I am an incoming Postdoctoral Fellow at Bergen University's Geography department, joining the SmallFishClim project, one of two exciting projects recently launched at the University of Bergen that continues long-term research on small fish production in Africa and elsewhere. 

I received my PhD in geography from the University of Florida in August of 2024. My PhD examined the topic of insecurity among pastoralist and civilian communities in the Sahel and West Africa, with a case study and associated fieldwork performed in Mali. Through these papers, I spatialized pastoralist insecurity and its evolution and spatial and temporal shifts, the role of borders and urbanization on pastoralist insecurity, and developed a model and framework to compare heterogeneity of impacts of violence against civilians on communities in Mali. Geographically, my interests lie in the Central Sahel, including Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Niger, and Mali. With a focus on vulnerability and marginalization, I generally study pastoralist communities, farmers, and refugees/displaced persons, along with critical dimensions of pastoralism like livelihoods, gender, food security, tensions, violence, mobility, borders, ethnicity, and institutions. 

In my dissertation, I developed a model and framework to empirically measure, identify, and compare vulnerabilities of civilian communities to violence in the Sahel through a case study of Mali. This model - called VIVI (variation in vulnerabilities to insecurity) - integrates diverse socio-spatial factors to compare heterogeneities in vulnerabilities and impacts of violence across space (residence) and communities, also comparable across factors like indigeneity, gender, age, and livelihoods.  This model facilitates some of the first measurable, empirical, and comparable primary data on variation in vulnerabilities of impacts of violent conflict on civilians. 

I critically apply political ecology, vulnerability, and various spatial frameworks to the empirical examination of pastoralist insecurity and responses, mostly around the dimensions of mobility, violence, and livelihoods. The objective of my research is to relate and integrate the three dimensions of space, socio-cultural factors, and violence to clarify potential impacts on vulnerabilities and insecurities. I aim to clarify potential responses and adaptation by pastoralists and situate them in the broader context of insecurity and violence in the region as well as wider global adaptation processes (climate change, refugee crisis, inequality, poverty, war, etc.). 

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. I served as the Florida Society of Geographers student representative from 2022 to 2023, and currently serve in the capacity of Student Director for the Africa Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers.  

Click this for access to my recent publications. From 2019-2024, I was involved in the annual production of OECD/SWAC papers related to security and violence in North and West Africa. Finally, here is a link to my current CV. 

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Recent and Forthcoming Publications

1) Pflaum, M. 2025. International responses to the glocalized conflict in Mali. In Bah, A. (editor), African States: Domestic and External Security Challenges. SUNY University Press. [Forthcoming, 2025]

2) Radil, S.M., Walther, O., Dorward, N. and Pflaum, M. (2023). ‘Urban-rural geographies of political violence in North and West Africa’, African Security, 16(2-3), pp.199-222.