Dr Matthew Sterling Benson is a social and economic historian of Africa in the Conflict & Civicness Research Group (CCRG) at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) researching changing global conflict and peace dynamics. Matthew is also the Sudans Research Director within the LSE CCRG.
Matthew’s forthcoming publications examine how revenue raising practices in Sudan and South Sudan from the start of British-led colonial occupation, into rebel-rule, through to the present contributed to states that work better for a minority in power rather than most people in either country. Dr Benson’s on-going research examines the moral economies of natural resources in South Sudan and how these could inform efforts to limit extractive politics in the country and separately examining changing narratives of civicness or 'medania' in Sudan's democratic and hoped for war to peace transition.
Dr Benson is currently combining his doctoral thesis entitled: ‘Taxation, Local Government and Social Control in Sudan and South Sudan, 1898-1956’, which is based on archival research conducted in Sudan, South Sudan, and UK colonial archives with 500 interviews undertaken throughout both Sudans into a book manuscript. The text will help rethink integral notions of state-society ties including the changing nature of war, state and armed group finance, and state formation in the 21st century.
Matthew’s research informs a range of academic, policy, and practice-oriented debates and is shaped by his professional background that has mixed research with operational roles. Over the past 15+ years, Matthew has held posts in South Sudan with Crown Agents and Sudan with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and researched how to provide public services more equitably in conflict-affected societies with the World Bank, the Rift Valley Institute (RVI), the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), and Oxfam America.
Dr Benson has also taught MSc and BA courses on African Political Economy, African History, and the nature of states in different countries at LSE, Durham University, and the Institute of Development Studies at Sussex.
Matthew’s PhD in History (Economics & Social Research Council/ESRC-funded) and MA in Economic and Social History are both from Durham University. Dr Benson also earned an MA in Governance and Development from the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, and a BA in International Relations from Tufts University.
Additionally, Matthew is the Editorial Director for Boy Brother Friend, a print publication and digital platform examining the Black Atlantic and other diasporas through contemporary art, fashion, and theory.