Global and International Studies Building, 1016
Research Summary
Pinaud is an expert on South Sudan, African civil wars and genocide. Her research concerns the history of South Sudan's second and third civil wars. She explores wartime processes of social class formation, state-building and violence, including genocide. Trained as a political scientist and a historian, her approach is inter-disciplinary and her findings are based on extensive field research in South Sudan, where she has worked for international aid agencies since 2009. Her doctoral dissertation delved into the relationship between women and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) during the second civil war in South Sudan (1983-2005). Her publications have focused on various aspects of South Sudan’s history, including the making of a national history, women’s military history, the SPLA's predatory behaviors and marital practices, sexual violence, and genocide.
Pinaud's book, War and Genocide in South Sudan (Cornell University Press, 2021) explores the relationship between predatory wealth accumulation, state formation, and a form of racism—extreme ethnic group entitlement—that has the potential to result in genocide. It offers a new political history of South Sudan’s two civil wars that includes a reflection on socio-economic and demographic processes that involve women. This book illustrates her broader interest in the relationship between violence, predation, military allegiance and gendered processes of social class and state formation from 1983 to the present.
Educational Background
- Ph.D., History, Paris Sorbonne University, 2013.
- M.A. & B.A., Political Science, Sciences Po Lille, 2009
Regions of Interest
- South Sudan
- Africa
Research Topics
- Military history
- Women’s history
- War economy
- Sexual and gender-based violence
- Kinship
- Social classes
- State-building
- Political violence
Representative Publications
Books
February 2021, War and Genocide in South Sudan, Cornell University Press
June 2021, Rebel Economies. Warlords, Insurgents, Humanitarians; ed. Nicola Di Cosmo, Didier Fassin, and Clémence Pinaud; Rowman and Littlefield
Peer Reviewed Publications
“Genocidal Rape in South Sudan: Organization, Function and Effects”, in Human Rights Quarterly, Vol. 42 (3), August 2020, pp. 667-694 https://muse.jhu.edu/article/761353
- June 2016, "Military Kinship, Inc.: Patronage, inter-ethnic marriages and social classes in South Sudan", in Review of African Political Economy, http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/crea20/current
- October 2015, ""We are trained to be married!” Elite formation and ideology in the Sudan People's Liberation Army's "Girls' battalion" Ketiba Banat", in Journal of Eastern African Studies, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17531055.2015.1091638
- April 2014, “South Sudan: Civil War, Predation and the Making of a Military Aristocracy”, in African Affairs, 113/451 (2014), pp. 192–211½http://afraf.oxfordjournals.org/content/113/451/192.abstract
- February 2014, “Are "Griefs of More Value Than Triumphs"? Power Relations, Nation-Building and the Different Histories of Women’s Wartime Contributions in Post-War South Sudan”, in Journal of Northeast African Studies Northeast African Studies, Vol. 13, No. 2 (2013), pp. 151-176 | http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.14321/nortafristud.13.2.0151?uid=365974511&uid=3738176&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=31694&uid=3&uid=67&uid=62&sid=21104016237043
Writing in the media and think tanks:
- 11 July 2016, “Who’s behind South Sudan’s return to fighting?”, African Arguments’ website. http://africanarguments.org/2016/07/11/whos-behind-south-sudans-return-to-fighting/
- July 2015, “Conflict and Extremist-Related Sexual Violence: An International Security Threat”, United States Institute of Peace Brief, with Kerry Crawford, Nicole Gerring, Sabrina Karim, Chloé Lewis, and Caroline Sarkis. http://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/PB187-Conflict-and-Extremist-Related-Sexual-Violence.pdf
- March 2015, “The War in South Sudan: Briefing Note”, Observatoire des Enjeux Politiques et Sécuritaires dans la Corne de l’Afrique, Laboratoire des Afriques dans le Monde, Sciences Po Bordeaux.