Cindy Horst

Research Professor

Research Interests

  • Culture and violent conflict
  • Everyday resistance
  • Active citizenship
  • Mobility and transnationalism affecting (national) identities
  • The impact of transnationalism on (post-)conflict situations
  • Interactions between refugees and the refugee regime
  • Refugee Livelihoods
  • Diaspora Engagements
  • Ethical and Methodological challenges of fieldwork in conflict situations

Background

​​​​​​​​Cindy Horst is  Research Professor in Migration and Refugee Studies and co-director of the PRIO Centre on Culture and Violent Conflict. Her current research focuses on how individuals,  including artists and academics, can challenge the status quo and effect societal change in (post-)conflict settings. In her research on (transnational) civic engagement, she asks questions that problematise normative ideas of 'active citizenship', exploring how people living in culturally and religiously diverse societies engage with their surroundings. She also researches civic support for social justice, humanitarianism and development, including diaspora engagement with regions of origin and the transnational activities of refugees. Cindy is especially interested in innovative research methodologies that foster a critical and ethically conscious engagement with the theme of study, through shared anthropology and multi-sited ethnography. Cindy is the author of Transnational Nomads: How Somalis cope with refugee life in the Dadaab camps of Kenya (Berghahn, 2006). Her recent publications include 'Miracles in dark times: Hannah Arendt and refugees as 'vanguard'', Journal of Refugee Studies (2021), co-authored with professor Odin Lysaker,  and 'A foreign policy actor of importance? The role of the Somali diaspora in shaping Norwegian policy towards Somalia', Foreign Policy Analysis (2019), co-authored with doctoral researcher Ebba Tellander. 

Languages spoken:

Dutch (mother tongue), English (fluent), Norwegian (good), German, (intermediate), French (basic), Somali (basic),

Work Experience:

Moderator of the Refugee Livelihoods Network, UNHCR
Researcher and Lecturer on forced migration, University of Amsterdam

Education:

2003: PhD in Social Sciences on migration and transnationalism among Somalis, University of Amsterdam
1997: Foundation Course on Forced Migration, Centre for Refugee Studies, Oxford University
1996: MA in Cultural & Social Anthropology, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen

Events

PRIO started tracking events online in 2007. This listing is not complete. Past events may be mentioned in our news archive.

Publications

The following publications are specific to the PRIO GPS Centre. A more complete list is available at www.prio.org.

All Publications

Monograph

Horst, Cindy (2023) Creative resistance. The social justice practices of Monirah, Halleh and Diala. New York: Lived Places Publishing.

PRIO Policy Brief

Horst, Cindy & Elin Martine Doeland (2016) Introducing a Women’s Empowerment Agenda from Abroad? Gender and Stability in Somalia, PRIO Policy Brief, 13. Oslo: PRIO.