Contact details
- Name:
- Dr Jennifer Melvin
- Position/Fellowship type:
- Associate Research Fellow
- Institute:
- Institute of Commonwealth Studies
- Home institution:
- Institute of Commonwealth Studies
- Email address:
- jennifer.melvin@sas.ac.uk
Research Summary and Profile
- Research interests:
- Globalization & Development, Human rights, Politics
- Regions:
- Africa
- Summary of research interests and expertise:
-
Dr Jennifer Melvin is a Guest Teacher in International Development at LSE, where her research sits at the intersection of power, politics, and post-conflict recovery. She holds an MA in the Theory and Practice of Human Rights (Essex) and a PhD in Sociology (University of London).
Her foundational work examined post-genocide Rwanda, drawing on ethnographic fieldwork at gacaca courts and with genocide survivors, officials, and communities to explore how the RPF government pursued reconciliation and reconstruction. This research culminated in her sole-authored book, Reconciling Rwanda: Unity, Nationality and State Control.
Her scholarship has since broadened to interrogate how power shapes development and migration policies in the UK and African countries in the Commonwealth. Recent work explores remittances within UK-African diasporic relations, the role of Aid for Trade discourse in British development policy, and the aftereffects of the UK-Rwanda asylum deal in the Great Lakes Region.
Her current projects examine the application of the cessation clause for Rwanda refugees in Uganda, the role of diaspora nurses in development and humanitarian response, and how partnership is conceived in the UK’s ‘new approach to Africa’ framework.