Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant in Cultural Anthropology: Raiding and Sovereignty in Borderlands

杜克大学博士生路易莎隆巴德，教授查尔斯皮奥特的监督下，将进行民族志研究的作用，突袭国家的形成和治理，在政治主权不明确举行的任何一个政治实体。社会科学理论和国际援助机构都倾向于忽视袭击的政治作用。本研究将探讨两个重要的问题：（1）在历史上被掠夺的边疆地区，主权和治理的形式是什么？(2)新出现的国际治理形式如何插入并影响持续存在袭击的地方主权？研究将在中非共和国东北部边境地区进行，那里有各种重叠的部队，机构和利益巡逻和监管该地区。研究人员将特别探讨两个地点的袭击动态：一个是东北部的一个城镇，在那里保护民兵打击偷猎者;另一个是附近由联合国监督的难民营。研究人员将采用社会科学方法的混合，包括参与者观察，绘图，访谈和档案分析。这些数据将使她能够跟踪在边境地区运作的多种形式的治理及其对主权，国家和国际法概念的影响。这项研究很重要，因为它将阐明有争议领土上治理、冲突和和平建设的复杂过程。 这项研究将有助于社会科学的治理理论和冲突后政策的制定。资助这项研究也支持社会科学家的教育。

Duke University doctoral student Louisa Lombard, under the supervision of Professor Charles Piot, will undertake ethnographic research on the role of raiding in relation to state formation and governance, in areas where political sovereignty is not clearly held by any one political entity. Both social science theory and international aid agencies tend to sideline the political role of raiding. This researcher will investigate two overarching questions: (1) What forms of sovereignty and governance operate in borderland areas shaped by a history of raiding? (2) How do newly-arrived international forms of governance insert themselves into and affect local sovereignties where persistent raiding exists?The research will be carried out in the northeastern borderlands of the Central African Republic (CAR) where a variety of overlapping forces, institutions, and interests patrol and regulate the area. The researcher will explore the dynamics of raiding in two sites in particular: one, a northeastern town, where conservation militias combat poachers; the other, a nearby refugee camp overseen by the United Nations. The researcher will employ a mix of social science methods including participant observation, mapping, interviews, and archival analysis. These data will allow her to track the multiple forms of governance that operate in borderlands area and their implications for conceptions of sovereignty, the state, and international law. The research is important because it will illuminate complicated processes of governance, conflict, and peace-building in disputed territories. The research will contribute to social science theory of governance and to post-conflict policy creation. Funding this research also supports the education of a social scientist.