Department of Development Studies
Professor Zoë Marriage
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Key information
Key information
- Roles
- Department of Development Studies Professor of Security and International Development Centre on Conflict, Rights and Justice Member Research Cluster Convenor
- Department
- Department of Development Studies
- Qualifications
- BA (Oxon); MSc, PhD (LSE); MMus (Bath Spa); PFHEA
- Building
- Russell Square: College Buildings
- Office
- 259
- Email address
- zm2@soas.ac.uk
- Telephone number
- 020 7898 4437
Biography
Zoë Marriage is Professor of Security and International Development at the Department of Development Studies of SOAS University of London.
All Zoe's research has at its core the enquiry into how conflict, security and development interact. Zoe started off working on the question of who receives humanitarian assistance in contexts of conflict and why, carrying out research in Sierra Leone, Rwanda, the area that is now South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. She published that research as a book called “Not Breaking the Rules, Not Playing the Game” in 2006, drawing on her PhD thesis. Zoe then turned to research more intensely in DR Congo, investigating the different ways in which Congolese people conceptualise and pursue security in situations of unremitting structural and direct violence. This research led to the publication of her second book “Formal Peace and Informal War” in 2013.
A central observation of this work was that the voices of people who suffer most acutely from insecurity are routinely barred from formal security debates and policy. Zoe started to dig into research questions about other narratives – distinct from the mainstream – and how they present perspectives on, and resist, violence and conflict and construct different paths to security. A taste of this research is given by her blog on Capoeira and Security. The work led to a book, “Cultural Resistance and Security from Below”, published in 2019, that investigates how resistance is communicated through the Afro-Brazilian musical and physical art form of capoeira.
Zoe was Head of Department from 2019-2023, and is now developing a more extensive research agenda focusing on aesthetics, resistance and transformation, engaging with an array of artists and arts in Northeastern Brazil.
This work is accessible on Instagram @rede_nordestina and here: Rede Nordestina/Northeastern Network - Art, Resistance, Transformation.
Office hours
Research interests
- Conflict
- Security
- Aesthetics
- DR Congo
- Brazil
- Arts
- Resistance
PhD Supervision
| Name | Title |
|---|---|
| Lord Aikins Adusei | An island of peace in an ocean of turbulence? The case of land guards in Ghana |
| Ponsiano Bimeny | Constructions of the State, Violence and Political Settlement in South Sudan |
| Ms Hisae Kato | The meanings and experiences of work in South Kordofan, Sudan. |
| Nina Salsotto Cassina | Documenting resistance movements in the DRC: sites, forms and explanations (working title) |
Publications
Contact Zoë
- Telephone
