Leaderboards/African Studies and Geopolitics

African Studies and Geopolitics

Last updated July 7, 2026

Rising Stars

New and hot

Rising Stars Researchers

1
Birgit Bräuchler
Monash University
2
Sharan Grewal
American University
3
Salem Idda
Ahmed Draia University
4
Leslie Gross-Wyrtzen
Clark University
5
Boubacar Haidara
BICC - Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies
6
Leila Tayeb
Northwestern University in Qatar
7
Lawrence E. Cline
Colorado State University
8
Maria Ketzmerick-Calandrino
University of Bayreuth
9
Kwaku Arhin-Sam
Friedensau Adventist University
10
Hailu Jobo
Unknown

Rising Stars Papers

1
The Spread of Jihadism in the Sahel. Part 2
Zeitschrift für Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik|2024
2 cit.
2
Popular Support: The Only Basis of Legitimacy for West Africa's New Military Regimes?
Africa Today|2024
2 cit.
3
Youths, Media and Performance: How Young People Remember Violent Pasts
Anthropological Forum|2025
2 cit.
4
Insurgency in India’s northeast: identity formation, postcolonial nation/state-building, and secessionist resistance
Small Wars and Insurgencies|2024
1 cit.
5
Colonial Dis/Continuities in Cameroon and the Postcolonial Dilemma in the Archive
Global Studies Quarterly|2024
1 cit.
6
Understanding insurgent resilience: organizational structures and the implications for counterinsurgency
Small Wars and Insurgencies|2024
1 cit.
7
Conceptualizing crisis brokerage: brokering crisis or brokers in crisis
Cultural Studies|2024
1 cit.
8
Rebel militias in Eastern Ukraine: from leaderless groups to proxy army
Small Wars and Insurgencies|2025
1 cit.
9
The Islamist Advantage: The Religious Infrastructure of Electoral Victory
British Journal of Political Science|2025
1 cit.
10
Golden Indonesia 2045: Neoliberal Development Policies and Environmental Journalism
Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs|2025
1 cit.

Emerging Leaders

Gaining momentum

Emerging Leaders Researchers

1
Elisa Gambino
University of Manchester
2
Tim Zajontz
University of Freiburg
3
Lorena Gazzotti
University of Cambridge
4
Maryam Ben Salem
Carthage College
5
Jason Stearns
Simon Fraser University
6
Jonna Both
Rutgers Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
7
Tarik Ghodbani
Université d'Oran 2
8
Jeremy Speight
Concordia University
9
Latofat Ibragimova
Jizzakh State Pedagogical University
10
Mohammed Jasim M. Hassan
Mustansiriyah University

Emerging Leaders Papers

1
Infrastructure and the Politics of African State Agency: Shaping the Belt and Road Initiative in East Africa
Chinese Political Science Review|2022
99 cit.
2
Embracing complexity in ‘Southern’ migration governance
Territory Politics Governance|2022
53 cit.
3
Connectivity and competition: the emerging geographies of Africa’s ‘Ports Race’
Area Development and Policy|2022
32 cit.
4
From Loan-Financed to Privatised Infrastructure? Tracing China's Turn Towards Public–Private Partnerships in Africa
Journal of Current Chinese Affairs|2023
22 cit.
5
‘Win-win’ contested: negotiating the privatisation of Africa's Freedom Railway with the ‘Chinese of today’
The Journal of Modern African Studies|2022
20 cit.
6
Involution and symbiosis: the self-perpetuating conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo
International Affairs|2022
17 cit.
7
As if there was a border. Bordering through excision in Melilla and the Canary Islands
Environment and Planning D Society and Space|2023
17 cit.
8
Seamless imaginaries, territorialized realities: the regional politics of corridor governance in Southern Africa
Territory Politics Governance|2022
15 cit.
9
Flexible embeddedness: how Chinese lead firms internationalise in Africa
Review of International Political Economy|2025
14 cit.
10
Terrain of Contestation: Complicating the Role of Aid in Border Diplomacy between Europe and Morocco
International Political Sociology|2022
10 cit.

Current Senior Leaders

Established & currently active

Current Senior Leaders Researchers

1
Kevin White
University of Reading
2
Cris Beauchemin
Institut national d'études démographiques
3
Stefan Kröpelin
University of Cologne
4
Mark Horton
University of Bristol
5
Savino di Lernia
University of the Witwatersrand
6
Olivier Pliez
Acteurs, Ressources et Territoires dans le Développement
7
Jean Bertrand
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
8
Thomas Turner
University of Limerick
9
Martin Sterry
University of Leicester
10
Boubacar Ba
Mali-Folkecenter

Current Senior Leaders Papers

1
Climate-Controlled Holocene Occupation in the Sahara: Motor of Africa's Evolution
Science|2006
908 cit.
2
Ancient watercourses and biogeography of the Sahara explain the peopling of the desert
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|2010
522 cit.
3
First dairying in green Saharan Africa in the fifth millennium bc
Nature|2012
431 cit.
4
The Impact of Rainfall on the First Out-Migration: A Multi-level Event-History Analysis in Burkina Faso
Population and Environment|2004
421 cit.
5
Shanga: The Archaeology of a Muslim Trading Community on the Coast of East Africa
The International Journal of African Historical Studies|1998
337 cit.
6
Middle Paleolithic Assemblages from the Indian Subcontinent Before and After the Toba Super-Eruption
Science|2007
335 cit.
7
Pan-African displaced terranes in the Tuareg shield (central Sahara)
Geology|1994
313 cit.
8
Monitoring changing position of coastlines using Thematic Mapper imagery, an example from the Nile Delta
Geomorphology|1999
284 cit.
9
The Rise and Decline of the Zairian State
Foreign Affairs|1985
275 cit.
10
Earliest direct evidence of plant processing in prehistoric Saharan pottery
Nature Plants|2016
225 cit.

Indexing African Studies and Geopolitics Reagents

Citation data for reagents in this field is currently compiling.