Dr Stephanie Perazzone

  • Lecturer in International Development (School of Social & Political Sciences)

Biography

I am a Lecturer in International Development. My research and teaching agenda centers on critical IR and international political sociology, and includes conflict, African politics, state domination, political violence, as well as feminist and decolonial theory, with a geographical specialization on DR Congo (DRC) and Ivory Coast.

Prior to joining the School, I was a senior researcher at the University of Geneva where I am still leading a research programme on the Politics of Urban 'Public' Spaces in the African cities of Abidjan (Ivory Coast) and Kinshasa (DRC). I also held postdoctoral positions at Antwerp and Ghent Universities where I worked on state weakness and formation in urban Africa, peacebuilding, statebuilding, international intervention and security sector reform in the DRC, and the violent politics of urbanization in (post)conflict environments.

Research interests

African and International Politics

State Theory and Political Violence

International Intervention

Armed Conflict

Resistance

Feminist Theory

Post/Decolonial Theory

Southern Urbanisms

Visual Ethnography and creative (qualitative) methods

 

Research groups

Publications

Prior publications

Article

Charlotte Mertens, Stéphanie Perazzone (2025) For the archive yet to come Review of International Studies Crossref. (doi: 10.1017/S026021052400041X)

Stéphanie Perazzone (2024) Bayart (Jean-François), L’énergie de l’État. Pour une sociologie historique et comparée du politique , Paris, La Découverte, 2022, 782 p. Politix Stephanie Perazzone. ISSN 0295-2319 (doi: 10.3917/pox.145.0181)

Karen Büscher, Stéphanie Perazzone, Jeroen Cuvelier, Stephane Lumbu, Espoir Rwakira, Paul Bulambo, Chrispin Mvano Yabauma, Godefroid Muzalia (2024) Contested ‘commune rurales’: Decentralisation and the (violent) struggle for public authority in the Democratic Republic of Congo Global policy Archive ouverte UNIGE. ISSN 1758-5880 (doi: 10.1111/1758-5899.13309)

Stéphanie Perazzone (2023) Ending Global Violence Through Radical Feminist Theory: The Teachings of bell hooks on Power and Domination Civil wars Archive ouverte UNIGE. ISSN 1369-8249 (doi: 10.1080/13698249.2023.2253047)

(2022) Fatal misconceptions Critical African Studies Stephanie Perazzone. ISSN 2040-7211 (doi: 10.1080/21681392.2022.2059901)

Stéphanie Perazzone (2020) Dimensions of African statehood: everyday governance and provision of public goods Forum for development studies Archive ouverte UNIGE. ISSN 0803-9410 (doi: 10.1080/08039410.2020.1778911)

Stéphanie Perazzone (2020) Circulation et aliénation du « droit à la ville»: le monde invisible des résistances quotidiennes La Revue diplomatique Archive ouverte UNIGE. ISSN 2427-7002

(2020) « L’ennuyeux » formalisme d’État. Distanciation-discipline et gouvernance urbaine en République démocratique du Congo Politique africaine Stephanie Perazzone. ISSN 2264-5047 (doi: 10.3917/polaf.158.0223)

(2019) “Shouldn't You Be Teaching Me?” State Mimicry in the Congo International Political Sociology Stephanie Perazzone. ISSN 1749-5687 (doi: 10.1093/ips/oly023)

(2017) Reintegrating former fighters in the Congo: ambitious objectives, limited results International Peacekeeping Stephanie Perazzone. ISSN 1743-906X (doi: 10.1080/13533312.2016.1219659)

(2022) Colonial Durabilities in the Contemporary African Great Lakes Region Critical African Studies Stephanie Perazzone.

Book Section

Stéphanie Perazzone (2019) Neighbourhood Chiefs in Urban DRC: “The State is Me, the State is You, the State is All of Us” Negotiating Public Services in the Congo Archive ouverte UNIGE. ISBN 9781786994004

Grants

Current grant

Past grants

  • 2020 – 2021: Lockdown Diaries: Pandemic Stories from the ‘Field'. Rapid-response grant on Covid-19 and Social Sciences, the Social Sciences Research Council ~ £ 4,000
  • 2019 – 2021: Localizing International Security Sector Reform. Swiss National Science Foundation, Early Postdoc Mobility Grant (P2GEP1_181547) ~ £ 30,000
  • 2019: Researching (Societal) Conflict | Doing Fieldwork in Divisive or Violent Contexts. Swiss National Science Foundation, Scientific Exchanges Grant (IZSEZ0_186585) ~ £18,000
  • 2015 – 2017: Metropolitan interactional strategies and state transformation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Swiss National Science Foundation, Doc.CH Grant (P0GEP1_158966)~ £ 155, 000

Supervision

Please get in touch if you are interested in doing a PhD that relates to my research interests.

Teaching

I am co-teaching the following courses:

  • Issues in IR (POLITIC4010)
  • Conflict Analysis (POLITIC5001)

Professional activities & recognition

Research fellowships

  • 2022 - 2026: Ambizione fellowship - Swiss National Science Foundation

Professional & learned societies

  • 2022 - 2026: Scientific Comittee Member, Geneva Africa Lab

Selected international presentations

  • 2025: 18th Pan-European Conference on International Relations (Bologna, Italy)
  • 2025: European Conference on African Studies (Prague, Czech Republic)

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