Susanne Jaspars is an independent researcher working on the social and political dynamics of food security, livelihoods and nutrition in situations of conflict, famine and humanitarian crisis. She is currently a Research Associate at the Food Studies Centre at SOAS, University of London, and at the Conflict and Civil Society Research Unit at LSE. She works mostly in the Horn of Africa, in particular Sudan.
Following an MSc in Human Nutrition at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1986, Susanne started her career as a nutritionist working for organisations such as MSF, UNHCR, the World Food Programme and Oxfam. She combined this with applied research, starting with a Visiting Fellowship at the Institute of Development Studies in Brighton in 1989 and later as a Senior Research Fellow at the Overseas Development Institute’s Humanitarian Policy Group in London (2008-2010). Susanne recently completed a PhD in Politics, examining the history and politics of food aid in Sudan, at the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies at Bristol University. She has published a number of books, academic articles and policy reports, including: ‘Food Aid in Sudan. A History of Politics, Power and Profit’ (Zed Books) based on her PhD. She is on the editorial board of Disasters journal and on the executive committee of the International Humanitarian Studies Association.