The Sudan Handbook

10 thE sudan handbook

the International Eminent Persons Group reporting on abduction and

slavery in Sudan. He was Co-Director of the RVI Sudan Course in 2004

and Director 2005–2008.

Jok Madut Jok was born and raised in southern Sudan. He is Associate

Professor of History at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, and

author of War and Slavery in Sudan (2001) and Sudan: Race, Religion, and

Violence (2007). He is the Executive Director of the Marol Academy and

founder of the Marol School in Warrap state (www.marolacademysudan.

org). He was recently appointed Under-secretary in the Ministry of

Culture and Heritage in the Government of Southern Sudan.

Justin Willis is Professor in History at the University of Durham and

former Director of the British Institute in Eastern Africa in Nairobi. He

specializes in the modern history of Sudan and eastern Africa. He is the

author of Mombasa, the Swahili and the Making of the Mijikenda (1993), Potent

Brews: A Social History of Alcohol in East Africa (2002) and a recent Rift

Valley Institute report, Elections in Sudan: Learning from Experience (2009).

He was Director of Studies of the RVI Sudan Course 2005–2008.

LauRa JamEs is a Middle East analyst specializing in the interface

between political and economic issues. She has worked as an advisor on

the Sudanese economy for the Assessment and Evaluation Commission

monitoring the north-south peace agreement and for the UK Govern-

ment Department for International Development and the Economist

Intelligence Unit. She completed her PhD at the University of Oxford,

where she was a College Lecturer, and is the author of Nasser at War: Arab

Images of the Enemy (2006).

Munzoul Assal is Associate Professor of Social Anthropology

and Director of Graduate Affairs Administration at the University of

Khartoum. He is the Chairman of the Sudan Chapter of the Organization

for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA).

The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors His research focuses on refugees, migration, IDPs and development, in

(www.riftvalley.net).