Jocelyn Alexander

Jocelyn Alexander is Professor of Commonwealth Studies and Head of Department at the University of Oxford's Department of International Development (ODID). She teaches primarily on the MPhil in Development Studies and the DPhil in International Development, and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Southern African Studies and the publications committee of the International Africa Institute.

Her research interests include:

• Southern African social and political history
• Liberation movements and their legacies
• Violence and memory
• Political imprisonment
• Rural politics and state-making
• Political & International Dimensions of Development
• Sub-Saharan Africa

Professor Alexander is currently working on a Leverhulme-funded collaborative research project titled 'Global Soldiers in the Cold War: Making southern Africa's liberation armies', and writing a history of political imprisonment in Zimbabwe. Her research uses qualitative methodologies, notably oral history and archival research, and she is interested in cross-disciplinary approaches combining history, anthropology, politics, and literature.

Her recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on transnational histories of Southern African liberation movements, political imprisonment in Zimbabwe, and the legacies of violence in post-colonial states. She has made significant contributions to understanding the connections between liberation movements, the Cold War context, and the formation of post-colonial states in Southern Africa.

Scientific awards:

• Leverhulme grant for project on Cold War-era 'global soldiers' (2019)

Professor Alexander has supervised numerous doctoral students working on topics related to Southern African politics, history, and development. She has also co-authored important works including 'Violence and Memory: One Hundred Years in the 'Dark Forests' of Matabeleland' (2000) and authored 'The Unsettled Land: The Politics of Land and State-making in Zimbabwe, 1893-2003' (2006).

She has taught at Sussex and Bristol Universities and has been a Research Associate at the University of Zimbabwe, bringing extensive regional experience to her academic work.