Matthew Pflaum
I am a PhD student in geography at the University of Florida, where I research pastoralist strategies to political insecurity in Mali, particularly the central Mopti region. My geographic area of interest is the Central Sahel, including Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Niger, and Mali. I generally study pastoralism in the region, along with many dimensions of pastoralist lives in the region, including food security, tensions, violence, mobility, borders, ethnicity, and institutions. Specifically, my thesis looks at pastoralist adaptive strategies to insecurity along dimensions of mobility, livelihoods, and environmental and political insecurity.
I am a member of several groups, including the Sahel Research Group and the African Networks Lab. I am also a reviewer for African Studies Quarterly. I speak Spanish (fluently), French (intermediate), and have studied intensive Hausa through the AFLI/FLAS summer intensive program. I teach courses in Geography of Africa and Population Geography.
My OECD report entitled Pastoralist Violence in North and West Africa was published in July of 2021. I regularly collaborator with OECD on projects related to violence in North and West Africa.