51cg

Biography

Much of my early work focused on the local experiences of international interventions for peace, justice, and development in post-conflict states.

Between 2007 and 2015 I used an ethnographic approach (see ) to examine how local individuals and communities in understand, experience, and evaluate the impacts of projects planned, funded, and administered by international actors.

As I have agued in various publications, this form of research provides a detailed account of the often unseen and usually unpredicted effects that international interventions for peace, justice, and development produce or inspire in sensitive post-conflict states, as well as the responses among local actors on the ground.

While my research focused on the case of Sierra Leone, many of the dynamics I have discussed for this case are clearly replicated across a diverse range of other settings.

My theoretical contributions, for example, regarding the generation of hybrid peace structures in the (2014), the friction between international actors and local settings in (2013), and, most recently, the complex nature of peace and conflict systems in (2020) and the (2021), are applicable to many different contexts and forms of intervention. 

My recently, between 2018 and 2025, I have been conducting a large study of the state of the field of Peace and Conflict Studies, including 155 interviews with key actors in the academic, practitioner, funding, and publishing community within this sector, to gain insights into how we can restructure the field in response to what I am calling 21st Century Challenges to Peace.

Please see my Research and Publications pages for further information.

Research Overview

My research interests concern international conflict and peace, transitional justice, and processes of peacebuilding and development.

I am primarily focused on studying the local experiences of international projects in transitional states and assessing how projects planned, funded and administered by international actors in post-conflict settings are experienced by local people. My first monograph outlined a methodology for conducting this kind of research  (), and additional volumes have developed the approach further (, ).

Related to these methodological projects, I have also develop theoretical approaches to understanding and conceptualizing these interactions between 'international' and 'local' actors. In an edited volume () myself and a number of colleagues forward the notion of friction as a key conceptual tool for this exploration, and my more recent work explores the complex nature of these interactions (, ).

My current research continues to develop these themes. First, I continue, based on earlier efforts, to develop the potential for Ethnographic Peace Research as an evaluation tool for practitioners. Second,  I am focusing on a number of complex cases of global-local interaction to continue to collect empirical data regarding these dynamics. And third, I am examining 21st Century Challenges to Peace.

Current Research

AMBITION AND AMBIVALENCE: 21st CENTURY CHALLENGES TO PEACE

In 2018-2019 I was awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship to start this new project, which is ongoing.

The field of Peace Studies faces significant obstacles in responding to challenges such as climate change, demographic shifts, mass migration, and declining Western influence. These obstacles undermine the field’s traditional normative ambition to contribute to peace and generate ambivalence regarding its ability to tackle future conflict.

This project examines the balance between ambition and ambivalence in Peace Studies. It does so via a mixed-method approach assessing data collected from academics, students, policymakers, and practitioners and reflecting on the past, present, and future state of the field and its capacity to theorize, research, and provide solutions for future conflicts. The first outputs from this product, reflecting on the complex challenges the field faces and how we might respond, were published in  (2020) and the (2021)

ETHNOGRAPHIC PEACE RESEARCH (EPR)

Since late 2015 I have been working to consolidate an Ethnographic Peace Research (EPR) agenda in Peace Studies.

Following a workshop funded by the Independent Social Research Foundation (ISRF) at the 51cg in July 2016 I  co-edited a book titled "" (Palgrave 2018), a Special Issue of International Peacekeeping on  published in late 2018, and a further volume titled "" (Routledge 2019).  In addition, I have continued this work with  a number of articles regarding EPR for policy engagement in (2018), the benefits of long-term fieldwork for peace and conflict studies research in (2018), and very recent articles on trans-scalar EPR in both  (2021) and the (2021).

Along with other members of informal international research network that has been involved in this project, I am now working to develop a research agenda and submit research proposals to utilize, test, and calibrate this methodology to meet the needs of contemporary peace research challenges. This effort has recently been focusing specifically on Indigenous Monitoring and Evaluation processes in everyday peace systems.

Just Food? Mutual Exchange Network on Just Food System Transitions

Funded from April 2021 to September 2022 by the British Academy, this action-research project established a mutual exchange network on just food system transitions including food system actors from four usually unconnected geographies. It provided a space for dialogue, exchange and learning between local food system actors working and advocating for justice in their respective food systems. It included organisations and movements linked to the right to food, environment, and agroecological transitions, as well as international advocacy NGOs working for larger global policy change. The primary goal was to establish a trans-scalar (local, national, international) and interregional (Europe, South America, Southern Africa, West Africa) network of actors engaged in food system transitions, which included the experiences of many who have yet to be given the attention they deserve in debates about sustainable development. 

This project has recently concluded and the research team is currently working on two different outputs for leading academic journals.

Funding and Grants

Recent Grants:

2021 - British Academy 'Just Transitions' Research Grant, £15,203

2020 - Research Impact Support Award, £2,000

2018 - Leverhulme Research Fellowshiop, £46,848

2017 - 51cg GCRF-IPPF, £9,050

2016 - Independent Social Research Foundation, £4,999

2016 - Principal's Interdisciplinary Fund, £1,225

2015 - Principal's Interdisciplinary Fund, £1,163

2013 - The Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland Research Grant, £2,420    

2013 - Principal’s Excellence Fund, £500                                 

2012 - Radboud University Nijmegen, Faculty Fieldwork Grant, €10,235

Teaching Responsibilities

Undergradaute

Together with my colleague, Dr Luisa Gandolfo, I teach the 4th year option course titled "Between Peace and Conflict: Societies in Transition". 

Post-Graduate Programme:

I currently co-ordinate two MSc programmes, the first an MSc in Peace and Conflict Studies, and the second an MSc in Policy Evaluation. 

Both MScs can be completed full-time over 12 months or part time of 24 months.  

PhD Students:

I am interested in supervising PhD students with an interest in post-conflict justice, peacebuilding, and development in any region of the world or with an interest in using ethnographic methods to evaluate international intervention in transitional states.