doctoral students, and welcome enquiries from well-qualified prospective students. Many of our current doctoral students embark upon DPhil research having completed the MSc in African Studies.
Both masters and doctoral students working on African topics find an exciting range of researchers and postgraduate students who meet regularly at seminars, workshops and in informal contexts.
At present there are a large number of doctoral students working on African themes across the university in various disciplines. The following details are indicative only:
ANTHROPOLOGY
Nora Danielson, nora.danielson@anthro.ox.ac.uk
My DPhil thesis focuses on a protest by Sudanese refugees in Egypt. Research interests include Egypt, the Sudan, urban centres, the refugee protection system.
Tilmann Heil, tilmann.heil@linacre.ox.ac.uk
In my research I focus on discourses, practices, and transnational experiences of cultural and religious difference and diversity. In both the Casamance (Senegal) and Catalonia (Spain) I investigate the perspective of Casamançais informants on conviviality, the living-together in a shared locality. During fieldwork in 2007 and 2009/10, I looked at everyday practices in public spaces, religious and cultural festivities, European aspirations and routes to individual success, and dynamic relations between strangers and hosts, locals and foreigners, nationals and immigrants.
Ryan Richard Thoreson,ryan.thoreson@anthro.ox.ac.uk
My research looks at networks of transnational sexual rights activists, particularly those doing work on sexual rights in sub-Saharan Africa. My doctoral project is based on fieldwork conducted at a transnational NGO in New York and Cape Town, and the activism surrounding incidents in Uganda, Malawi, and Senegal over the past year. My other interests include the anthropology of human rights, the globalization of sexuality and sexual politics, social movement theory, and sexual rights advocacy in South Africa and the Philippines.
Ana Margarida Sousa Santos, margarida.sousasantos@gmail.com
My work focuses on identity and conflict in northern Mozambique. I address history, memory, power and politics and the ways in which they shape group relationships in places far from the centre of the state. I am also interested in the anthropology of borders, landscape, and visual culture (especially photography).
ARCHAEOLOGY
Tim Forrsman, tim.forrsman@st-hughs.ox.ac.uk
I am studying the way in which hunter-gatherer identity changed from the mid-Holocene in the Tuli Block, eastern Botswana. Since coming into contact with farming communities in the beginning of the first millennium AD until the early second millennium AD, hunter-gatherer's cultural material changed and eventually disappeared altogether in the archaeological record. My research addresses the social, cultural and environmental changes that led to the reformation of a local hunter-gatherer community resulting in the breakdown of their traditional way of life.
DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Julia Jönsson, julia.jonsson@qeh.ox.ac.uk
My doctoral research centres on the role of Conflict Resolution NGOs in peace processes. The study uses two West African case studies of NGO peace process involvement: the 1994-1995 Northern Region inter-ethnic conflict in Ghana, and the 1991-2002 Sierra Leonean civil war. Through a qualitative, comparative methodology, the project seeks to generate both a systematic account of the specific roles of conflict-resolution organisations in attempting to mediate these conflicts and more general theories as to the potential benefits and dangers of NGO involvement in conflict resolution from a sound empirical base. Research areas include inter-group conflict, ethnicity, conflict resolution, NGOs, human security, traditional leadership and traditional leadership institutions.
Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon, matthew.wilhelm-solomon@qeh.ox.ac.uk
I am completing my DPhil in Development Studies. My research is a qualitative study on HIV/AIDS treatments to displaced communities in Northern Uganda. It addresses the histories of HIV/AIDS responses in Northern Uganda, and its role in the current "success story"; forms of biosociality and stigma in displacement camps; and the challenges and vulnerabilities of the return process for those living with HIV and treatment problems.
GEOGRAPHY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Alexandra Yannias, alexandra.yannias@ouce.ox.ac.uk
I am focusing on informal settlement upgrading policies with a particular focus on the changing responsibilities of international organizations, binational aid organization, and national and local governments. My research focuses on South Africa in particular and economic development in Africa and Latin America more generally.
HISTORY
Emilie Bourgeat, emilie.bourgeat@sant.ox.ac.uk
I am studying 'State violence and Punishment in Kenya (c. 1930-1978)'. Other interests include colonial history, gender-based violence, criminal justice systems, civil wars and post-conflict societies.
James Cockfield, james.cockfield@africa.ox.ac.uk
My thesis focuses on the 'Gender and Social Change in Bushbuckridge (Acornhoek, Thulamahashe, Casteel, Buffelshoek) c. 1940-present'.
Natacha Filippi, natacha.filippi@univ.ox.ac.uk
`Criminal Deviance, Madness and the Construction of a 'Healthy' Nation in South Africa (1970-1996)'
Edward Goodman, edward.goodman@history.ox.ac.uk
The development of national identity in early postcolonial Kenya and Tanzania.
George Karekwaivanane, george.karekwaivanane@balliol.ox.ac.uk
My D. Phil. Research uses legal struggles as a window into historical change in Zimbabwe between 1950 and 1990. I am particularly interested in the shifting instrumental, symbolic and discursive uses of the law in struggles between Africans and the state. One of the key themes my research explores is the role of law in the constitution and contestation of state power.
Hanaan Marwah, hanaan.marwah@new.ox.ac.uk
Building and construction investment in Nigeria, 1960-2000.
Cassandra Mark, cassandra.mark@stx.ox.ac.uk
My research explores the emergence of industrial labor in Ghana, with specific focus on the southwestern gold-mines, ca. 1880 to 1920. It questions to what extent the industrial capitalists came to rely on unfree labor (other than slavery) in their formative stages of development. It also questions to what degree industrial labor can be defined as a continuation of preexisting labor relations.
Khumisho Moguerane, khumisho.moguerane@history.ox.ac.uk
My research project constructs three family histories of Sotho-Tswana African notables in South Africa, between 1870 and 1940, teasing out multiple trajectories of accumulation and dispossession, historical consciousness and power. The study is situated within the broad historiography of class formation in South Africa.
Daniel Ostendorff, daniel.ostendorff@stx.ox.ac.uk
My research examines the role of family in the development of Kenya's political history. At the same time, it seeks to provide a better understanding of the social, economic and political history of the Koinange family, who have served as prominent figures in both pre-independent and post-independent Kenya.
Aidan Russell, aidan.russell@stx.ox.ac.uk
'A Borderland Colline in Northern Burundi, 1950-1993': examining how a small community on the border of Rwanda dealt with the political transformations and violence of the period, including issues of movement, the impact of Rwandan refugees, and the dynamics of rumours and news. General interests: migration and society in the Great Lakes; communities, violence and memory; Congolese popular music
Andrea Scheibler, andrea.scheibler@history.ox.ac.uk
My thesis is "Consuming Communities: The Making of an African Middle Class in Kenya, 1930s - 1970s." Contributing to the growing urban historiography that examines how Africans created, contested, and occupied towns, this thesis broadly examines the relationship between class, identity, and colonialism in Nairobi, placing an emphasis on the importance of consumption as a signifier of social change.
Michelle Sikes, mmsikes@gmail.com
Sport, Gender and Society: A History of Women's Distance Running in Kenya. Interests include: Sport History, Economics, Sociology, Gender Studies, East African History
Sishuwa Sishuwa, sishuwa.sishuwa@sant.ox.ac.uk
My thesis is entitled 'A History of Political Mobilisation in Zambia: Explaining the Rise and Rise of Michael Sata c.1962-2011'
Using the political life of Michael Sata, the newly-elected President of Zambia, alongside a series of other less successful Zambian political leaders, my project traces the evolution of political mobilisation in Zambia from 1962 to 2011 to shed new light on the continuities and changes in the strategies that African political leaders have employed to mobilise support in different times and contexts.
Jacob Wiebel, jacob.wiebel@stx.ox.ac.uk
My doctoral research focuses on the history of the Ethiopian Red Terror in the late 1970s. I am particularly interested in the social dynamics, the enduring legacies and the conflicting narratives of the period.
HISTORY/WELLCOME UNIT FOR THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE
Yolana Pringle, yolana.pringle@jesus.ox.ac.uk
My research looks at mental ill-health at the Church Missionary Society Mengo Hospital, Kampala, Uganda, 1897-1944. I am also interested in the broader history of madness and psychiatry in Africa, colonial medicine in East Africa and mission history. Further details can be found at www.colonialpsychiatry.net.
Kathleen Vongsathorn, kathleen.vongsathorn@history.ox.ac.uk
My thesis, entitled "Things that Matter: Catholic and Protestant Approaches to Leprosy Settlements in Uganda, 1929-1951" examines the social, religious and political ideals that influenced British and Irish Christian missionaries as they endeavoured to construct communities within Ugandan leprosy settlements that reflected their goal for the formation of integrated, 'civilised' African communities, and the reaction that the patients within these settlements had to this social engineering. My interests widely encompass the history of medicine in colonial East Africa, mission history, children in missions, and the connections between religion and medicine.
Julianne Weis, julianne.weis@univ.ox.ac.uk
My research is on obstetric fistula and other maternal health and public health policy matters in Africa and Brazil, with a specific focus currently on the interaction between midwifery practices and the construction of the first maternity wards in Ethiopia during the 1930s-70s.
POLITICS
Nana A Antwi-Ansorge, nana.antwi-ansorge@sant.ox.ac.uk
Research interests: civil, armed groups, mobilisation for political violence, Liberia, post-conflict security sector reform, peace building.
Magnus Bellander, magnus.bellander@stx.ox.ac.uk
In my research, I look at power-sharing and coalition building in Somalia’s civil war.
Kate Brennan, kate.brennan@magd.ox.ac.uk
2010-2011: Visiting at the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton; Doctoral dissertation: Social Accountability in World Bank grants for health care.
Johanna Boersch-Supan, www.boersch-supan.de/johanna/vitaje.htm
My dissertation deals with intergenerational conflict in Sierra Leone, i.e. the distribution of political, economic and social power between younger and older age-groups. In 2007, I researched the reintegration of RUF combatants and local understandings of reintegration, justice and reconciliation. More generally, I am most interested in micro-level research on the outbreak of communal-level violence as well as the question of how communities manage peaceful coexistence after mass atrocities.
Lydiah Kemunto Bosire, lydiah-kemunto.bosire@politics.ox.ac.uk
Transitional Justice in Kenya and Uganda. I have also worked on health, gender-based violence, and conflict issues.
Maja Bovcon, maja.bovcon@politics.ox.ac.uk
Relations between France and Cote d'Ivoire since 2000.
Dominic Burbidge, dominic.burbidge@politics.ox.ac.uk
Researching community networking and capital accumulation in Kenya and Tanzania. I compare the countries' levels of trust and how this plays out in solving problems that cannot be solved by individuals alone. The output of collective action is partly political action and partly economic cooperation. I look at both these outcomes and try to find their cause.
Ian Cooper, ian.cooper@sant.ox.ac.uk
Democratic consolidation, political parties and party systems, with a particular focus on Southern Africa. Other interests: The history of apartheid-era South Africa and Namibia.
Aleksandra Gadzala, aleksandra.gadzala@merton.ox.ac.uk
Thesis title: "China and Ethiopia: The Political Dynamics of Economic Relations in the New Global Order." My dissertation concerns Chinese sovereign wealth investments in African economies over the period 2000-2010, with a particular focus on Ethiopia. It examines especially the political risks implicit in such investments, largely consequence of the way in which they are managed by Ethiopia's political elites. Moreover, it underscores the persistent role of ideology in Ethiopia's foreign relations, as well as the manner in which Chinese investment in Ethiopia, and Africa in general, indirectly vindicates a statist model of economic and financial management. Additional research interests include: emerging markets; global financial regulation and its implications for African economies; U.S-Africa relations; and the emergence of China as a major global and economic actor.
Will Jones, will.b.jones@gmail.com
I'm currently working on finding a way to expand my Masters thesis, which focussed on the political sociology and financial base of the contemporary Rwandan elite. I have a general interest in post-conflict societies, civil wars, and know most about former Belgian and Lusophone Africa.
Erlend Groner Krogstad, erlend.krogstad@sant.ox.ac.uk
My thesis compares a British-led police reform in the 'failed' state of Sierra Leone from 1998-2007 with reforms of the Colonial Police towards the end of empire. There are striking similarities in representations of 'good policing' and strategies to build police across contexts of empire and formally equal sovereignty. However, police reform has now become entangled with a number of possibly conflicting strands of intervention in post-conflict countries; such as stabilization, transitional justice, and development. Through a detailed analysis building on archival research and interviews with actors from both periods I try to bring out the shifts in security logic that has brought police reform to the forefront of the global security agenda. Successive re-interpretations of what sovereignty means for states like Sierra Leone seem to have had profound implications on what kind of coercive capacity the dominant states seek to invest them with, and police reform is at the heart of such efforts. By taking a historical perspective I also try to show how state-building -- often represented as a Cold War phenomenon -- is constrained and facilitated in important ways by earlier colonial state-building.
Christopher Mahony, christopher.mahony@keble.ox.ac.uk
My research interests include 'The Justice System in Africa', 'Transitional Justice', Sierra Leonean and Liberian history, and armed conflict in the Great Lakes. Published work includes 'The justice sector afterthought: Witness protection in Africa' (Pretoria: Institute for Security Studies, 2010); "Congo Rebel Capture Brings Hope for Peace" (New Zealand Herald, Jan 29 2009); "Victor's Justice Undermines War Crimes Tribunals" (The National Business Review, Sept 27 2006); "Addressing Corruption in Post Conflict Sierra Leone" (Governance Review, Campaign for Good Governance, June 2006).
Zoe Marks, zoe.marks@politics.ox.ac.uk
Civil war/armed conflict, armed groups, Sierra Leone, women and gender in peace and conflict, race and ethnic relations.
Patrycja Stys, patrycja.stys@politics.ox.ac.uk
My work addresses repatriation and reintegration in the greater context of post-conflict reconstruction. The project began in 2008, with research into the politics of return that influence the journeys home of Rwandan refugees and combatants from the DRC. Current research draws on this study, considering Rwandan and Congolese refugee populations and the interconnectedness of their communities across Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC. The themes that resonate throughout the study include the politics of identity; interpretations of conflict; the migration and importation of historical grievances; resistance to repatriation; and notions of the state, as well as those of the camp. I am away on fieldwork until December 2011.
Harry Verhoeven, harry.verhoeven@politics.ox.ac.uk
My doctoral project focuses on the political economy of the Al-Ingaz Revolution and the links between political violence, water scarcity and the idea of development in Sudan. I'm Convenor of the Oxford University China-African Network (OUCAN) and conduct research on the Great African War and the internal dynamics that lead to the rise and fall of the coalition between Laurent Kabila and his "Eastern" backers.
SOCIAL POLICY AND SOCIAL WORK
David McLennan, david.mclennan@socres.ox.ac.uk
Thesis title: Multiply deprived areas or multiply deprived individuals? A comparison of two approaches to measuring deprivation at the small area level in post-Apartheid South Africa.
Past DPhil Theses:
• The politics of oil and ethnicity in Nigeria
• The politics of the Goldenberg scandal, Kenya
• NGOs and politics in Ghana
• Forestry and forests in post-colonial Tanzania
• French policy and the politics of protest in Cote dIvoire
• HIV/AIDS in Uganda
• The history of taxation in Kenya and Zambia
• Civil conflict in Nigerias Middle Belt
• The African diaspora and religion in Amsterdam
• Women combatants in the Sierra Leone civil war
• Loyalists in Kenya during Mau Mau rebellion
• Ethnic politics and the Kalenjin, Kenya
• Horizontal inequalities and conflict in Niger
• Soviet and Eastern European Cold War politics in the Horn
• State resettlement policy in Apartheid South Africa
• The role of the ICC in eastern Africa and the Great Lakes
• African women and urbanization in Cape Town
• The history of indigenous medicine in Namibia
• Youth and authority in Kibera, Nairobi
• Post-conflict criminality and resources in Liberia
• The history of Okavango (Moremi) National Park in Botswana
• The politics of Pentecostalism in Nigeria
• Military livelihoods and the Ugandan army
• Aids orphans in Nyanza, Kenya
• The role of amnesty in South Africas TRC
• Gacaca and genocide in Rwanda
• Justice and post-conflict resolution in Liberia
• Historical memory and nationalist politics in Zimbabwe
• The drugs war in Nigeria
• Aid and the international politics of Musevenis Ugandan government
• Truth and reconciliation and witness protection in Sierra Leone
• Civil society and democratisation in Kenya
• The one-party state in Zambia and Kenya
• Congolese refugees in Uganda
