Dr. Crépin Marius MOUGUIA is an Anthropologist and Senior Lecturer at the University of Bangui. For many years, he worked as a humanitarian worker and then as a consultant and researcher for national and international research centers.
His main research focuses on young people and long-term conflicts in the Central African Republic, from both a historical and anthropological perspective. He is the author of works on youth, armed groups and governance in the Central African Republic.
In addition to teaching at the University of Bangui, he has been a researcher for African Studies Centre Leiden (The Netherlands), the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) and for the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute (ABI) (Germany).
MIASA Project: The Global School-Globally Comparative Peace and Security Studies (IFG 13)
Theoretical qualitative comparison across cases is rare in peace and security research, which traditionally operates with either generalisable or case-specific theory. A comparative approach is, however, necessary to gather detailed insights with potential for generalisable theories (beyond how these are understood in quantitative disciplines). This Interdisciplinary Fellow Group (IFG) fills this gap by establishing the Global School – Globally Comparative Peace and Security Studies (GCPSS). GCPSS takes inspiration from the debates on conceptual versus empirical generalisability and from Burawoy’s extended case method to develop the tentatively-named Extended Travel Transferability Framework. In developing the framework, the IFG examines how concepts apply across cases, or how they might be reshaped having travelled to a different context. Seeking to contribute to breaking down knowledge hierarchies by anchoring multidisciplinary voices and epistemologies from across the African continent into its conceptualization of generalisability, the GCPSS offers novel approaches for qualitative comparisons on peace and conflict.
Selected publications
Jeunesse comme ressource des conflits violents : une lecture historique et anthropologique de l’arène politique en République centrafricaine. Doctoral thesis defended on 22 Nov. 2023 at Leiden University/Netherlands (to be published in 2025)
« Staying away from arms? The non-violent trajectories of youth in times of conflict in the Central African Republic ». In Iwilade, A. & Ebiede, T. M. (éds.), Youth and Non-Violence in Africa’s Fragile Contexts, (pp. 15-38), Springer Nature (2022). Collective Chapter co-written with Mirjam de Bruijn, Jonna Both, Wilfried Poukoulé, Marie-Louise Tchissikombré.
Slaves, virgin concubines, eunuchs, gun-boys, community defenders, child soldiers: The historical enlistment and use of children by armed groups in the Central African Republic, Working Paper- African Studies Centre Leiden (148 /2020), co-written with Jonna Both et Mirjam de Bruijn.
« Ceux qui combattent beaucoup sans peur, qui tuent sans pitié ». Effets du recrutement d’enfants de moins de 15 ans par les Anti-Balaka (2013-2014) », Working Paper – African Studies Centre Leiden (149/2020), co-writen with Jonna Both and Mirjam de Bruijn.
