Department of Development Studies

Professor Laura Hammond

Key information

Roles
Department of Development Studies Professor of Development Studies Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies Member Centre for Gender Studies Member Centre on Conflict, Rights and Justice Member Food Studies Centre Member Centre of African Studies Member
Qualifications
BA (Sarah Lawrence); MA, PhD (Wisconsin)
Building
Russell Square: College Buildings
Office
110
Email address
lh4@soas.ac.uk
Telephone number
020 7898 4654
Support hours
By appointment via email

Biography

Laura Hammond is Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research and Knowledge Exchange and Professor of Development Studies at SOAS.

She has been conducting research on conflict, food security, refugees, migration and diasporas in and from the Horn of Africa since the early 1990s. She lived in Ethiopia from 1993-2000, conducting research and working for the UN Emergencies Unit for Ethiopia (the precursor to UNOCHA). Among her research activities, she is PI of the Impact Acceleration Account on Migration, Displacement, Minorities and Marginalisation.

She is also Co-Director of the Work Package on Poverty and Inequalities for the Migration for Development and Equality (MIDEQ) Research Hub on South-South Migration. She is Team Leader of the EU Trust Fund’s Research and Evidence Facility on migration and conflict in the Horn of Africa, and Team Leader of the London International Development Centre's Migration Leadership Team. She has done consultancy for a wide range of development and humanitarian organisations, including UNDP, USAID, Oxfam, Medécins Sans Frontières, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the World Food Programme.

She is the author of ‘This Place Will Become Home: Refugee Repatriation to Ethiopia’ (Cornell University Press: 2004), editor (with Christopher Cramer and Johan Pottier of Researching Violence in Africa: Ethical and Methodological Challenges [Brill 2011] and several book and journal articles.

Research interests

Laura Hammond is an anthropologist (PhD University of Wisconsin-Madison), her research interests include food security, conflict, forced migration and diasporas. She is Challenge Leader for Security, Protracted Conflict, Refugees and Forced Displacement for the Global Challenges Research Fund, Head of the London International Development Centre's Migration Leadership Team, and Team Leader for the Research and Evidence Facility (Horn of Africa Window) of the European Union Trust Fund for Africa.

She also is Chair of the Independent Advisory Group for Country Information. She has worked in the Horn of Africa since 1993 (with a particular emphasis on Ethiopia and Somalia/Somaliland), and has done consultancy for a wide range of development and humanitarian organizations, including UNDP, USAID, Oxfam, Medécins Sans Frontières, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the World Food Programme. 

She is the author of This Place Will Become Home: Refugee Repatriation to Ethiopia (Cornell University Press: 2004), co-editor with Johan Pottier and Christopher Cramer of Researching Violence in Africa: Ethical and Methodological Challenges (Brill: 2011) and many book and journal articles. 

PhD Supervision

Name Title
Dr Nimo-Ilhan Ahmed Ali
Miss Gabrielle Bayle National self-perception and international aid conditionality: A case study of Ethiopia
Mr Jean-Baptiste Damestoy Governance capabilities, industrialisation and the state: the case of the cotton and textile sectors in Ethiopia
Kirstie Kwarteng The Transnational Practices of Second Generation Ghanaians: A Comparative Study (Working Title)
Mrs Laurie Lijnders Motherhood Across Borders (working title)
Joan Hope Mwangi Exploring Gender Binaries: Gendered aid objectives of humanitarian action in East Africa
Pelumi Obisesan Women's Experiences with Transitional Justice Processes in the Lake Chad Basin: the Boko Haram Case
Alexander Ray Rethinking the Local–international Dichotomy in Relation to Refugee Protection and Assistance: The Politics of Practice in Managing South Sudanese Displacement (working title)
Helina Shebeshe “Ethiopians don’t do cricket” How do Ethiopian migrants in the United Kingdom understand and experience belonging? (Working Title)
Caitlin Sturridge How can changing rural-urban livelihoods build households’ capacity to adapt to growing resource scarcity? A political ecology of mobility and translocality in Laikipia, Kenya (working title).
Mr Chris Weeks Human trafficking in the wake of natural disaster: the case of Typhoon Haiyan
Dilys K. Winterkorn The Rise and Phenomena of African Philanthropy (working title)

Publications

Contact Laura