Tessa Laing

Tessa Laing is a Visiting Fellow at the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa and serves as Peace & Justice Coordinator for the Anglican Diocese of Northern Uganda, where she leads community-driven initiatives for social and environmental change in northern Uganda since 2013, including campaigns against land evictions and for alcohol legislation enforcement.

Her educational background includes:

• Ph.D. in Development Studies, University of Cambridge
• MA in Anthropology, University of Canterbury
• BA with Honours in Political Science, University of Canterbury

Her research examines land politics, tenure history, and peasant political action in Africa, analyzing how public authority, identity, territory, and property rights shape land struggles while exploring intersections between peace-building and resistance to land expropriation. Regional expertise focuses on Northern Uganda and East Africa, with fluency in Acholi and English.

Recent publications analyze peasant resistance strategies in northern Uganda, emphasizing third-party leverage tactics and counter-hegemonic reconstruction of social structures amid state-driven land conflicts.

No scientific awards are specified in available sources.

Information regarding academic advising or research grants is not provided in the source material.

She directs a team at the Anglican Diocese developing community-led peace processes to resolve large-scale land conflicts in northern Uganda.