My research focuses on the Lord’s Resistance Army conflict, humanitarian intervention, and American advocacy and social movements regarding African politics. My main concerns are the militarization, borderlands and inter-ethnic relations, focusing on the peripheral spaces between Uganda, DRC, South Sudan, and CAR.

You can see my research-related publications here. I am currently in the midst of two research projects:

For my MA thesis, I studied the role of radio in the Lord’s Resistance Army conflict in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. One aspect of the project is FM radio stations in Uganda and DRC (also in CAR and South Sudan) that encourage LRA abductees to surrender and also promote reconciliation among LRA-affected communities. Another is a network of HF radio stations in rural DRC and CAR that act as an early warning network for the communities and help humanitarians and security personnel respond to emergencies. This project also looks at the role of U.S.-based humanitarianism and the recent militarization of the conflict. This research has been supported by the Coca-Cola World Fund at Yale and the Lindsay Fellowship for Research in Africa. The thesis was completed in May, 2014, and I’m hoping to publish it in some way, shape, or form as I continue to explore these issues.

In addition, I have been occasionally working on a research paper on the interaction between justice and reconciliation in the LRA conflict. Originally, I asked how Uganda’s amnesty law interacted with the ICC’s multiple indictments of LRA commanders. I have shifted my focus to also include the experiences and perceptions of victims of LRA violence inside and outside of Uganda, and how they differ. This includes how NGOs have tried to promote Acholi notions of reconciliation outside of Acholiland, how some LRA commanders are prosecuted while others are not, and other aspects of varied conceptions of justice.