Dr Rachel Ibreck

Rachel’s research centres on the politics of human rights, justice and civil society in the context of conflict and genocide, principally in Africa. Her expertise in this area is based on interdisciplinary academic research and activist engagement. She is interested in settings which have been sites of atrocities, and laboratories for international interventions in peacekeeping, peacebuilding and humanitarian response. In particular she focuses on the agency of marginalised groups in the pursuit of rights, justice and peace, including through ethnographic and participatory action research methodologies.

Rachel has published on the politics of memory in post-genocide Rwanda, based on PhD research, and is continuing to explore the relationship between mourning, identity and rights after or during mass violence. Another stream of research focuses on land conflict, including transnational and local resistance to ‘land grabbing’ in Africa. She has also worked on everyday experiences of justice amid conflict in South Sudan as part of the Justice and Security Research Programme at LSE.

Academic Qualifications

• PhD Politics and International Relations, University of Bristol (2009).
• MSc Social Science Research Methods, University of Bristol (2004).
• MA Area Studies Africa, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London (1995).                 

Teaching

Rachel was previously based at the London School of Economics in 2014-16, the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London in 2013-14 and the University of Limerick in 2011-13, and has taught peace and conflict, human rights, development, African politics, humanitarianism.

Current teaching:

• The Politics of Conflict and Peacebuilding in Africa: 3rd year undergraduate
• Global Governance: 2nd year undergraduate
• The Politics of Human Rights: MA option

Area of supervision

Rachel is interested in supervising topics relating to human rights activism, justice and peacebuilding in conflict-affected or post conflict settings, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, and in the use of political ethnography and participatory action research methodologies.

Professional projects

Rachel previously worked in human rights research, most recently as former director of Justice Africa. She continues to collaborate with practitioners – a current initiative involves developing an archive of court observations in South Sudan.

Recent Publications

Rachel Ibreck (2015) A Right to Land? Activism against land grabbing in Africa’, in Advocacy in Conflict, Critical Perspectives on Transnational Activism, Alex de Waal (ed) London: Zed Books.

Rachel Ibreck (2013) ‘International Constructions of National Memories: The Aims and Effects of Donor Support for Genocide Remembrance in Rwanda’, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 7:2, pp. 149-169.

Rachel Ibreck and Alex de Waal, (2013) ‘Hybrid Social Movements in Africa’, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 31:2, pp. 303-324.

Rachel Ibreck (2012) ‘The Time of Mourning: The Politics of Commemorating the Tutsi Genocide in Rwanda’ in Philip Lee and Pradip Thomas (eds) Public Memory, Public Media, and the Politics of Justice, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 98-120.

Rachel Ibreck (2010) ‘The Politics of Mourning: Survivor Contributions to Memorials in Post-Genocide Rwanda’, Memory Studies, 3:4, pp. 330-343.

Other interests

Rachel is interested in collaborations with civil society activists in Africa on research of mutual concern. This working paper co-authored with Naomi Pendle (2016) highlights initial findings from a partnership to develop an archive of customary and statutory court observations in South Sudan: Customary Protection? Chiefs’ Courts as Public Authority in UN Protection of Civilians Sites in South Sudan

She is also exploring new ways to make research findings accessible to wider audiences. This cartoon on Seeking Justice in South Sudan co-authored with Victor Ndula, Godfrey Bulla and Alex de Waal, (2015) is based on participatory action research on a land dispute in Juba, South Sudan.