Professor Laura Hammond conferred as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences
30 September 2021
Laura Hammond, Professor of Development Studies, has been conferred a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.
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.
As a Fellow, Laura joins a community of leading professionals in the social sciences, including both academics and practitioners drawn from other sectors, recognised in this way by the Academy. New Fellows are recognised, after an independent peer review process, for the excellence and impact of their work and their wider contributions to the social sciences for public benefit.
Professor Laura Hammond said:
“'Being named a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences is particularly gratifying to me as my work has always been interdisciplinary, spanning anthropology, geography, politics, economics, and other fields. I am also pleased that the work that I have been involved with together with so many migration and displacement studies scholars from around the world has been recognised in this way - it is a vote of confidence in the work that we do to try to promote the rights of migrants and displaced people everywhere, including in the region I have been focused on for the past 30 years - the Horn of Africa.”
Professor Zoe Marriage, Head of the Department of Development studies, said:
"It is such welcome news to hear that Prof Laura Hammond has been conferred as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. Laura has been a leading light in the department for many years, producing exceptional research that has significant impact on policy and on people's lives. She collaborates with networks of scholars around the world, and shares her love of the subject and region with our students and with the SOAS family of colleagues and alumni. This recognition is a credit to Laura, and Laura is a credit to us all."
About the Academy of Social Sciences
The Academy of Social Sciences is the national academy of academics, learned societies and practitioners in the social sciences. Its mission is to promote social science in the United Kingdom for public benefit. The Academy is composed of approximately 1400 individual Fellows, 46 Member Learned Societies, and a number of affiliates. Together, this body of organisations is a community of some 90,000 social scientists. Academy Fellows are leading professional social scientists from academia and the public and private sectors. The Campaign for Social Science is an integral part of the Academy.