Surer Mohamed Named 2021 Harry Frank Guggenheim Research Fellow at Pembroke College Cambridge

March 11, 2021

(CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom) —  Pembroke College, University of Cambridge, has appointed Surer Mohamed as the next Harry Frank Guggenheim Research Fellow. The fellowship will commence in October 2021.

Ms. Mohamed, a fourth-year Ph.D. student in Politics and International Studies at Queens’ College Cambridge, is studying post-conflict urban reconstruction and conflict-related property disputes in Mogadishu, Somalia.

The Harry Frank Guggenheim Research Fellowship was established at Pembroke College in 2011 in honor of Harry Frank Guggenheim, an alumnus of Pembroke and veteran of both world wars, who recognized the need for research into the origins and problems of human violence. 

The fellowship is a three-year award supporting post-doctoral research that increases the understanding of the causes, manifestations, and control of violence in the present world. Priority is given to candidates who make a compelling case for the relevance of potential findings for policies intended to reduce these ills. Ms. Mohamed will be the third holder of the Fellowship.

Taking up this Research Fellowship will allow me to contribute meaningfully to questions of political violence and its aftermath in African urban spaces - Surer Mohamed

Lord Smith of Finsbury, Master of Pembroke College, said, “Surer is an outstanding scholar, doing ground-breaking research work on Mogadishu, and enhancing our understanding of the issues of violence and property rights in this important part of Africa. We will be proud to welcome her into our Pembroke Fellowship.”

“I am honored and delighted to have been appointed as the next Harry Frank Guggenheim Research Fellow at Pembroke College,” said Ms. Mohamed. “Taking up this Research Fellowship will allow me to contribute meaningfully to questions of political violence and its aftermath in African urban spaces. My research specifically focuses on the politics of post-conflict urban reconstruction in Mogadishu, which is an under-researched part of the political landscape of Somalia. I hope that in pursuing this line of inquiry, I can make a scholarly contribution that centers how everyday Mogadishians understand their political lives and their intersection with violence.

“I would not be able to conduct this research without the generous support of The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation and Pembroke College. I am deeply grateful to the Foundation for this opportunity, and I look forward to contributing to its work addressing issues of contemporary violence. I am also very excited to join the vibrant community of scholars and students at Pembroke College, and I look forward to contributing meaningfully to college life during my tenure.”

Daniel F. Wilhelm, President of The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, said, “We are very pleased to honor Harry Frank Guggenheim’s legacy at Pembroke College with the research fellowship that bears his name. It is an essential opportunity to support rigorous scholarship on violence that has resonance both within and beyond the academy.  Surer Mohamed’s work promises an important examination of the nexus of conflict, politics, and property in Somalia’s capital city.”

About Pembroke College

Founded in 1347, Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Its mission is to bring together the brightest students, from the broadest range of backgrounds; nurture outstanding research; provide the very best educational opportunities; and by doing so help to make a difference to the world.

Pembroke is a medium-sized Cambridge college and offers places in every undergraduate subject studied at the University. The letters patent granted to Marie de St. Pol by Edward III provided for a house of 30 scholars. Today Pembroke is home to 492 undergraduate students and 309 postgraduate students. It has 75 Fellows, and the 54th, and current, Master is Lord Smith of Finsbury PC.

The college is a vibrant community, that believes academic success comes not only from the excellence of teaching, and the leading research that underpins it, but also from a supportive and caring environment. It supports a wide range of academic activities including public lectures, seminars, conferences, and visiting scholar schemes.

About the Foundation

The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation is a leader in creating and disseminating knowledge on the nature, consequences, and reduction of violence in its many forms, including war, crime, and human aggression. It is committed to funding scholarly research into the causes and amelioration of violence, especially urgent and contemporary problems of violence.

For more information contact: 

Nyeleti Honwana, Program Officer
info@hfg.org | 646.428.0976