I am a social and economic historian of Africa in the Conflict & Civicness Research Group (CCRG) at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) researching changing global conflict and peace dynamics. I am both a Research Fellow within the CCRG and the Sudans Research Director, leading research in both Sudans, and affiliated faculty in LSE’s Department of Economic History.

My on-going research and publications examine how revenue raising practices in Sudan and South Sudan from Ottoman rule, through to British-led occupation, postcolonial rule, rebel-rule, into the present contributed to states that work better for a minority in power rather than most people in either country. My other research projects examine the linkages between rulers’ historic revenue raising patterns and peacemaking, warmaking, and state building and enduring patterns of predation, typically rooted in the exploitation of natural resources such as oil and gold, in both Sudans. I am also examining popular narratives of civicness or 'medania' and related economic reforms in Sudan's democratic and hoped for war to peace transition. My research has been published in Comparative Studies in Society and History and the Journal of International Development and other outlets.

My comparative research examines the changing nature of global fragmentation in a forthcoming Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding special issue, which I am a co-editor of. I am also researching the ethical and methodological approaches to working with in-country civic research networks across the LSE CCRG’s research countries, including Sudan, South Sudan, Ukraine, Syria, Somalia, and Afghanistan and other parts of the world.

I am currently working on my book manuscript ‘Of Rule Not Revenue: Predation, State-Unbuilding, and Conflict in Sudan and South Sudan’ based on archival research conducted in Sudan, South Sudan, and UK colonial archives with over 700 interviews undertaken throughout both Sudans. The text examines historic and contemporary patterns of state and armed group finance and predatory forms of rule and helps rethink how peacemaking, warmaking, and statebuilding/unbuilding in Sudan and South Sudan from at least 1899 to the present reflect the changing nature of war, state and armed group finance, and state formation in the 21st century.

My research informs a range of academic, policy, and practice-oriented debates and is shaped by my professional background that has mixed research with operational roles. Over the past 20-years, I have held posts in South Sudan with Crown Agents and Sudan with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and researched how to provide public services more equitably in conflict-affected societies with the World Bank, the Rift Valley Institute (RVI), the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), and Oxfam America.

I have taught MSc and BA courses on African Economic History, African Political Economy, African History, and the nature of states in different countries at the LSE, Durham University, and the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex.

My PhD in History (Economics & Social Research Council/ESRC-funded) and MA in Economic and Social History are both from Durham University. I have also earned an MA in Governance and Development from the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, and a BA in International Relations from Tufts University.

Additionally, I am the Editorial Director for Boy Brother Friend, a print publication and digital platform examining contemporary art, fashion, and social theory.