I am an economic historian and political economist of war and peace. I study how states are built—and unbuilt—through the revenue systems that finance conflict, sustain elites, and shape civic resistance. My work develops concepts such as predatory peace, fiscal fragmentation, and civic fiscal resistance to analyse how revenue and rule are reorganised across transitions from empire, post-colonial statehood, rebel governance, and peace settlement. Africa—particularly Sudan and South Sudan—is my empirical foundation and the vantage point from which I rethink the global political economy. I approach the Global South not as a region to be added to theoretical frameworks, but as the ground from which those frameworks must be generated. Viewed from conflict-affected regions rather than global financial centres, the financial history of war and peace becomes visible as a struggle over who controls revenue, how it circulates, and to whom political authority is ultimately accountable. I am Research Fellow and Sudans Research Director in the Conflict & Civicness Research Group at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and affiliate faculty in the Department of Economic History.

My first book, Of Rule Not Revenue: Predation, State-Unbuilding, and Conflict in Sudan and South Sudan, 1821–2023, has been formally invited for peer review by Cambridge University Press (African Studies Series), following endorsement by the series editorial board in May 2025. Drawing on more than 700 interviews conducted since 2019 and archival research across Sudanese, South Sudanese, British colonial, and rebel-held collections (2014–2024), the book shows how rulers have repeatedly weaponised revenue as a technology of survival and control. It places African cases at the centre of global financial history, illustrating how patterns of extraction and civic resistance in the Sudans illuminate wider architectures of power shaping the world economy.

Building on this foundation, my research examines how fiscal and financial systems shape enduring patterns of predatory rule, post-conflict governance, and war-making, and how civic actors articulate alternative visions of fiscal justice and civicness (medania) during Sudan’s revolutionary and post-revolutionary periods. My work has appeared in Comparative Studies in Society and History, with further articles forthcoming in the Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding and in progress. I am co-editing a special issue on global fragmentation for the Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, and lead research on collaborative and civic-centred methodologies for working with in-country research networks in conflict-affected settings.

My academic work is grounded in a 20-year professional background that bridges research, policy, and operations. I have held posts in Sudan with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and South Sudan with Crown Agents, and have worked with the World Bank, the Rift Valley Institute (RVI), the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), and Oxfam America on governance, service delivery, and post-conflict transitions.

I have taught MSc and BA courses on African Economic History, Political Economy, and state capacity and public services at the LSE, Durham University, and the IDS at the University of Sussex. At the LSE I convene EH413: African Economic Development in Historical Perspective and supervise postgraduate research on war economies, fiscal systems, and state formation.

My PhD in History (ESRC-funded) and MA in Economic and Social History are from Durham University. I also hold an MA in Governance and Development from the IDS at the University of Sussex, and a BA in International Relations from Tufts University.

In addition to my academic work, I am Editorial Director of Boy Brother Friend, a print publication and digital platform examining contemporary art, fashion, and social theory.