Archaeology and History

Photo of Professor Stacey Hynd

Professor Stacey Hynd

BA, MSt, D.Phil (Oxon)

Professor of African and Global History

s.hynd@exeter.ac.uk

4323

01392 724323

Overview

My primary research interests are in conflict and humanitarianism in Africa. I am Principal Investigator on the AHRC grant  ‘Children at War: An Historical Analysis of Child and Youth Combatants in African Conflicts, c. 1890-2010’,  which traces historical patterns in the recruitment and use of child soldiers across Africa, and also analyzes the evolution of humanitarian campaigning and transnational advocacy against children's involvement in conflict in 1970s to the present. I am interested more widely in African gender histories, histories of youth and childhood, violence and warfare in Africa, anti-landmine campaigning, and in global histories of humanitarianism and human rights. My other research interests are in the history of law, violence and punishment in Africa, particularly on the death penalty in British colonial Africa.

I am Dean of Postgraduate Research and of the Doctoral College, and Co-Director of the Exeter Centre for Research on Africa.

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Research

My research has two main strands.  My major research project ‘Children at War: An Historical Analysis of Child and Youth Combatants in African Conflicts, c. 1890-2010’ [AHRC Standard Grant, £946, 643] provides the first historical analysis of the phenomenon of child combatants in Africa, delivering new insights into histories of warfare, childhood and youth, human rights and humanitarianism. This project brings historical methodologies into inter-disciplinary frameworks for analysing contemporary child soldiering, engaging with international relations, sociology, anthropology, international humanitarian law, and psychology. The project covers sub-Saharan Africa from the nineteenth to twenty-first centuries, with a focus on Anglophone and Francophone territories, and is also integrated into the global history of children in armed conflict, and global histories of humanitarianism.

I have published on child soldiers and transitional/social justice, forced marriage and sexual slavery, gendering rehabilitation and reintegration programming, youth militarization, trauma in child soldier memoirs, gen[d]erationalizing children’s involvement in anti-colonial insurgency and the evolution of humanitarian campaigning against children’s involvement in armed conflict. I am interested more widely in African gender histories, histories of youth and childhood, violence and warfare in Africa, anti-landmine campaigning, and in global histories of humanitarianism and human rights.

My other focus is on African criminal and penal histories, particularly on the history of murder and capital punishment in British colonial Africa. In this field, I have worked on domestic violence, female criminality, juvenile delinquency, prisons, convict labour, penal reform, race in colonial criminal justice, and the relationship between colonial law, violence and counterinsurgency. My monograph Imperial Gallows: Murder, Violence and the Death Penalty in British Africa, c. 1915-60 (London: Bloomsbury, 2023) is the first comparative historical study of the death penalty in Africa and the British Empire. I have particularly specialised in Kenya, Malawi and Ghana in these fields.  



Research collaborations

I am part of the Global Humanitarianism Research Academy with the University of Mainz and the International Committee of the Red Cross: http://ghra.ieg-mainz.de/. I am also a member of the Leverhulme-funded 'Understanding Insurgencies' research network across Exeter, Oxford, Warwick, Glasgow, CNRS Paris, Quebec, and KITLV Leiden. http://understandinginsurgencies.exeter.ac.uk/

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Supervision

I am the Dean of Postgraduate Research and the Doctoral College at Exeter. I was previously the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Director of Postgraduate Research. I am a very keen PhD supervisor and am happy to supervise students in the fields of African history, imperial/global history, and histories of humanitarianism, and in particular those with an interest in the following areas:

  • histories of colonial law
  • crime and punishment
  • death penalty
  • violence
  • conflict and warfare
  • transitional justice and post-conflict reconciliation
  • human rights
  • histories of global humanitarianism
  • gender
  • childhood and youth
  • human-non-human animal relations

I have acted as an external PhD examiner in African Studies for SOAS, Leeds and Birmingham.

Research students

I am currently supervising the following doctoral candidates:

  • Polly Winfield, PhD in Social and Policy Sciences, University of Bath and University of Exeter, ESRC SW DTP doctoral studentship holder (2019-22): ‘Between Recognition and Resistance: Performing (Hi)stories in Constitution Hill and Hillbrow, South Africa’.
  • Francesca Baldwin, PhD in History, University of Reading and University of Exeter, AHRC SWW DTP doctoral studentship holder (2021-24): ‘Gender, Militarism and Generational Legacies of War in Women’s Narratives of Civil Conflict in Tigray, Ethiopia (1974 – Present)’.
  • Xingyuan Wang, PhD in Anthrozoology, China Scholarship Council doctoral studentship holder (2021-24): ‘The Interactions between Humans and Animals in the Tourist Activities of East Africa’.
  • Liang Wan, PhD in History, Wellcome 'Connecting Three Worlds' doctoral studentship holder (2021-4): ‘The Golden Needle: Chinese Acupuncture’s Socialist Transformation and Its International Communication, ca. 1956-1989’.
  • Lauren Cochrane, PhD in History, University of Exeter and University of Southampton, AHRC SWW DTP2 Doctoral Studentship (2022-2025), ‘Visualising Violence: Mau Mau and British Memories of Colonial Violence’.
  • Desirée Acholla, PhD in History, University of Southampton, University of Exeter and ODI, AHRC SWW DTP2 Collaborative Doctoral Award (2022-25), ‘The Overseas Development Institute: From Decolonization to Decolonizing’.
  • Ayoolowatomi Adesina, PhD in Creative Writing, University of Exeter Humanities Global Excellence Studentship (2022-25), ‘Meet me on Tuesday: Redressing Dominant Fictional Narratives of Old Age in Nigeria’.
  • Chiedozie Obia, MPhil/PhD in History, University of Exeter and University of Cardiff, AHRC SWWDTP2 Doctoral Studentship (2023-26), ‘Sexual Violence, State and Society: A Historical Study of Responses to Sexual Violence in South-Eastern Nigeria, 1940-90’.
  • Marlen von Reith, part-time distance-learning PhD in History (2019-24): ‘The evolution of western political discourse on child soldiering since 1945: a comparative analysis of Britain and West Germany’. 
  • Godfred Diawuo, MPhil/PhD in Law, The Role of Ghanaian Akan Customary Marriage within the Common Law Jurisdiction’ (2023-26).

My completed PhD students are:

  • Beth Rebisz (History, AHRC SWW DTP) on women and humanitarian interventions in the Mau Mau Emergency, Kenya, 1952-59.
  • Diana Valencia Duarte (History, Exeter Global Excellence scholar) on food in/security and environmental history in Colombia c.1960-90
  • Robin Fiore (Anthrozoology) on human-wildlife conflict in Kenya 
  • Betsy Lewis-Holmes (History) on health, fitness and exercise for girls in Victorian England
  • Stuart Mole - the Commonwealth and Apartheid South Africa.
  • Charlotte Kelsted (History, AHRC SWW DTP) on British women and intimate colonialisms in mandate Palestine
  • Rhian Keyse (History, AHRC) - on forced/early marriage in British colonial Africa, c. 1920-50s.
  • Emily Bridger (History, Exeter International Scholarship) on female youth in the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa.
  • Temilola Alanamu (History, Exeter International Scholarship) - gendered lifecycles in nineteenth-century Abeokuta, Nigeria.
  • Elizabeth Laruni (History, Exeter Home/EU Scholarship) - political mobilization of Acholi identity in Northern Uganda, 1960-85.
  • Gareth Curless (History, ESRC) - political economies of labour and violence in Sudan.

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Publications

Copyright Notice: Any articles made available for download are for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the copyright holder.

| To Appear | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2008 | 2007 |

To Appear

  • Hynd S. Kenya: A Country in the Making, 1880-1940. By Nigel Pavitt, History: A Journal of the Historical Association.

2023

2022

  • Valencia Duarte D. (2022) The Peasant Food Question: Agrarian Reforms, Depeasantisation and Food Sovereignty in Dispute, Colombia, 1961-2013.
  • Braatz E, Bruce-Lockhart K, Hynd S. (2022) Introduction: African penal histories in global perspective, PUNISHMENT & SOCIETY-INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PENOLOGY, volume 24, no. 5, pages 759-770, article no. ARTN 14624745221109542, DOI:10.1177/14624745221109542. [PDF]
  • Reeves J. (2022) The Freedom Theatre/Bus: The Challenges of Narrative-Formation in Palestine.

2021

2020

  • Mole S. (2020) The Commonwealth, South Africa and Apartheid.
  • Hynd S. (2020) In/visible Girls: ‘Girl Soldiers’, Gender and Humanitarianism in African Conflicts, c.1955-2005, Gendering Humanitarianism in the Twentieth Century: Practice, Politics and the Power of Representation, Palgrave Macmillan, 255-280.
  • Hynd S. (2020) Small Warriors? Children and Youth in Colonial Insurgencies and Counterinsurgency, ca. 1945–1960, Comparative Studies in Society and History: an international quarterly, volume 62.4, pages 684-713, DOI:10.1017/S0010417520000250. [PDF]

2019

  • Keyse R. (2019) Imperial, International, and Local Responses to Early and Forced Marriage in British Colonial Africa, c.1920-1962.

2018

2015

2014

2013

  • Hynd S. (2013) Warfare in African history, INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, volume 89, no. 1, pages 227-228. [PDF]

2012

  • Hynd S. (2012) Murder and Mercy: Capital Punishment in Colonial Kenya, ca. 1909-1956, International Journal of African Historical Studies, volume 45, no. 1, pages 81-101. [PDF]

2011

  • Hynd S. (2011) Law, violence and penal reform: State responses to crime and disorder in colonial Malawi, c.1900-1959, Journal of Southern African Studies, volume 37, no. 3, pages 431-447, DOI:10.1080/03057070.2011.602884.
  • Hynd S. (2011) ‘Law, Violence and Penal Reform: State Responses to Crime and Disorder in Nyasaland, c.1915-64’,, Journal of Southern African Studies, volume 37, no. 1, pages 431-447. [PDF]
  • Hynd S. (2011) 'Law and Justice and the Colonial Order on the Gold Coast: The Role of Colonial Judges, 1858-57', Judging the Empire: Judicial Authorities and Legal Systems in the British Empire, University Of Oxford, edited volume - tbc.

2010

  • Hynd S. (2010) Africa 1957-89; The Horn of Africa Since 1989; The Democratic Republic of Congo: Conflict and Crisis; African Democratization since 1989, The Times Complete History of the World, Times Books, 318-325.
  • Hynd S. (2010) Murder and the Social Body: The Rule of Law, Judicial Violence and Colonial Control on the Gold Coast, c.1858-1947, Empire: Legality, Locality, Authority, University Of Plymouth.
  • Hynd S. (2010) 'Subject to Death: Capital Punishment, Intra-African Murder and the Colonial State in British Africa , c.1900-40, Votare con i piedi: amminstrazione coloniale, borderlands e mobilita delgi individui nell'Africa coloniale italiana, Universita Degle Studi Di Macerata, 14th - 15th Oct 2010.
  • Hynd S. (2010) ‘From “Pickpockets” to “Pilot Boys”: Juvenile Delinquency on the Gold Coast, 1920-57’, African Studies Association United Kingdom Conference, University Of Oxford, St Anthony's College, 16th - 19th Sep 2010.
  • Hynd S. (2010) "The extreme penalty of the law": Mercy and the death penalty as aspects of state power in colonial Nyasaland, c. 1903-47, Journal of Eastern African Studies, volume 4, no. 3, pages 542-559, DOI:10.1080/17531055.2010.517422.
  • Hynd S. (2010) Sara Baartman and the Hottentot Venus: A Ghost Story and a Biography, HISTORY, volume 95, no. 319, pages 357-357, DOI:10.1111/j.1468-229X.2010.00490_4.x. [PDF]
  • Hynd S. (2010) A History of Modern Africa: 1800 to the Present, HISTORY, volume 95, no. 319, pages 356-356, DOI:10.1111/j.1468-229X.2010.00490_3.x. [PDF]
  • Hynd S. (2010) The African Diaspora: A History through Culture, HISTORY, volume 95, no. 319, pages 355-356, DOI:10.1111/j.1468-229X.2010.00490_2.x. [PDF]
  • Hynd S. (2010) A History of Sub-Saharan Africa, HISTORY, volume 95, no. 319, pages 354-355, DOI:10.1111/j.1468-229X.2010.00490_1.x. [PDF]
  • Hynd S. (2010) ‘The Extreme Penalty of the Law’: Capital Punishment as an Aspect of State Power in Colonial Nyasaland, c.1900-47, Journal of Eastern African Studies, volume 4, no. 3, pages 542-559.
  • Hynd S. (2010) Fatal Families: Narratives of Spousal Killing and Domestic Violence in Murder Trials in Kenya and Nyasaland, c.1930-56, Domestic Violence and the Law in Africa, Ohio University Press, 159-178.

2008

2007

  • Hynd S. (2007) Deadlier than the Male?: Women and the Death Penalty in Colonial Kenya and Nyasaland, Stichproben: Vienna Journal of African Studies, volume 12, pages 13-33.

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External impact and engagement



Contribution to discipline

I am a two-term Council member of the African Studies Association of the United Kingdom

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Teaching

I teach broadly across the field of modern African history, with a strong interdisciplinary focus, drawing perspectives from anthropology, politics, law, and development studies. My teaching is strongly informed by my research, with a focus on gender and youth histories, as well as issues related to conflict, humanitarianism and human rights, and I work with my students to historize and stage critical discussions and debates on contemporary issues ranging from war crimes and development aid to gender and sexual based violence, to political corruption and HIV/AIDS . I have recently been a runner up in the Student Guild Research Inspired Teaching Award. 

Modules taught

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Biography

I grew up in Scotland, Bulgaria, Russia and Tanzania. I read for a BA in Modern History at the University of Oxford, before going on to complete an MSt in Imperial and Commonwealth History at the same institution in 2003, where I wrote my dissertation on the Tanganyikan penal system, c.1920-45. After a year spent living in Egypt and Jamaica, I returned to Oxford where I completed my DPhil. in Modern History at St Cross College in 2008, where I was an AHRC Doctoral Scholarship holder and Beit Research Scholar. My doctorate was written on the subject of capital punishment in British colonial Africa. I  spent a year lecturing in African and World History at the University of Cambridge, where I was a Fellow of Wolfson College, before arriving at Exeter in September 2008.

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More information

Member of African Studies Association

Senior Member, Wolfson College Cambridge

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