Daphne Engel is a lecturer at International Studies, where she teaches courses around (African) history and Political Economy. Daphne Engel is a historian and political economist. She fulfills her PhD at the Institute for History. Her research focuses on the political economy of aid in Central- and East African regions and their historical context in relation to disaster & conflict, mobilities, local economies, local ecology, financial institutes, government bodies, and the international economy at large.

More information about Daphne Engel

Fields of interest

Refugeehood, mobilities, conflict & disaster, humanitarian aid, political economy, history Africa

Research

My research connects & compares country case studies on the history of conflict, humanitarianism & mobility in the Sahel, the Horn of Africa & the Middle East (e.g. Kenya, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Jordan). Within these countries, I specifically explore large-scale refugee camps, and unravel their development that led to new ways of existing for its residents. I focus on the economic development-trajectory refugee camps took, whereby camps emerged as a catalyst for (economic) change in their environment via a spillover effect, causing financial, business and, more generally, livelihood opportunities. On the other hand, the expanding refugee camps have come with its own challenges for development, as they are now framed within a Western economic geography. My research challenges this norm, and aims to offer an African perspective to solutions in refugeehood in (emerging) refugee camps and settlements. Such research is vital, since diaspora movements increasingly expand, and much (economic) development fund is put into solutions to refugeehood in the Global South.

Selected publications

Book Review: Obeng-Odoom, Franklin. 2020: Property, Institutions and Social Stratification in Africa