9-12 JUNE 2025

THEME: ‘WAR MAKES STATES AND STATES MAKE WAR’

Led by Nicki Kindersley and Raga Makawi

Failed transitions, war and economic collapse have shaped Sudan and South Sudan in the last year. Our course will tackle immediate questions of the dynamics of regime collapse and violent contestation for control and the political economies of famine, mass displacement and forced migration. It also explores the historical structures of how armies and conflicts work; the renewed political economies of violence; the impacts of changing climate, extractive economies, labour markets and food systems; and generative civic action under extreme conditions of violence and instability.

The course team of academics and activists will discuss new research insights into Sudanese and South Sudanese definitions of democracy; sovereignty as part of emerging grassroots political projects; genealogies of armies and security systems; the politics of humanitarian aid; and the more recent antiwar projects and a possible long-term transition into peace.

The fee for the course is USD 3,850.

Learn more about RVI’s education and training programme here.