Research Agenda

The crisis in the Sahel continues to deteriorate. Large-scale stabilisation operations have arguably failed to bring about long-term peace and stability.

My research shifts the focus from large-scale and top-down stabilisation operations to grassroots civilian action in rural contexts affected by war. Building on a rich literature on civilian agency and behaviour in wartime, my research asks questions such as: how do communities navigate war? What shapes collective decision-making under duress and uncertainty? How do we explain starkly different choices people make during war? How do community responses shift and evolve over time?

My research relies on ethnographic methods, interviews and oral history.