Institute of Social Anthropology

Associated PhD and Researcher

Martina Santschi wrote her doctoral thesis in Social Anthropology at the University of Bern. Her doctoral thesis Encountering and "capturing" hakuma: negotiating statehood and authority in Northern Bahr El-Ghazal State, South Sudan focuses on statehood, local governance and citizen-state relations in South Sudan. Martina Santschi has extensive field research experience in South Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. She has been involved in research projects and more practice oriented work including for the University of Durham, the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, the Rift Valley Institute, the United States Institute for Peace, the Overseas Development Institute and Tufts University. In these projects Martina has studied and worked among other things on local justice, customary law, traditional authorities, socio-political structures, statehood, land governance, international aid and conflict resolution. Martina is senior researcher at the Statehood and Conflict program at swisspeace. Currently, she works for the Civil Wars and State Formation research project funded by the Swiss Network for International Studies, for the Conflict Sensitivity Resource Facility in South Sudan and teaches during the fall term at the University of Basel.

Peer-reviewed articles

2011: The politics of customary law ascertainment in Southern Sudan. Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law 63: 111-142. With Leonardi, Cherry, Leben Nelson Moro and H. Deborah Isser.

2010: Between community and government: Traditional authorities in post-conflict Southern Sudan. Tsantsa 15: 108-111.

2008: Counting 'New Sudan'. African Affairs 107 (429): 631-640.

 

Other publications

2017: Perceptions of Governance - The Experience of Local Administrative Councils in Opposition-held Syria. Bern: swisspeace & LACU. With Mazen Gharibah, Bahjat Hajjar, Leila Hilal, Mazhar Sharbaji and Corinne von Burg.

2016: Dividing Communities in South Sudan and Northern Uganda: Boundary disputes and land governance. Rift Valley Institute. With Leonardi, Cherry.

2016: Encountering and ‘capturing’ hakuma: Negotiating statehood and authority in Northern Bahr el-Ghazal State, South Sudan. Doctoral thesis, University of Bern, Switzerland.

2016: Contribution to Considering the state: perspectives on South Sudan's subdivision and federalism debate. London: Overseas Development Institute.

2016: Trajectories of International Engagement with State and Local Actors: Evidence from South Sudan. Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium. With Maxwell, Daniel, Rachel Gordon, Philip Dau and Leben Nelson Moro.

2015: Questions and Challenges Raised by a Large-Scale Humanitarian Operation in South Sudan. Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium. With Maxwell, Daniel, Rachel Gordon, Philip Dau and Leben Nelson Moro.

2014: Looking back to look ahead? Reviewing key lessons from Operation Lifeline Sudan and past humanitarian operations in South Sudan. Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium. With Maxwell, Daniel and Rachel Gordon.

2014: Livelihoods, access to services and perceptions of governance: An analysis of Pibor county, South Sudan from the perspective of displaced people. Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium. With Leben Nelson Moro, Philip Dau, Rachel Gordon and Daniel Maxwell.

2014: From post-conflict recovery and state building to a renewed humanitarian emergency: A brief reflection on South Sudan. Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium. With Maxwell, Daniel.

2014: Livelihoods, access to services and perceptions of governance: An analysis of Uror and Nyirol counties, South Sudan. Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium. With Maxwell, Daniel, Rachel Gordon, Philip Dau and Leben Nelson Moro.

2014: Traditional authorities, local justice and local conflict resolution mechanisms in South Sudan. In: Hellmüller, Sara and Martina Santschi (Eds.): Is local beautiful? Peacebuilding between international interventions and locally led initiatives: Heidelberg: Springer Verlag. 43-64.

2012: Chiefs, state-building, and development in independent South Sudan. Evidence for Policy Series, Regional edition Horn of Africa, No. 5, Berhanu Debele (Ed.). Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: NCCR North-South.

2012: Livelihoods, basic services and social protection in South Sudan. Working Paper, Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium. With Maxwell, Daniel and Kirsten Gelsdorf.

2011: Referendum in Sudan: Prelude for a north-south divorce? International Relations and Security Network, ETH Zürich. With Lanz, David.

2011: Local justice in Southern Sudan. United States Institute of Peace / Rift Valley Institute. With Leonardi, Cherry, Leben Nelson Moro and Deborah H. Isser.

2011: Entscheidend ist die Zeit nach dem Referendum. Article in der Bund. With Lanz, David.

2008: Im Südsudan ist der Zensus ein hochpolitisches Unterfangen. Das Resultat der Volkszählung prägt die Verteilung der Ressourcen Article in Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ).

2006: Krieg in Acholiland. Ethnizität, Gewalt und Politik im Norden Uganda. Bern. Arbeitsblatt Institut für Sozial Anthropologie, Universität Bern. With Kuster, Reto.

 

 

Selected conferences/workshops, courses and academic teaching

2016:

  • ETH event: Countering Corruption in South Sudan. The Nexus of Corruption, Conflict and State-building in the world’s newest state at ETH in Zürich November 2016. Paper presented: Corruption: Concepts and realities: some reflections on local views on corruption.
  • Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium: Livelihoods in South Sudan, Nairobi October 2016. Public Forum disseminating the findings from SLRC's four-year research that has investigated livelihoods and governance in South Sudan from independence to the current crisis.
  • ASAUK conference, Cambridge September 2016. Paper presented: Changing land value, land governance and conflict in agro-pastoralist communities in Northern Bahr el-Ghazal State, South Sudan.
  • ASAUK conference, Cambridge September 2016. Paper on 28 States: Introducing federalism in South Sudan – a contested process.
  • Book launch: Dividing Communities in South Sudan and Northern Uganda in Nairobi (Rift Valley Institute) Kampala (Makarere University) and Juba in June 2016.
  • Workshop on 28 States Handbook of Thought: Jan 25 - 27, 2016, University of Reading. Contribution on land, borders, territoriality and natural resources.

 

2015:

  • Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association: Panel CPA ten years on chaired by Douglas Johnson. San Diego November 2015. Paper presented: Land governance and boundary disputes in South Sudan.
  • The Annual Conference of the KFPE – Swiss Commission for Research Partnerships with Developing Countries. Doing research in conflict areas: being sensitive to conflict and managing risks. Swiss National Science Foundation, Bern November 2015. Presentation: Doing research in conflict affected areas. Risk management: Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium (SLRC) South Sudan Program.
  • Presentation: Land Governance and Conflict Resolution in South Sudan: A Case from Northern Bahr el-Ghazal. Feinstein International Center, Tufts University, Somerville September 2015.
  • Land, property and conflict course. United States Institute of Peace, Washington DC September 2015. Presentation: Land Governance in South Sudan.
  • Seminar, War and State Formation in 20th-Century Africa, autumn semester 2015, University of Basel, with Sara Hellmüller.
  • Seminar, International Peacebuilding, spring semester 2015, University of Basel, with Lucy Koechlin and Nora Refaeil.
  • Course Co-Coordinator of the Fragility, Conflict & Statebuilding Advanced Studies Course at the swisspeace Academy/University of Basel March 2015.
  • SDC/Democratisation, Decentralisation and Local Governance Network Meeting, Bern January 2015. Presentation: Perception of the state in South Sudan.

 

2014:

  • Experts group ‘Governing the State’: The “New Deal” in Review. Policy Debates and Implementation Challenges (the case of South Sudan). An exchange between research, policy and practice, Bern December 2014. Paper presented: the New Deal in South Sudan.
  • Annual Conference: Resilient Societies: Alternatives for better conflict prevention. swisspeace, Bern November 2014. Discussion with Dr Leben Moro, University of Juba, South Sudan on violence prevention in South Sudan – Why did it fail?
  • Workshop: The state of research on the new Sudans. Hatfield College, Durham University, Durham November 2014. Paper presented: Some reflections on research in conflict affected South Sudan.
  • Conference: Shaping Peace: Local infrastructures and state formation. International Association for Peace and Conflict Studies (IAPCS), Manchester September 2014. Paper presented together with Sara Hellmüller: Blurred boundaries: Administrative chiefs between state and society in Ituri District (Democratic Republic of Congo) and Northern Bahr el-Ghazal State (South Sudan).
  • Conference: Reconfiguring landscapes and bio-cultural frontiers. British Institute in Eastern Africa, Nairobi March 2014. Paper presented: The Intersection of “traditional” socio-political structures and administrative entities: Cattle camps (wun koc), administrative chieftaincies and payams in Aweil East County, South Sudan, on the panel: Territoriality and identity in South Sudan.

 

2013:

  • Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, Baltimore November 2013. Paper presented: State-society relations: the gradual appropriation of hakuma by South Sudanese, on the panel: South Sudan: Writing new histories for a new nation.
  • Workshop: The political economy of peace and conflict in South Sudan. Danish Institute for International Studies DISS, Copenhagen September 2013. Paper presented: The elections are dividing people: Debates and contestation in the forerun of the general elections.-Horn of Africa Seminar, University of Oxford March 2013. Paper presented: Negotiating authority and statehood in Northern Bahr el-Ghazal, South Sudan.
  • Institutskolloquium Sozialanthropologie, Universität Bern März 2013: Präsentation: Aushandeln von Autorität und Staatlichkeit im Südsudan.

 

2012:

  • Seminar, Interdisciplinary perspectives on North-South research, autumn semester 2012, University of Basel.
  • NCCR North-South Science-Policy Forum, Addis Ababa January 2012. Paper presented: Traditional authorities, state-building and development in post-war South Sudan.

 

2011:

  • swisspeace event: Sudan quo vadis? Perspectives on North and South Sudan after the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, Bern July 2011. Paper presented: Local dimension of state building in South Sudan.
  • Conference on government and governance in South Sudan. Faculty of History, Oxford University, Oxford June 2011. Paper presented: Negotiating authority and statehood in local political arenas in post-conflict Northern Bahr el-Ghazal.
  • European Conference on African Studies (ECAS), Uppsala June 2011.Paper presented: Contested arenas of public authority: The competition over influence in post-war Southern Sudan, on the panel: Making war, building states. Critical perspectives on conflict and statehood in Africa.

 

2010:

  • Report Launch Local Justice in Southern Sudan at the United States Institute for Peace, Washington November 2010.
  • GSCP Senior Level Peacebuilding Course Geneva, November 2010. Briefing on the relations between Sudan and Southern Sudan.

 

2009:

  • European Conference on African Studies (ECAS), Leipzig June 2009. Paper presented: Negotiating the border in Northern Bahr el-Ghazal, Southern Sudan, on the panel: Revisiting the African frontier.

 

2008:

  • Conference of the African Studies Association UK, Preston September 2008. Paper presented: Traditional authorities in South Sudan, on the panel: A new dawn for traditional authorities. State recognition and democratisation in Sub-Saharan Africa.
  • South Sudan workshop: Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and University of Durham, July 2008 London. Paper presented on the national census in South Sudan.