Julien Brachet

research interests

Julien’s research investigates patterns of mobility to and through the Central Sahara, in particular in Niger and Chad, where he did extensive fieldwork. He studies migration networks, transport systems and trade between sub-Saharan and northern Africa, with a focus on shifting strategies that allow local people to adapt to a general context marked by the growing severity of national and international migration policies. This work is part of a long-term research project on the progressive implementation of a global system of surveillance, spatial control and management of mobility in Africa. Julien is also currently working on an in-depth study of the social, economic and political organisation of a Tubu oasis in northern Chad.

background

Julien Brachet is a researcher at the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD – University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France), and is currently Marie Skłodowska-Curie Senior Research Fellow at the university of Oxford. He has published several articles on a wide range of issues concerning the Sahel and the Sahara, and a book: Migrations transsahariennes. Vers un désert cosmopolite et morcelé (Niger) (Paris: Éditions du Croquant, 2009).