Liberal Arts and Sciences
African Networks Lab
Led by Olivier Walther · Geography
What we study
The African Networks Lab studies political violence and trade in West Africa using social network analysis and spatial conflict models. It does fieldwork and works with international organizations such as the OECD and NASA.
What working here is like
- Fieldwork
- Computational
- Coding helps
- Projects
- 2
- Papers
- 4
What we're looking for
“Contact us if you are interested in working with us.”
Current projects
Modeling the Spread of Armed Conflict in North and West Africa
A project funded by the OECD to study conflict patterns in North and West Africa.
Monitoring the Spatial Evolution of Conflicts in North and West Africa II
A follow-up project to track conflict dynamics in the region using spatial analysis.
Summaries are written by AI in plain language from public symposium abstracts and may be imperfect.
Recent papers, explained
- Postmodernism in Border Studies
2026 · Journal of Borderlands Studies
Traces how postmodern ideas shaped border studies, focusing on fluid identities and state power.
- Francophone geography and the trajectory of mobile space theory: Learning from Sahelian spaces
2026 · Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography
Explores why mobile space theory has struggled to gain wider recognition in Francophone geography.
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- Mapping the long-term trajectories of political violence in Africa
2026 · Applied Geography
- The spatial structure of West African livestock trade networks
2026 · Applied Geography
Plain-language summaries are AI-written and reviewed by us; check the paper for details.
How to reach out
Olivier Walther hasn't set up this page yet. Their UF Scholars profile lists their publications.