Research
Papers
You Can't Go Home Again: Return Migration and Conflict Dynamics in Burundi
(Forthcoming, International Security)
Doctoral Dissertation
Homeward Bound: Return Migration and Conflict in Burundi
Violence wrought by civil war forces millions of people to flee their homes. While scholars have demonstrated how out-migration can spread, prolong, and exacerbate conflict, little is known about what happens when these people return home. Yet, conflict between returning and non-migrant populations is a nearly ubiquitous issue for post-conflict societies from Bosnia to Iraq, South Sudan, and beyond. Why does return-migration—usually a sign of increased peace and stability— so often lead to conflict? This dissertation advances a novel theory of return migration and conflict. I argue that return migration creates new social divisions based on whether and where individuals were displaced during war. These divisions become new sources of conflict in countries-of-origin when local institutions - like land codes, citizenship regimes, or language laws - provide differential outcomes to individuals based on their geographic location during the hostilities. Using ethnographic evidence gathered in Burundi and Tanzania from 2014 to 2016, I show how return migration after Burundi’s civil war created violent rivalries between returning and non-migrant populations. Consequently, when Burundi faced a national-level political crisis in 2015, prior experiences of return shaped both the character and timing of out-migration from Burundi. By illuminating the role of reverse population movements in shaping future conflict, the study provides a needed extension to theories of political violence and demonstrates why breaking the cycle of return and repeat migration is essential to conflict prevention.
Ongoing Projects
Qualitative Field Research Ethics & Training (co-authored)
There is a strong interest in political science to produce knowledge on the causes and consequences of violent conflict. However, there has not been a simultaneous uptick in academic training on how to ethically and effectively conduct fieldwork in these environments. We are currently conducting a survey to explore patterns of field research and training practices across top-ranked political science departments for comparative politics and international relations in the United States. Through establishing a more scientific understanding of fieldwork training norms, we will trace the ethical implications for researchers’ personal safety, the safety of those they are working with, and the substantive impact on the knowledge produced.
Migration & Citizenship Regimes in South Sudan (working paper)
How does forced migration affect claims to citizenship after civil war? I argue that de facto citizenship status in areas affected by conflict is determined, in part, by where individuals lived during wartime. Using the case of South Sudan, I argue that different regimes of citizenship, republican and liberal, were present simultaneously in the eight years of relative stability after the Second Sudanese Civil War. I develop a typology delineating these concurrent citizenship regimes and outlining the hierarchy of power within in each. I then illustrate the construction of the different citizenship classes through an examination of the experiences of returning refugees and internally displaced persons from Khartoum, Sudan to Juba, South Sudan between 2010 and 2013.
Policy Publications
Youth in Post-Conflict Reconstruction: Agents of Change (Washington, DC: U.S. Institute of Peace Press, 2010).
“Dowry and Division: Youth and State-Building in South Sudan,” with Marc Sommers. U.S. Institute of Peace Special Report, 295: November 2011.
You Can't Go Home Again: Return Migration and Conflict Dynamics in Burundi
(Forthcoming, International Security)
Doctoral Dissertation
Homeward Bound: Return Migration and Conflict in Burundi
Violence wrought by civil war forces millions of people to flee their homes. While scholars have demonstrated how out-migration can spread, prolong, and exacerbate conflict, little is known about what happens when these people return home. Yet, conflict between returning and non-migrant populations is a nearly ubiquitous issue for post-conflict societies from Bosnia to Iraq, South Sudan, and beyond. Why does return-migration—usually a sign of increased peace and stability— so often lead to conflict? This dissertation advances a novel theory of return migration and conflict. I argue that return migration creates new social divisions based on whether and where individuals were displaced during war. These divisions become new sources of conflict in countries-of-origin when local institutions - like land codes, citizenship regimes, or language laws - provide differential outcomes to individuals based on their geographic location during the hostilities. Using ethnographic evidence gathered in Burundi and Tanzania from 2014 to 2016, I show how return migration after Burundi’s civil war created violent rivalries between returning and non-migrant populations. Consequently, when Burundi faced a national-level political crisis in 2015, prior experiences of return shaped both the character and timing of out-migration from Burundi. By illuminating the role of reverse population movements in shaping future conflict, the study provides a needed extension to theories of political violence and demonstrates why breaking the cycle of return and repeat migration is essential to conflict prevention.
Ongoing Projects
Qualitative Field Research Ethics & Training (co-authored)
There is a strong interest in political science to produce knowledge on the causes and consequences of violent conflict. However, there has not been a simultaneous uptick in academic training on how to ethically and effectively conduct fieldwork in these environments. We are currently conducting a survey to explore patterns of field research and training practices across top-ranked political science departments for comparative politics and international relations in the United States. Through establishing a more scientific understanding of fieldwork training norms, we will trace the ethical implications for researchers’ personal safety, the safety of those they are working with, and the substantive impact on the knowledge produced.
Migration & Citizenship Regimes in South Sudan (working paper)
How does forced migration affect claims to citizenship after civil war? I argue that de facto citizenship status in areas affected by conflict is determined, in part, by where individuals lived during wartime. Using the case of South Sudan, I argue that different regimes of citizenship, republican and liberal, were present simultaneously in the eight years of relative stability after the Second Sudanese Civil War. I develop a typology delineating these concurrent citizenship regimes and outlining the hierarchy of power within in each. I then illustrate the construction of the different citizenship classes through an examination of the experiences of returning refugees and internally displaced persons from Khartoum, Sudan to Juba, South Sudan between 2010 and 2013.
Policy Publications
Youth in Post-Conflict Reconstruction: Agents of Change (Washington, DC: U.S. Institute of Peace Press, 2010).
“Dowry and Division: Youth and State-Building in South Sudan,” with Marc Sommers. U.S. Institute of Peace Special Report, 295: November 2011.