Notes on Contributors
Bruce Byiers is a development economist with a doctorate from the University of Sussex. He has headed the African Institutions and Regional Dynamics Programme at ECDPM since 2011. The main focus of his work is on regional organisations and broader regional co-operation and integration dynamics in Africa, seeking to link a political economy approach to understanding these dynamics with policy implications for regional policy-makers and international partners. He has also worked on issues related to enterprise development, informality and tax policies, all of which come into this work. He worked in the Mozambican Ministry of Planning and Development/Finance for five years, and has worked on multiple projects across the continent, working at both regional and national levels for a variety of international partners.
Yunnan Chen is a Senior Research Officer at the Overseas Development Institute, focusing on development finance institutions China’s role in the global development finance architecture, and Chinese infrastructure projects (particularly rail) in Africa. She is a PhD candidate at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and formerly a pre-doc fellow at the Global Development Policy Centre, Boston University, and at the Centre for Global Development. She has worked at the SAIS China Africa Research Initiative, where she was a research assistant, at the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, and Chinadialogue, London. She holds an MA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia, and a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Oxford.
Sidy Cissokho is a post-doctoral Research Fellow on the AFRIGOS project at the University of Edinburgh. For his PhD he has researched the Senegalese professional driver association and their relationship with the government and political parties of Senegal.
Elisa Gambino is a Fellow in the International Politics of China at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences. Prior to this, her PhD in African Studies at the University of Edinburgh contributed to the ‘African Governance and Space: Transport Corridors, Border Towns and Port Cities in Transition’ (AFRIGOS) project funded by the European Research Council. Elisa’s research focuses on the analysis of power relations among Chinese and African state and non-state actors in the development of major infrastructure projects. She has a Master’s in Chinese Studies from the University of Edinburgh and a Bachelor’s in Applied Languages from the University of Turin.
Hugh Lamarque is a Leverhulme Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh with a Doctorate in Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Hugh has previously worked for the European Research Council AFRIGOS Project, the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank, the Social Science in Humanitarian Action Platform, AKE Group, the British Institute in Eastern Africa, and as visiting Research Fellow at Lisbon University’s Institute for Social Sciences.
Jerome Lombard is Doctor in Geography and Research Director at the French Research Institute for Development. His current research is on African transport systems and their relationship with territorial development. He focuses mainly on West Africa, especially on Senegal, Mauritania and Morocco.
Francesc Magrinyà is a civil engineer with a PhD in urban planning, and an expert in urban planning, transportation and resilience of metropolitan areas. He is Professor of Urban Planning at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (Technical University of Catalonia, Barcelona Tech) and the Coordinator of the EXIT-UPC Research Group (Engineering, Networks, Infrastructures and Transport). He was previously Director of the Strategic Planning Area of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area.
José-María Muñoz is a social anthropologist who has conducted research in West–Central Africa since 2003. He is a Senior Lecturer in African Studies and International Development at the University of Edinburgh. His works include Doing Business in Cameroon (Cambridge University Press, 2018), a book monograph on economic governance in the city of Ngaoundéré.
Paul Nugent is a historian and political economist with a first postgraduate degree from the University of Cape Town and a doctorate from SOAS, University of London. He is Professor of Comparative African History at the University of Edinburgh and the Principal Investigator of the AFRIGOS project. In 2019, he published Boundaries, Communities and State-Making in West Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2019) which is a comparison of the ways in which border dynamics in Ghana/Togo and Senegal/Gambia have shaped states and understandings of community differently across two sub-regions. As part of the AFRIGOS project, he has also conducted research in East Africa. Paul is the founder/chair of the African Borderlands Research Network. He is also a member of the Africa–Europe Strategic Taskforce dealing with transport and connectivity, which is convened by the Africa Europe Foundation in support of African Union/European Union co-operation.
Sergio Oliete Josa is a civil engineer and urban planner specialising in transport and cities in Sub-Saharan Africa. He works for the European Commission as team leader for the transport sector in the Directorate-General for International Partnerships. He has been posted in several countries in West and Central Africa and has written a number of academic papers analysing the evolution and sustainability of the transport networks in the continent.
Isabella Soi is an associate professor in African History at the University of Cagliari. Her research interests focus on borders development and dynamics, particularly in relation to trade and population movements; refugee movements; national and religious minorities; and the relation between religion and politics in East Africa, particularly in Uganda. Her publications include Minoranze religiose nel continente africano: Il caso delle comunità ebraiche di Tunisia e di Uganda (with Filippo Petrucci; Aracne Editore, 2016.
Nina Sylvanus is a political and economic anthropologist whose work centres on capital and labour, value and aesthetics, infrastructure and technology, and, more broadly, critical transformations in the neoliberal global economy. Sylvanus is the author of Patterns in Circulation: Cloth, Gender and Materiality in West Africa (University of Chicago Press, 2016), a study of the dense materiality and rich signifying qualities of African print cloth.
Sean Woolfrey is a Senior Policy Advisor at the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). He is responsible for developing and coordinating IISD’s research on how trade, investment and equitable markets in food and agriculture can serve to promote food security, improve livelihoods, reduce inequality, and ensure more responsible use the planet’s resources. Prior to joining IISD, Sean worked at the European Centre for Development Policy Management, where his work covered topics relating to African and European trade, the political economy of regional integration in Africa and the sustainability of African food systems.