School of Social and Political Science

Background

Qualifications

LLM (University of Amsterdam), PhD (Erasmus University Rotterdam)

Outline biography

Gerhard is Senior Lecturer in African Studies and International Development at CAS. He is trained in both law with a focus on international law and anthropology, especially legal and political anthropology. He has conducted extensive field research in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Malawi. Prior to joining CAS he worked at the Faculty of Law, Erasmus University Rotterdam and the Department of Anthropology, University of Zurich. Gerhard’s research focuses on globally circulating ideas about development, good governance, international criminal justice and the rule of law, tracking the everyday experiences of government officials, lawyers and others involved in the production and diffusion of administrative and legal knowledge. He is the author of 'In the Shadow of Good Governance: An Ethnography of Civil Service Reform in Africa' (Brill 2010) and co-editor of 'Corruption and the Secret of Law: A Legal Anthropological Perspective' (Ashgate 2007) and 'Transition and Justice: Negotiating the Terms of New Beginnings in Africa (Wiley-Blackwell 2014).

Transition and justice: negotiating the terms of new beginnings in Africa (2014) with Olaf Zenker.

With articles by Gerhard Anders, Kimberley Armstrong, Adam Branch, Nigel Eltringham, Marion Fresia, Sabine Hoehn, Steffen Jensen, Steven Robins and Olaf Zenker.

In the shadow of Good Governance: an ethnography of civil service reform in Africa (2010)

'No other study of the 1990s good governance agenda in Africa has accomplished Anders' nuanced account of the lived experience among civil servants caught up in the throes of change. This is a landmark study that challenges facile generalizations about corruption and the dysfunctional state in Africa'.

Harri Englund, University of Cambridge

Gerhard's research has been supported by a range of funding bodies including the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the British Academy and the UK Department for International Development (DfID)/Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). Recently, he was the Principal Investigator of the Global Integrity/FCDO- funded project Fighting high-level corruption in Africa: Learning from effective law enforcement, part of the Anti-Corruption Evidence Programme (2019-2022). Gerhard was one of the Principal Investigators of the European Joint Doctorate Anthropology of Human Security in Africa ANTHUSIA funded by the European Commission (Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Sklodoswka-Curie grant agreement no. 764546) that was run by Aarhus University (lead applicant), University of Oslo, Catholic University of Leuven and University of Edinburgh.

Gerhard is a fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute and a member of its Committee on Policy and Practice. In the UK, he has provided expert advice to the Scotland Malawi Partnership, Scottish Government, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Serious Fraud Office and the National Crime Agency. In Africa, he has advised the Code of Conduct Bureau Nigeria, the Anti-Corruption Bureau Malawi and the Director of Public Prosecutions, Ministry of Justice, Government of Malawi.

Selected publications

Law Enforcement and High-level Corruption in Malawi: Learning from Cashgate. Global Integrity ACE Research Programme, Working Paper 8 (2021).

"Corruption and Law Enforcement: Insights from a Mixed-methods Study in Malawi" (with F.E. Kanyongolo and B. Seim), Journal of Modern African Studies 58:3 (2020), 315-336.

"Governance", in H. Callan, ed. International Encyclopaedia of Anthropology. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell (2019).

"Anthropology and International Law", in A. Carty, ed. Oxford Bibliographies in International Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press (2018).

The importance of practical norms in government health and education services in Malawi (with W. Chirwa). https://ace.globalintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Practical-norms-Malawi.pdf (2018).

The importance of practical norms in government health and education services in Tanzania (with F. Makene). https://ace.globalintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Practical-norms-Tanzania.pdf (2018).

"Law at its Limits: Interdisciplinarity between Law and Anthropology", Journal of Legal Pluralism 47:3 (2016), 411-422.

"The Normativity of Numbers in Practice: Technologies of Counting, Accounting and Auditing in Malawi's Civil Service Reform", Social Anthropology 23:1 (2015), 29-41.

"Contesting Expertise: Anthropologists at the Special Court for Sierra Leone", Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 20:3 (2014), 426-444.

Transition and Justice: Negotiating the Terms of New Beginnings in Africa (with O. Zenker) Special Issue of Development and Change 45:3 (2014).

"Transition and Justice: An Introduction" (with O. Zenker), Development and Change 45:3 (2014), 395-414.

"Transitional Justice, States of Emergency and Business as Usual in Sierra Leone", Development and Change 45:3 (2014), 524-542.

“Old-school Bureaucrats and Technocrats in Malawi: Civil Service Reform in Practice”, in T. Bierschenk & J.-P. Olivier de Sardan, eds., States at Work: Empirical Perspectives. Leiden: Brill (2013).

"Bigmanity and International Criminal Justice in Sierra Leone", in M. Utas, ed. African Conflicts and Informal Regimes of Power – Big Men and Networks. London: Zed Books (2012).

“Juridification, Transitional Justice and Reaching out to the Public in Sierra Leone”, in J. Eckert, Z. Ö. Biner, B. Donahue & C. Strümpell, eds., Law against the State: Ethnographic Forays into Law’s Transformation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2012).

"Testifying about 'Uncivilized Events': Problematic Representations of Africa in the Trial against Charles Taylor", Leiden Journal of International Law 24:4 (2011), 937-959.

In the Shadow of Good Governance: An Ethnography of Civil Service Reform in Africa. Leiden: Brill (2010).

“Global Legal Order as Local Phenomenon: The Special Court for Sierra Leone”, In: F. von Benda-Beckmann, K. von Benda-Beckmann & A. Griffiths, eds., Spatializing Law: An Anthropological Geography of Law in Society. Aldershot: Ashgate (2009).

“Like Chameleons: Civil Servants and Corruption in Malawi”, in G. Blundo and P.-Y. Le Meur, eds., The Governance of Daily Life in Africa: Ethnographic Explorations of Public and Collective Services. Leiden: Brill (2009).

“Legal Order” (with M. Redner), in A. Iriye and P.-Y. Saunier, eds. The Palgrave Dictionary of Transnational History. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan (2009).

“The Normativity of Numbers: World Bank and IMF Conditionality”, Political and Legal Anthropology Review PoLAR 31:2 (2008), 187-202.

“Follow the Trial: Some Notes on the Ethnography of International Criminal Justice”, Anthropology Today 23:3 (2007), 22-26.

Corruption and the Secret of Law: A Legal Anthropological Perspective (with M. Nuijten). Aldershot: Ashgate (2007).

“Good Governance as Technology: Toward an Ethnography of the Bretton Woods Institutions”, in D. Mosse and D. Lewis, eds., The Aid Effect: Giving and Governing in International Development. London: Pluto Press (2005).

Selected blog posts and op-ed pieces

"'Your are fired!'" Personalised rule and the fight against corruption in Nigeria, Tanzania and Malawi" (with M. Page) Premium Times. 12 October 2020.

"Malawi faces toughest, most high-profile trial yet in massive Cashgate scandal" African Arguments. 8 February 2017.

"Chadian dictator's tactics mimic script of former rulers facing criminal charges" The Conversation. 31 July 2015.

"Judicial means and political ends: Transitional justice and political trials" Allegra Lab: Anthropology, Law, Art & World. 26 January 2015.

"The US has no excuse not to prosecute CIA torturers" The Conversation. 14 January 2015.

"Transitional justice and the critique of violence" Allegra Lab: Anthropology, Law, Art & World. 6 November 2014.

PhD Students

Ihuoma Okorie, Winning the Peoples’ Hearts through Anticorruption Programming? the Nigerian Government and the Instrumentalisation of the Anti corruption Agenda.

Tanja Hendriks, A State of Relief: Governance and Human Security. The state and everyday practices of governing in Malawi (joint PhD with University of Oslo as part of ANTHUSIA, graduated in 2023).

Joshua Anderson-Rose, Youth in a Refugee Camp in Malawi (graduated in 2023).

Cecilie Baann, The Security-Development Nexus and Artisanal Fishing in Sierra Leone (joint PhD with Arhus University as part of ANTHUSIA, graduated in 2023).

Sabastine, Wakdok, Navigating the 'Corruption Complex' in Mixed Health Service Markets: A Case Study of Nigeria (graduated in 2023).

Simeon Koroma, Law Beyond the State: The Makings of Justice in Urban Sierra Leone (graduated in 2021). Winner of the 2022 African Studies Association UK Audrey Richards Prize.

Mike Leach, A Kaleidoscope of Meaning Fragments: Understanding the Rule of Law's Paradoxes in International Development (joint PhD with University of Tilburg, graduated in 2021).

Emmanuel Oluwole Oni, Institutional Reforms and the Autonomy of Anti-Corruption Agencies in Africa: The case of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) in Nigeria (graduated in 2021)

Kathy Dodworth, NGO Legitimation as Practice: Crafting Political Space in Tanzania (graduated in 2018). Winner of the SSPS Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award 2018.

Thina Nzo, Local Government Party Politics and ANC Councillor Representation: The Dynamics of Council Decision-making in South Africa (graduated in 2018).

Laura Martin, Activating Justice: Local Appropriation of Transitional Justice in Sierra Leone (graduated in 2017).

Monica Skaten, From Refining to Smuggling: The Everyday Politics of Petrol in Ghana (graduated in 2017).