Sophie Nakueira holds a PhD in Public Law and an LLM in Commercial Law, from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Her research lies at the intersection of law, criminology, and anthropology. She has lectured on cutting-edge topics in various capacities as guest lecturer or lecturer in these disciplines at universities in Switzerland, Scotland Belgium, and South Africa. At the University of Zurich, she taught law and anthropology and migration in east Africa. At the University of Antwerp, her seminars have focused on complex legal questions with an empirical focus on how they manifest in African humanitarian contexts. At the University of Cape Town her seminars focused on security governance/plural policing.

Empirically, Nakueira’s research focuses on the factors and actors that shape refugees’ experiences of vulnerability. Theoretically, her research focuses on plural ordering or plural governance in fragile contexts or global spaces. In particular she investigates the interaction between state and non-state forms of governance and their effects in humanitarian contexts.

Nakueira’s current research project ‘Vulnerability and Technology’ is funded by the Chair of Human Understanding of Algorithms and Machines at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. This project explores the impact of AI and emerging technology in humanitarian contexts.