African Networks Lab

Dr Olivier J. Walther is an Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Florida and the coordinator of the African Networks Lab. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. His current research focuses on cross-border trade and transnational political violence in West Africa.  Dr. Walther is an Associate Editor of Political Geography and a “chief” of the African Borderlands Research Network. Email: owalther@ufl.edu Twitter: @ojwalther

Matthew Pflaum is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Geography at the University of Florida. He holds an MSc in African Studies & International Development from the University of Edinburgh and an MPH in Global Health/infectious Disease from Emory University. He is interested in mobility and violence in West Africa and the factors contributing to joining militias and extremist organizations. Email: mpflaum@ufl.edu Twitter: @PflaumMatthew

Lacey Harris-Coble is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Geography at the University of Florida. She is interested in agricultural development and food security. Her research focuses on livestock trade networks in West Africa and study how border closures, disease outbreaks, droughts, and climatic factors affect regional trade. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia and a Master of Sustainable Development Practice from the University of Florida. Previously she was a project and research assistant at the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems.  Email: lharriscoble@ufl.edu

David G. Russell is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Geography at the University of Florida, starting in Fall 2022. He holds a MSc in Geography from the University of Idaho. His research has focused on quantifying the spatio-temporal patterns of political violence. Mr. Russell has conducted research at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C., and worked as a consultant to the OECD/SWAC, and as a research analyst at Princeton University’s Bridging Divides Initiative. Email: david.russell@ufl.edu Twitter: @DavidGuyRussell

Dr Valerie C. Valerio’s research focuses on using data and simulation models of value chains to study livestock production, distribution and consumption in Sub-Saharan Africa. Valerie has recently worked in mapping livestock trade networks in West Africa. She holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Biological Engineering from the University of Florida and a BSc in Industrial Engineering from the Santo Domingo Institute of Technology (Dominican Republic). E-mail: valerievalerioh@gmail.com Twitter: @v_valerioh

Dr Steven M. Radil is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics and Geosciences at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO. He holds a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Radil is a political geographer and primarily researches the spatial dimensions of political violence in the international system, including civil war, insurgency, and terrorism. In Africa, he has previously published on the diffusion of the internationalized civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and on the territorial ambitions of Islamist-inspired insurgencies. He has methodological expertise in spatial analysis, social network analysis, and Geographic Information Science and routinely uses these tools in his work. Email: steven.radil@afacademy.af.edu

Dr Moustapha Koné is an Assistant Professor in Geography at the University of Niamey, Niger. His research focuses on cross-border trade in West Africa and the role of business communities in border regions. He holds a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Bordeaux. Dr. Koné has worked as a consultant for the Stanford University’s Immigration Policy Lab. Email: konemoustapha723@gmail.com.

Dr Rafael Prieto Curiel is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Complexity Science Hub Vienna. He holds a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from University College London, and worked at Oxford University and for the Police Department in Mexico City modeling spatio-temporal patterns of crime and road accidents. His research has focused on constructing quantitative models of social aspects such as crime, fear of crime, violence, migration, and terrorism. Email: rafael.prieto.13@ucl.ac.uk Twitter: @rafaelprietoc