Wendy James is Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford. Her books include The Ceremonial Animal: A new portrait of anthropology (2004) and War and Survival in Sudan’s Frontierlands: Voices from the Blue Nile (2007). She has acted as a consultant for UNHCR and other humanitarian bodies, in Southern Sudan and in Ethiopia, and is Vice-President of the British Institute in Eastern Africa.