Honorary Research Fellow
Hannah.Waddilove@warwick.ac.uk

Honorary Research Fellow (PAIS) / Senior Research Analyst - Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)

Dr Waddilove is a politics scholar who completed her PhD entitled The Power and Politics of Devolution in Kenya, 2013-17 in October 2019 at the Department of Politics and International Studies (PAIS), University of Warwick. She remains an Honorary Research Fellow at PAIS and works as Senior Research Analyst on Ethiopia, Eritrea and Kenya for the FCDO.

Hannah's research interests lie in exploring the everyday workings of state institutions, especially at points of institutional change, and with a particular interest in processes of decentralisation, elections and civil conflict. Her doctoral research focused on one of Africa's most ambitious decentralisation projects: devolution in Kenya. Grounded in extensive qualitiative research, the thesis explored how new sub-national office-holders actually used their positions and the effect on the power of the presidency. She was supervised by Professor Gabrielle Lynch and Professor Daniel Branch.

Building on her extensive background as a researcher and analyst of East Africa, Hannah's work at FCDO has a regional Horn of Africa focus, specialising on civil conflict and state-building, especially in Ethiopia. Prior to beginning her doctorate, Hannah worked as Senior Africa Analyst for Oxford Analytica, a geopolitical advisory and analysis firm. Her professional career to date has included several roles for research and education organisations, in the UK and in Kenya, including the Rift Valley Institute and the British Institute in Eastern Africa. She completed a Masters in African Studies with Distinction at the University of Oxford (2008-09).

You can follow Hannah on Twitter here, where she tweets on broader issues, from African politics to feminism.

Publications

Journal Articles

Waddilove, Hannah (2019). "Support or subvert? Assessing devolution's effect on central power during Kenya's 2017 presidential rerun". Journal of Eastern African Studies, 13 (2): 334-352.

Waddilove, Hannah. "A show of numbers": campaign rallies and performing elite alliance-building in Kenya. Commonwealth & Comparative Politics, forthcoming.

Book Chapters

Waddilove, Hannah (2020). "The Coast: an elusive political bloc." In Nic Cheeseman, Karuti Kanyinga and Gabrielle Lynch (eds) Oxford Handbook of Kenyan Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Selected Briefing Papers, Editorials & Reports

Waddilove, Hannah (2017). Cultural Identity: Kenya and the coast. Rift Valley Institute. http://riftvalley.net/publication/cultural-identity-kenya-and-coast#.W3wPNX4nZTYLink opens in a new window

Waddilove, Hannah (2017). Big Barrier: youth unemployment at the coast. Rift Valley Institute. http://riftvalley.net/publication/big-barrier-youth-unemployment-coast#.W3wPgH4nZTYLink opens in a new window

Waddilove, Hannah (2017). Coal: Development, energy and employment. Rift Valley Institute. http://riftvalley.net/publication/coal-development-energy-and-employment#.W3wPl34nZTYLink opens in a new window

Contributions to blogs and online debates

Waddilove, Hannah. (August 18, 2017). "Kenyans voted for change and got it...at the local level." African Arguments http://africanarguments.org/2017/08/18/kenya-voted-for-change-and-got-it-at-the-local-level-elections/Link opens in a new window

Waddilove, Hannah and Neil Pyper (February 15, 2016). "Why the UK government should care about Giulio Regeni." Times Higher Education. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/why-uk-government-should-care-about-giulio-regeniLink opens in a new window