Jennifer Eggert

Jennifer joined NatCen International in November 2024. She is a social, cultural and political scientist, with extensive experience in the areas of conflict, development, humanitarian work, migration, and health. She is particularly interested in, and has experience in, work with a focus on gender, faith, intersectionality, inequalities and localisation. She has worked as a practitioner since the early 2000s and as a researcher since the early 2010s. Jennifer has ample experience of conducting, leading, supervising and facilitating research that is collaborative, participatory, methodologically innovative, and accessible to people with no prior research background.

Prior to joining NatCen, Jennifer worked for universities, development/humanitarian organisations, international agencies, and civil society organisations in the UK, continental Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, and North America, including in three roles as (interim) head of department. She held research and/or teaching focused roles at the University of Warwick, University of Leeds, Oxford Brookes University, Queen Margaret University (all in the UK), and the European University Viadrina (Germany). She was a visiting researcher at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and in the Department of Women and Gender Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder (US). Jennifer is policy/practice editor of the journal Religion and Development and co-convenor of the Religions and Development Study Group of the Development Studies Association (DSA). Her work has been published by numerous academic journals, in book chapters, policy papers, as well as her 2021 book on female fighters and militants in the Lebanese civil war. Jennifer is regularly invited to hold guest lectures and keynote speeches in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North America. She has worked as a trainer since the early 2000s and is an award-winning teacher.

Jennifer holds a PhD in politics and international studies (with a focus on political violence and gender) from the University of Warwick, and an MSc in comparative politics (conflict studies) from the LSE. Her BA in social and cultural sciences, which included a year of study at Sciences Po Paris, was awarded by the European University Viadrina in Germany.