Suad Mustafa Elhag Musa is the author of the 2019 Aidoo-Snyder Award-winning book: “Hawks and Doves in Armed Conflict in Sudan. Al-Hakkamat Baggara Women of Darfur,” published by James Curry. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Peace Studies from Bradford University (UK) focusing on women’s agency in conflict and peace and a Master of Arts in Rural Development from the University of East Anglia (UK). She has also earned Postgraduate Diplomas in Development Studies and in Social Research Methods from East Anglia and Bradford Universities (UK), respectively, and Bachelor of Science from Khartoum University. She is a co-founder and Director of the Gender Centre for Peacebuilding and Sustainable Development in El Fasher, Darfur, Sudan.

She has taught at Qatar University and Royal University of Women in Bahrain universities as assistant professor teaching several courses including sustainable development, human rights, sociology, and qualitative research. Her other thematic areas of specialization and interest include women’s political participation in democratic governance, gender issues in peacebuilding, peace negotiations, local reconciliation mechanisms and post-conflict democratic transition. She is also deeply involved in issues sexual violence and gender-based violence (SGBV), internal displacement and migration of women in the Horn of Africa. Additionally, she focuses on enhancing the leadership, innovation, aspirations, and sustainable livelihood resiliency of pastoralists, young people and civil society organizations.

Dr. Suad is a researcher who has collaborated with multiple international organizations including the United Nation Environment Program (UNEP). She has been a development practitioner in the humanitarian and development sector, working with international and national non-governmental and civil society organizations (INGOs, NGOs & CSOs). Her background includes substantial and varied experience working in humanitarian aid and integrated development in the Horn of Africa and beyond focusing on the analysis of food security situation, capacity building, strategic planning and policy and project development and evaluation. As an activist in the field of women’s and child’s rights, gender equality, violence against women and gender-based violence, and women’s security and protection, Dr. Suad has convened numerous seminars and workshops, and facilitated and led discussion groups and dialogues on peacebuilding, reconciliation, and political transformation. She is an active member in several academic and non- academic associations, such as African Feminist Initiative – USA (AFI-USA), Women Caucus- USA, and Society for the Study of Sudan and South Sudan -UK (SSSUK).

Dr. Suad’s research interests encompass women and political authority in the Horn of Africa and West Africa; gender issues in conflict and in indigenous and modern negotiation mechanisms and justice; gender analysis of conflict and internal displacement; women and youth in peacebuilding and post-conflict democratic transition; climate change and sustainable development; African women, culture, religion, and social change across intersectional identities, among many other topics.  Her work has been published in various academic and non-academic outlets, including articles in Arabic in e-magazines. Earlier this year (2024), she published a novel in Arabic titled: laana fi jawof al-waadi (a curse in the be