Team at MCCRAfrica

Dr Omomayowa Abati is a Postdoctoral Researcher (Senior Research Officer) with the Multilingualism, Conflict and Conflict Resolution in Africa (MCCRA) Project, in the Department of Government at the University of Essex. His research His research interests revolve around issues of democratic governance, informality, conflict, and development in Africa. Some of his previous researches have examined issues of public engagement, digital governance and informality in Africa, but currently, as part of the MCCRA project, he is working on the relationship between multilingualism, conflict and conflict resolution in five African countries.

Contact: oa24772@essex.ac.uk 

Dr Angiachi Demetris  is a Postdoctoral Researcher (Senior Research Officer) at the Department of Language and Linguistics at the University of Essex on the MCCRA project. She serves in the Department of Linguistics and African Languages as Assistant Lecturer at the University of Bamenda. Her research focuses on different methodologies informed by an ethnographic approach to study African multilingualism. She is a collaborator on the KPAAM-CAM project and an alumni of the DAAD and BIGSAS. 

Contact: da24231@essex.ac.uk 

Dr Stephanie Diepeveen is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Digital Humanities at King's College London. Her research focuses on digitalisation of citizen-state relations, and how power is exercised and contested within changing spaces. Much of her work looks within and from African contexts, including a recent study on power, generative AI and African indigenous languages.  In addition, Stephanie brings experience in approaches to facilitating research impact, through work with RAND Europe, UKRI and ODI. Currently, she is also a Research Associate at ODI, and a Fellow of the Centre on Armed Groups.

Contact: stephanie.diepeveen@kcl.ac.uk

Dr Hannah Gibson is a Professor the Department of Language and Linguistics at the University of Essex. Her research focuses on linguistic variation, and why and how languages change. Much of her work explores the syntax and semantics of the Bantu languages. She is also interested in language and identity and, among other things, she is PI on the AHRC-DFG funded project 'Microvariation and youth language practices in Africa' (2022-24).

Contact: h.gibson@essex.ac.uk

Dr Kristian Skrede Gleditsch is Regius Professor of Political Science at the University of Essex and Research Associate at the Peace Research Institute Oslo. His research interest include conflict, political violence, and mobilization. He is the author of numerous journal articles and books, including  Inequality, Grievances, and Civil War (Cambridge University Press, 2013, with Lars-Erik Cederman and Halvard Buhaug). 

Contact: ksg@essex.ac.uk

Dr Florian G. Kern is a Reader (Associate Professor) at the Department of Government at the University of Essex. His research concentrates on local governance in Africa, with a focus on customary and informal institutions, as well as land rights. He also works on mixed methods applications and research transparency. 

Contact: fkern@essex.ac.uk

Dr Nancy C. Kula is Professor and Chair of African Linguistics at the University of Leiden. Her research interests focus on a range of topics in African and General Linguistics with a focus on Bantu Languages investigating phonology, morphology, tone and their interfaces. She also works on Language Policy in Africa, specifically on the ways in which multilingualism can be harnessed in classroom instruction.

Contact: n.c.kula@hum.leidenuniv.nl

Dr Crisófia Langa di Câmara is a researcher at the Department of Language and Communication of the Centro de Estudos Africanos at Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Mozambique. Her research focuses on Mozambican Bantu languages description; minority and endangered languages documentation, and the Morphology and Syntax of the Bantu languages. Her research work also involves the development of teaching manuals and Bilingual education teachers training contents.

Contact: crisofia.c.camara@uem.ac.mz

Dr Carmen Leon-Himmelstine has a PhD on international development and extensive research experience in East and West Africa, including in post-conflict settings. Her research focuses on the intersection of migration, health, social development, poverty and social protection with a particular interest in gender, childhood and adolescence, and indigenous peoples. She has also worked on preserving language and cultural rights through education-led efforts by indigenous communities in Mexico. Carmen’s focus is mostly implementation research with direct policy and programming relevance working with a variety of approaches while engaging closely with communities.

Contact: c.leon-himmelstine@odi.org

Dr Tracey Costley is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Language and Linguistics at the University of Essex. In her research she largely adopts ethnographic approaches in exploring and understanding how language policies shape and are shaped by classroom and community practices, and how individuals’ linguistic repertoires are drawn upon in teaching and learning. She works with concepts such as multilingualism, translanguaging and superdiversity in her work. 

Contact: tcostley@essex.ac.uk

Dr Hauwa Mohammed Sani is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English and Literary Studies at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Nigeria and holds a PhD in English. Her research is transdisciplinary. She is the recipient of a number of awards and fellowships including from the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the African Humanities Programme from the American Council of Learned Society, the Carnegie Corporation New York Scholar Award, the African Peacebuilding Network and the University of Pretoria's Future Africa Leadership Fellowship.  She has worked on issues related to power, youth, peace and effective health communication, amongst other topics.

Contact: hauwamohammedsanim@gmail.com

Dr Alain Bernard Nseka Lilolo Mata Nseka  is a lecturer at the Université de Kinshasa (Chefs de travaux) at the Faculté de Sciences Politiques, Département des Relations Internationales. He conducts research in security studies, e.g. on issues such as national defense, intelligence services, and geopolitical conflict resolution.

Contact: al.nseka69@gmail.com

Dr Kathryn Nwajiaku-Dahou is the Director of ODI’s Politics and Governance programme and leads the organisation-wide  ambition to decolonise the production of knowledge. A political scientist, with a DPhil in Politics and International relations from the University of Oxford, where she also conducted two ESRC funded postdoctoral fellowships, she has written and published on the politics of identity in Africa, notably in contexts of conflict conflict-affected settings. She has a longstanding research interest in Nigeria and Senegal,  where she has lived and worked, notably on questions of business and human rights and corporate accountability. A fluent French and Igbo speaker, Kathryn has a working knowledge of Wolof, Spanish and Pidgin, as well as geographical expertise in West and Central Africa. She comes with thirty  years' of experience of conducting and managing research and providing policy advice at a senior level in multilateral and bilateral institutions and NGOs. Prior to joining ODI four years ago, she was Head of Unit at the OECD’s Development Cooperation Directorate, and Head of Secretariat of the International Dialogue on Peacebuilding and Statebuilding.

Contact: k.nwajiaku-dahou@odi.org.uk

Dr Brian Phillips is a Reader in the Department of Government at the University of Essex. He researches terrorism, conflict, and crime, often from an organizational perspective.

Contact: brian.phillips@essex.ac.uk

Dr Tata Emmanuel Sunjo lectures in the Department of Geography at the University of Buea where he has been a faculty member since 2015. He is equally a Governance and Regional Integration Fellow at the Nkafu Policy Institute with the Denis and Lenora Foretia Foundation in Cameroon. His research interests include climate change, management and use of natural resources, environmental politics and policy, and natural resources related conflicts. He has published extensively in learned academic journals. He has participated in a number of international conferences and seminars. Dr. Sunjo is also an Associate Editor with the Journal of Resource and Environmental Management and the African Journal of Social Sciences in Cameroon.

Contact: tataemmanuel@gmail.com

Dr Fiona Tumusiime is a Lecturer and Research Coordinator at the Faculty of Socio-Economic Sciences, Cavendish University Kampala, Uganda.  Her focus is on peacebuilding, conflict management, and disarmament in pastoralist communities, terrorism, gender, transformative learning and research.  Her research areas have significantly involved areas affected by conflict and vulnerable communities in Uganda. 

Contact: tumusiimefiona@gmail.com or ftumusiime@cavendish.ac.ug