Dr Devon Curtis

Devon is an Official Fellow and our Adviser to Women Students. She is also Director of Studies in Human, Social, and Political Sciences (HSPS), and at the University, is Associate Professor in Politics and International Studies (POLIS).

Biography

Devon studied for her BA and MA in Political Science and Economics from McGill University, Montréal, and then completed her PhD in the Department of International Relations at the London School of Economics (LSE). She was a Hamburg Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford University, California. Devon has also held research positions at the Privy Council Office of the Government of Canada and at the United Nations Staff College. She joined the Emmanuel Fellowship in 2007, when she became Director of Studies in HSPS, and a University Lecturer in the POLIS Department. She has also been a consultant to various international non–governmental organisations and she has had fellowships at The Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University, NY, the International Peace Institute, NY, and the Centre for International Policy Studies at the University of Ottawa.

Teaching

Devon is on sabbatical leave during 2024. Across her university teaching, Devon usually supervises and lectures on 'Politics of Conflict and Peace', and 'Politics of Africa'. She also supervises postgraduates on a variety of topics in African politics and international relations. From 2025, she will be the Director of the Cambridge Centre of African Studies.

Research

Devon's main research interests and publications deal with power-sharing and governance arrangements following conflict, non–state armed movements in Africa, and critical perspectives on conflict, peacebuilding and development. Her recent work has looked at contemporary politics in the Great Lakes region of Africa, including Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with a particular focus on the politics of knowledge in international affairs and the politics of north–south and south–south engagement.