Susan Shepler

Susan Shepler is an anthropologist with twenty years of experience working in conflict-affected West Africa and an associate professor at American University. Her research focus is understanding how local communities engage with international interventions of various kinds, including reintegration of former child soldiers, teacher training for refugees, transitional justice, Ebola response, and more. Her dissertation examines how Sierra Leoneans make strategic use of the flood of international resources—both material and discursive—that have been directed to the problem of reintegration of child soldiers starting in the mid-1990s.