Dr. Densua Mumford
In the context of RASS I will focus on tracing the influence of Pan-Africanism and other decolonising beliefs in shaping the practices of African diplomats involved in regionalism.
Research fields: African international relations, decolonial IR, international and regional organisations, politics of the internet and new technologies
Leiden University, The Netherlands
Densua Mumford is Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs. She completed her DPhil in International Relations at the University of Oxford. Her primary research explores the international relations of African peoples and states. Within this broad theme, she focuses on the role of regional organisations such as the African Union, ECOWAS, and SADC in the political and economic dynamics of the continent. Her previous projects have explained the creation and empowerment of regional parliaments such as the ECOWAS Parliament, with a focus on the agency and beliefs of African actors. She is currently investigating the discursive context of African regionalism. Secondarily, she has a robust interest in the politics of the internet and digital technologies, with a current project on the political narratives of cryptocurrency evangelists. Her work today contributes to decolonising perspectives on international relations.
Publications
Mumford, Densua / James Shires. (2023). Toward a decolonial cybersecurity: interrogating the racial-epistemic hierarchies that constitute cybersecurity expertise. In: Security Studies, 32 (4-5), 622 – 652.
Mumford, Densua. (2023). Confronting Coloniality in Cyberspace: How to Make the Concept of (In)Stability Useful. In: Chesney, R. / Shires, J. / Smeets, M. (eds.). Cyberspace and Instability. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 299 – 329.
Mumford, Densua. (2021). How regional norms shape regional organizations: The Pan-African rhetorical trap and the empowerment of the ECOWAS Parliament. In: African Affairs, 120 (478), 1 – 25.