Rawan is a PhD candidate whose research examines community-based leadership in conflict settings. Her doctoral project, Governing Without Government: Identity and Community Leadership in Sudan’s 2023 War, explores how leadership emerges in the absence of state authority, with particular attention to the role of shared identity in shaping practices of care, coordination, and survival.

She holds an MSc in International Humanitarian Affairs from the University of York and brings over five years of experience in the humanitarian sector. Her academic work is informed by a commitment to amplifying perspectives that are often marginalised within global policy and research spaces.

Much of her research is anchored in Sudan, focusing on community responses to conflict and the ways in which local actors navigate and sustain systems of support in contexts of prolonged instability. Her broader interests include identity, local governance, and the intersections between humanitarian response and community-led systems.

Research

Thesis title: 'Governing Without Government: Identity and Community Leadership in Sudan’s 2023 War'

This research explores how community-based leadership emerged during the 2023 Sudanese war, focusing on the role of shared identity in shaping leadership in the absence of state authority and the practices of care, coordination and survival.

PhD supervision

• Principal supervisor: Dr Olawale Ismail
• Secondary supervisor: Dr Aleida Borges