Bio

I am an Assistant Professor in Human Geography at Durham University. As a feminist political and economic geographer, I'm interested in the intersections of global geopolitics, migration, international development and humanitarian response. For almost 20 years, my professional work and scholarship has focused on the experiences of both forced and economic migrants as they seek to reconstruct their lives and livelihoods in the wake of conflict. Regionally, I focus on East and Central Africa and the Horn. Together with Prof. Loren Landau (U. Witwatersrand), and Dr. Serawit Debele (Max Plank MMG), I run the Academy for African Urban Diversity, a graduate training and networking event for doctoral students focusing on urban Africa.

extended biography

extended biography

In October 2018, I joined the Geography Department at Durham University as an Assistant Professor in Human Geography. In my new role I’ll be continuing

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Research Interests

I'm particularly interested in the everyday practices of movement and future seeking at various scales—e.g. within the city, throughout regions, or across deserts, seas and oceans—that characterize the lives of many young people in eastern and central Africa. In this context, the distinction between labor migration, displacement, opportunity seeking, investment, and adventure is often blurred as migrants navigate multiply constituted precarities. My research brings an analysis of contemporary humanitarian practice into conversation with empirically rich and ethnographically informed ground-up perspectives on migrants in post-conflict places. These interests have so far coalesced around three main projects: Imaginaries of Opportunity, Urban Attractions and Returning to South Sudan. More details can be found below.

Imaginaries of Opportunity:
Imaginaries of Opportunity:
Imaginaries of Opportunity

Precarious labor and migrant flows in the shadow of humanitarian urbanism. We know that complex emergencies bring influxes of skilled professionals and foreign currency to

Imaginaries of Opportunity:
Urban Attractions:
Urban Attractions:
Urban Attractions

Returnee youth, mobility and the search for a future in South Sudan’s regional towns. This project (completed in late 2011) explored the various ways that

Urban Attractions:
Returning to South Sudan:
Returning to South Sudan:
Returning to South Sudan

A political economy of refugee return migration. My dissertation examines how people’s everyday life and habits have been transformed by living in a refugee camp,

Returning to South Sudan:

Teaching

AFRICAN STUDIES:

  • Introduction to Contemporary Africa (AFR 110)
  • Poverty in Africa (AFR 209)

GEOGRAPHY:

  • International Development & Environmental Change (GEOG 270)
  • Introduction to Human Geography (GEOG 200)
  • Migration & the Global Economy (GEOG 344)
  • Introduction to Globalization (GEOG / SIS 123)

PEACE & DEVELOPMENT STUDIES:

  • Research Design (Graduate level)
  • Research Methodologies (Graduate level)
  • Research Ethics(Graduate level)
  • Human Rights in Culture and Practice (ANTH 323 / LSJ 321)

Contact Info

Léonie S. Newhouse


Research Fellow

Department of Socio-Cultural Diversity

MPI for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity

Hermann-Foge-Weg 11

37073 Göttingen

Germany


newhouse[at]mmg[dot]mpg[dot]de

+49 (551) 4956 - 117