Lotje de Vries (1979) is a postdoctoral Research Fellow at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA) in Hamburg and Assistant Professor at the Centre for International Conflict - Analysis and Management (CICAM) at the Radboud University in the Netherlands. Her research focuses on borders, state-building and the authority of state and non-state actors in South Sudan and the Central African Republic. Her latest research project is part of the Collaborative Research Programme (SFB700) ‘Governance in Areas of Limited Statehood’ and will look into public and alternative security provision in the peripheries of South Sudan and the Central African Republic. Lotje de Vries has a background in development sociology and a PhD degree from Wageningen University (2012). She is a member of the editorial board of Politique Africaine and co-edited a book on the borderlands of South Sudan (Palgrave Macmillan 2013). Prior to joining CICAM and GIGA Lotje de Vries worked on her PhD research and other projects at the African Studies Centre in Leiden (2008-2013), in Senegal with the development organisation Enda Diapol (2005-2007) and as a consultant for various organisations like the OECD, VNG-International and the French Ministry of Defence.

Research Interests:

• Practices of state-building
• Borderlands and borders
• Social dynamics in (post-)conflict environments
• Performance of power and authority
• South Sudan; Central African Republic, the Horn and Central Africa; West Africa

Recent Peer-Reviewed Articles

de Vries, Lotje (2011), Négocier l’Autorité. Les micro-pratiques étatiques à la frontière du Sud-Soudan et de la République Démocratique du Congo, in: Politique Africaine, 122, 2, 41-58

Hazard, Eric / de Vries, Lotje / Alimou Barry, Mamadou / Aka Anouan, Alexis / Pinaud, Nicolas (2009), The Developmental Impact of the Asian Drivers on Senegal, in: The World Economy, 32, 11, 1563-1585

Recent Articles

de Vries, Lotje (2013), Pulling the Ropes, Convenient indeterminacies and the negotiation of power at Kaya’s border checkpoint, in: Christopher Vaughan / Mareike Schomerus / Lotje de Vries (eds.), The Borderlands of South Sudan: Authority and identity in contemporary and historical perspectives, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 153-172

Schomerus, Mareike / de Vries, Lotje / Vaughan, Christopher (2013), Introduction: Negotiating borders, defining South Sudan, in: Christopher Vaughan / Mareike Schomerus / Lotje de Vries (eds.), The Borderlands of South Sudan: Authority and identity in contemporary and historical perspectives, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1-22

Abdoul, Mohamadou / de Vries, Lotje (2007), Dynamiques locales dans les espaces transfrontaliers et intégration régionale en Sénégambie méridionale, in: Amadou Diop / Aminata Niang Diene (eds.), Les États-Nations face à l’intégration regionale en Afrique de l’Ouest; Le cas du Sénégal, Paris: Karthala, 119-131

Edited Volumes

de Vries, Lotje / Glawion, Tim (2015), 'Speculating on Crisis: The Progressive Disintegration of the Central African Republic’s Political Economy', Clingendael Research Unit Report, The Hague, The Netherlands

Vaughan, Christopher / Schomerus, Mareike / de Vries, Lotje (eds.) (2013), The Borderlands of South Sudan: Authority and identity in contemporary and historical perspectives, New York: Palgrave Macmillan