Biography
Professor Mats Utas is Professor in Cultural Anthropology at Uppsala University, Sweden. His research has focused extensively on civil wars, postwar societies, political and social networks, youth, violence, ex-combatants, urban poverty and social marginalisation, with a particular concentration on Liberia and Sierra Leone.
He has conducted long-term fieldwork in West Africa and has lived in Liberia and Sierra Leone for several years. His doctoral research examined youth and the Liberian civil war and was published as Sweet Battlefields: Youth and the Liberian Civil War. Over several decades, his scholarship has examined the experiences of people living through conflict and postwar transformation, including former combatants, marginalised urban communities and informal political and economic networks.
Professor Utas has also contributed to research on post-conflict livelihoods, research ethics and methodologies in conflict studies, and the role of local research collaborators in international knowledge production. His sustained engagement with Liberia provides an important foundation for academic exchange, documentation of social change, mentoring and stronger connections between Liberian scholars and international African-studies networks.