From a background in the study of colonial and postcolonial history, my research interests have lain primarily in the field of South African history. My PhD thesis examines the political roles ascribed to young African women within prominent student and youth organisations from 1976 through the 1980s. The thesis focuses upon the local, national, and international spaces available to young African women to articulate political identities from the 1976 Soweto uprisings, through the township rebellions of the mid-1980s, and subsequently in the post-apartheid transition. My focus upon young women is an attempt to move away from the broad national narratives of the liberation struggle and instead to consider the insights offered by a more minute consideration of the day-to-day practices of these political movements and the spaces, places, and character of anti-apartheid political struggles.

I am a graduate of International Public Policy (Msc) from University College London, and Hispanic and Latin American Studies (BA hons) from the University of Nottingham. My reseach has focused specifically on gender in UK Foreign Policy, women in International Peace and Security as well as gender and development. I have sat on the editorial review board of UCL's School of Public Policy 'International Public Policy Review, and have co-founded and help to run London's UN Society (located at www.unsociety.co.uk).