Dr Nathalie Raunet

Dr Nathalie Raunet

Department of African Studies and Anthropology
Assistant Professor

Contact details

Address
Department of African Studies and Anthropology
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

I am an interdisciplinary scholar in African Studies focusing on West African history, anthropology and politics. My research interests include belonging, citizenship, authoritarianism, transnationalism and borders. My work focuses more specifically on the making and unmaking of belonging and citizenship in the Ghana-Togo borderlands, cross-border voting and elections, and transnational authoritarianism.

Qualifications

  • BA in English literature and civilisation, Paris X, France
  • MA in English literature and civilisation, Paris X, France
  • MA in Sciences Po, Toulouse I, France
  • MSc in Migration Studies, University of Oxford
  • PhD, African Studies and Anthropology, University of Birmingham

Biography

After my BA and first year of Master at Paris X Nanterre in English literature and civilisation, I changed paths and decided to focus on Africa in my second year of Master in political science at Sciences Po Toulouse. I continued my studies in the UK with a Master of Science in Migration Studies at the University of Oxford, and a PhD at the University of Birmingham. Immediately after my viva, I was hired as a Postdoctoral Researcher at SCRIPTS Berlin where I was affiliated to the Cluster Professorship ‘Contemporary Politics and Societies in Africa’ and the Research Unit Borders. This then led me to take up my present position as Assistant Professor in DASA.

Teaching

  • Y1 Introduction to African politics
  • Y1 Introduction to African Cultures
  • Y1 introduction to African development
  • Y2 & 3 Development in Africa
  • MA/MRes Livelihoods and development in Africa

Research

I am particularly interested in borders, boundaries, and ideas of belonging and citizenship. My doctoral thesis looked at how political communities are constructed with regards to membership, in the borderlands between Ghana and Togo. I provided an inter-scale (local, regional, transnational, national levels) and interdisciplinary analysis of the making and unmaking of political belonging in this region.

Recently, I have focused my interest on transnational authoritarianism. More particularly, I am interested in state strategies of legitimation as responses to diaspora strategies of delegitimation abroad.

Publications