Sandra Tombe, PhD Student
Sandra Tombe, who is originally from South Sudan, is a member of the 2016 fall PhD cohort at S-CAR. According to Sandra, her personal experiences nurtured her interest in conflicts and in wanting to better understand them.
Sandra attended Berea College where she received a BA in International Relations and French in 2014 and then proceeded to the University of Louisville where she graduated with an MA in French in 2016. “My Master’s thesis focused on the Casamance conflict in the southern region of Senegal, and looked at how the identity of the region has changed throughout the lifespan of the conflict, and how that has changed the motivations of the independence movement,” she said.
Sandra came to S-CAR to study nationalism and peacekeeping, and the wide range of experience and expertise of the faculty here has confirmed that she made the right decision. “S-CAR stood out to me as a place where I can develop skills that would help address a very small fraction of the many conflicts that go on around us.”
In her leisure time, Sandra likes to read novels and one of her favorite books is Une si Longue Lettre (So Long A Letter) written by Miriama Ba. The book, which is usually assigned in literature classes all over the world, explores the condition of women in Western African society and their roles in post-colonial Africa.
After graduating, Sandra would like to work with a think tank, research institution, or government agency where she beleives her research skills will complement the work that these organizations engage in. Sandra is also a member of Parara-USA, an organization representing the Bari people of South Sudan in the US.