IAS Visiting Fellow Dr Tanja D. Hendriks delivers a seminar on their research -
Malawi is a donor-dependent country in southern Africa, at the forefront of experiencing the intensifying impacts of climate change. Its Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DODMA) is responsible for the coordination of disaster governance and relief interventions, but profoundly reliant on donor-funding to do so. Based on 20 months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the aftermath of Cyclone Idai (2019), Cyclone Freddy (2023) and an El Niňo-induced drought (2024), I zoom in on different characteristics of disaster governance, to show how despite its lack of resources and actual capacity to deal with them, the state is central to relief interventions. Detailing how DODMA civil servants navigated the demands placed on them by colleagues, citizens, chiefs and (international) collaborators as they attempted to fulfil their duties, I suggest that these interventions throw the state itself into relief and render visible civil servants’ sense of duty as well as what it is up against.
Arrivals from 11:45 am for a 12:00 noon start. For those joining in-person, lunch will be served after the seminar from 1:00pm.
This event is hybrid format, please use the required booking button at the bottom of the page to choose either in-person or online attendance.
(Please note that in-person spaces are limited and booking is required, so we can manage numbers for catering and also the space in the seminar room)
By booking a place at this event, attendees agree to behave in a respectful manner such that everyone feels comfortable contributing as they wish. The IAS reserves the right to eject anyone who does not abide by this policy.
IAS seminars are typically recorded, minus any Q&A sessions at the end, again to encourage contributions. The recordings are then uploaded to our website on a Fellows bio page and/or Programme page, along with our . If you are not able to attend a seminar live, please do still register as we will email everyone who registered to let them know once the recordings are made available.
Contact and booking details
- Email address
- ias@lboro.ac.uk
- Cost
- Free
- Booking required?
- Yes