Naomi Pendle

Dr. Naomi Pendle is a Reader in the Department of Social & Policy Sciences at the University of Bath, with affiliations to the Centre for Development Studies, Centre for Death and Society, and Centre for the Study of Violence. She also holds a Visiting Fellow position at the London School of Economics since September 2021.

Her research focuses on governance during armed conflict, famine and crisis, with particular expertise in armed groups, patterns of violence, protection of civilians and peace. She has conducted extensive ethnographic and qualitative research on South Sudan since 2010 and is currently completing a socio-legal study of famine. Her work strongly emphasizes collaboration with local researchers in field contexts, supporting them to co-author and sole author publications.

Dr. Pendle is Principal Investigator for several major research projects including "Politics of Famine" (EU Horizon 2020, 2025-2029), "Social and political meanings of death during famine" (British Academy, 2024-2026), and the "CPAID project with LSE" (ESRC, 2022-2025). Her research contributes to multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals related to peace, justice, and strong institutions.

Her recent scholarly output demonstrates a strong focus on the intersection of violence, governance, and humanitarian response, with particular attention to South Sudan, famine contexts, and the social dimensions of death and bereavement. Her work spans political science, anthropology, and socio-legal studies, employing primarily qualitative and ethnographic methodologies.

Dr. Pendle has been actively engaged in academic events including the Development Studies Association Conference 2025, "Conversations on More-than-Human Loss" (2024), and presentations on "Everyday Politics of Famine" and "Hunger as a Weapon of War and Genocide."