Dr. Chloé Josse-Durand

• Research Associate School of Geography, Politics and Sociology
• Email: chloe.josse-durand@ncl.ac.uk
• Doctor in Political Science

I‌ investigate the politics of historical narratives and memorialization and the growing salience of ethnic identities in the political sphere with an emphasis on African contexts.

As the Research Associate of the Afterlives of colonial incarceration project, my role is to devise original methodologies and undertake qualitative research on the Kenyan sites of the projects, namely Kapenguria ex-prison and now a Museum; and Mweru and Kangubiri High School, both of which were Mau Mau detention camps.

I examine how the memory narratives and policies in the present about colonial carceral practices and these ex-carceral sites are vividly participate in the making of identity, political and land claims in the political arena.

In my PhD and previous work, I analyzed the memory politics related to the creation of “sites of memory” (Pierre Nora) and heritage institutions such as community-led and State-led museums, mausoleums and heroes’ monument in Kenya and Ethiopia.