Mats Utas

High resolution image of Mats Utas (photographer: Uma Utas) (2448x3264 pixles, jpg, 4 MB, new window)

Educational and Professional Background

Mats Utas joined the Swedish National Defence College in 2009 from the Nordic Africa Institute. He is Associate Professor in Cultural Anthropology. He has worked as a lecturer in social and cultural anthropology at Uppsala University, University of Liberia and Stockholm University, as well as senior lecturer in sociology at Fourah Bay College (University of Sierra Leone). Utas has written extensively on informal power regimes, child and youth combatants, media, refugees and gender in African conflict and war zones. He has conducted research on Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, the Ivory Coast and most recently Somalia.

Full CV, Mats Utas (pdf, new window)

Current Research

Mats Utas is heading the Africa Programme. The focus of research during 2009 is informal regimes and networks of power and alternative security providers in fragile African states and internal wars. The broader study has a continental coverage, yet specific studies focus on Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, the Democratic Republic of Kongo, the Central Africa Republic, Sudan and Somalia. Utas is during 2009 conducting fieldwork with focus on Somalia and Sierra Leone.

Recent media and other activity

The Pentagon Guys (short film, 5 min.), 2008. (external link, new window)

The Devil of Civili (short film, 5 min.), 2008. (external link, new window)

Recent Publications

Abject heroes: Marginalised youth, Modernity and violent pathways of the Liberian Civil War. In Years of Conflict: Adolescence, Political Violence and Displacement. Ed. Jason Hart, Refugee Studies Centre/Berghahn Books. pp. 111-138.

Mercenaries of Democracy: The ‘politrix’ of remobilized combatants in the Sierra Leone 2007 General Elections (authored with Maya M. Christensen) In African Affairs vol. 107, no. 429, 2008. Pp. 515-539.

West Side Boys: military navigation in the Sierra Leone civil war (authored with Magnus Jörgel) In Journal of Modern African Studies vol. 46, no. 3, 2008. pp. 487-511.

Young female fighters in African wars: conflict and its consequences, NAI Policy Dialogue no. 3 – the Nordic Africa Institute Publ. (authored with Chris Coulter and Mariam Persson), 2008. pp. 1-51.

Stephen Ellis: The Mask of Anarchy (review article). In African Studies Review, vol. 51, no. 1, 2008. pp. 155-57.

When the state is a threat. Africa on the global agenda: Nordic Africa Institute Annual Report 2007. 2008, pp. 20-24.