Justin Willis is Professor in History and Head of the Department at the University of Durham. He was formerly Director of the British Institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA) in Nairobi. He specializes in the modern history of eastern Africa and Sudan. He is the author of Mombasa, the Swahili and the Making of the Mijikenda (1993) and Potent Brews: A social history of alcohol in East Africa (2002), co-author of the Rift Valley Institute report, ‘Elections in Sudan: Learning from experience‘ (2009) and coeditor of The Sudan Handbook (2010). He was academic director or co-director of the RVI Sudan course, variously between 2005 and 2013, a trustee of the Rift Valley Institute from 2011 to 2015 and Chair of the Board of Trustees from 2015 to 2016.