Civil War Society: the Southern Sudan 1955-2004

I have been invited to be a visiting scholar by the Program of African Studies (PAS) at the Northwestern University (NWU) for the period 15 August - 15 December 2007. The stay at PAS will become an integrated part of my doctoral fellowship at the Centre f or Study of Civil War (CSCW) at PRIO that is financed by a YFF grant from the RCN (award 163115/V00, Political Institutions, Development and a Domestic Civil Peace). The main purpose of the visit is to write two articles on the history of conflict, poli tical leadership and social changes in the Southern Sudan in the period 1965-1983. In addition, this visit will open opportunities for meeting Sudan scholars residing in the US and conduct investigations into relevant archival material in the US and Canad a. The project may be classified as contemporary history/African studies. Because of its outstanding research environment, PAS/NWU is particularly well-suited for my visit. Several distinguished Africa scholars at the Northwestern University are associat ed with the PAS (e.g. Prof. Richard Joseph and Prof. William Reno). I expect to benefit in particular from their competence in qualitative comparative studies and the politics of African states. Moreover, Northwestern University Library houses the Herskov its Library of African Studies, the richest collection of Africa material in the US. During the visit I intend to investigate possibilities for future collaboration with individual scholars at PAS/NWU and between PAS/NWU and Centre for Study of Civil War. My stay will also profit from and solidify the already strong connections between PAS/NWU and Sudan researchers in Norway.