Researching Violence in Africa: Ethical and Methodological Challenges

Christopher Cramer, Ph.D. (1994) in Economics, Cambridge, is Professor of the Political Economy of Development at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). He works in sub-Saharan Africa on the political economy of violence/post-conflict reconstruction, and on rural labour markets. He is the author of Civil War is Not a Stupid Thing: Accounting for Violence in Developing Countries (London: C.Hurst, 2006). Laura C Hammond, Ph.D. (2000) in Anthropology, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison, is Senior Lecturer in Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). She works in the Horn of Africa on conflict, forced migration, and food security, and is the author of This Place Will Become Home: Refugee Repatriation to Ethiopia (Cornell, 2004). Johan J P Pottier, D.Phil (1980) in Anthropology, University of Sussex, is Professor of African Anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). He specialises in food security, media representations of conflict, and humanitarian intervention. He is the author of Re-Imagining Rwanda: Conflict, Survival and Disinformation in the late 20th Century (Cambridge University Press, 2002).