Natasja Rupesinghe has been awarded this year’s British International Studies Association’s (BISA) Michael Nicholson Prize for her thesis titled, Community Responses to Jihadist Mobilisation in Central Mali.
In her thesis, Natasja explores how rural communities in central Mali navigated the challenges posed by a local jihadist rebellion affiliated with Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), a key jihadist actor in the Sahel region. While the civil war in Mali initially broke out in the north, the conflict gradually shifted southward, and from 2015 onwards, central Mali emerged as the primary battleground.
Rupesinghe's research focuses on the ways in which communities responded to escalating violence, examining why certain communities chose to collaborate with the jihadist rebels, while others opted for resistance, often through the formation of self-defense groups or militias.
“Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in difficult terrain, Rupesinghe presents a micro-analysis of how local communities engage with insurgents in civil wars, highlighting the importance of local grievances, political economies, and the changing dynamics of war,” praised the BISA prize committee.
Upon receiving the prize, Natasja expressed gratitude to the Malian communities and collaborators who made her research possible: "I'm truly humbled to receive the Michael Nicholson award from the British International Studies Association, which honours the legacy of Michael Nicholson. This dissertation would not have been possible without the steadfast collaboration and support from my Malian colleagues over the years. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to the countless people who shared their knowledge and experiences of the war with me during what was a particularly difficult time in Mali's history. I hope my work has done justice to their stories."
The Michael Nicholson Thesis Prize is awarded annually for the best doctoral thesis in International Studies. The prize is named after the late Michael Nicholson, formerly Professor of International Relations at the Universities of Kent and Sussex.