Naomi Pendle is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Public Authority and International Development.  Her work focuses on governance in times of conflict and famine.  Her multidisciplinary research uses ethnographic, archival, oral history and qualitative methods.  Her current research explores the everyday mobilisation of legal norms and institutions during periods of famine and conflict, including how law is used to shape dignity and equity, as well as patterns of violence and authoritarian continuity.  Most of her research draw upon her decade of experience living and researching in South Sudan.  

With a great team from South Sudan, Uganda and the UK, Naomi has started a new project on humanitarian protection called Safety of Strangers.  This project critically explores humanitarian protection norms as they are interact with everyday struggles and social contestations in South Sudan.  The research also explores how people not only seek physical protection in times of conflict, but also moral and spiritual safety.