I joined Glasgow in 2024 as a lecturer in International Development.  I was previously a lecturer in International Relations at the University of Nottingham. I received my PhD in African Studies from the University of Edinburgh in 2017 and subsequently held post-doctoral research fellowships at the University of Birmingham and the University of Sheffield. I have conducted fieldwork for over 14 years in Sierra Leone, and have also worked in South Africa, Mozambique and Kenya.  I also lecture and supervise on the PhD program at the University of Makeni in Sierra Leone and am an editorial board member on the Journal of Modern African Studies.  

I have a variety of research interests across a range of topics, predominantly in sub-Saharan Africa. These interests include: 

• Peace and Conflict Studies, particulary local transitional justice and peacebuilding
• Microdynamics of Gender-based Violence in Africa
• Gender representation in (local and national) political settings in Africa
• Arts-based and participatory methods
• Female circumcision
• Beauty and Aesthetics in Africa
• African humor and politics, particularly in how it relates to gender and violence

Publications

Books

Martin, L.S. 2023. Navigating Local Transitional Justice: Agency at Work in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Hammett, D., L.S. Martin and I. Nwankwo. 2023. Humour and Politics in Africa: Beyond Resistance. Bristol: Bristol University Press. 

Peer Review Articles

Marah-Jones, J. and L.S. Martin. 2025. Exceptional (In)Security: The Vernacular Turn and Chronic Crisis in Sierra Leone Security Dialogue.

Shutt, H., L.S. Martin and M.H. Coetzee. 2022. The Theatre for Development: Dramaturgy, Actors and Performances in the ‘Workshop Space’ Third World Quarterly 44(2), 377-394. 

Martin, L.S., S. Forcer, M.H. Coetzee, A. Ibrahim, H. Shutt and S. Fitzmaurice. 2022. Embracing Aporia: Exploring Arts-based Methods, Pain, ‘Playfulness’ and Improvisation in Research on Gender and Social Violence Global Studies Quarterly 2(4). 

Martin, L.S. 2022. Laughing Off Ebola in Sierra Leone: Humor in Times of Crisis Journal of African Cultural Studies 34(2), 143-156. 

Martin, L.S. 2021. (En)Gendering Post-Conflict Agency: Women's Experiences of the 'local' in Sierra Leone Cooperation and Conflict 55(4), 454-471. 

Martin, L.S. 2021. Deconstructing the local in peacebuilding practice: representations and realities of Fambul Tok in Sierra Leone Third World Quarterly 42(2), 385-401. 

Martin, L.S., C. Bradbury-Jones, S. Koroma and S. Forcer. 2021. Bringing inside out: humour, outreach, and sexual and gender-based violence in Sierra Leone Critical African Studies 13(3), 356-373. 

Martin, L.S. 2016. Practicing Normality: An Examination of Unrecognisable Transitional Justice Mechanisms in Sierra Leone Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding 10(3), 400-418. 

Research groups

• International Political Economy & Development

List by: Type | Date

2024-2026 - Women's Rites: A Multidimensional Examination of Female Circumcision in Sierra Leone (Principal Investigator, British Academy, £298,000)

2020-2021 - Performing Arts and Social Violence: Innovating Research Approaches to Sexual and Gender-based Violence in the Global South (Co-Investigator, AHRC, £144,000)

I am very interested in supervising topics related to my research interests listed above.  Please do feel free to get in you are interested in supervision related to any of these topics.