Gernot Klantschnig joined the University of Bristol in 2019, from the University of York, where he was a Senior Lecturer in Social Policy and Crime since 2014. He was previously Associate Professor of International Studies at the University of Nottingham’s China campus. He completed his doctorate in Politics at Oxford with a thesis on Nigeria’s role in the international trade and control of illegal drugs. This research has been the basis for several books and articles on the politics and history of drugs and crime, policing and healthcare in Africa. His research has also been supported by a variety of funding bodies, such as the British Academy, Chinese government and the World University Network. At York, Gernot also coordinated the MA in Global Crime and Justice and was co-chair of York’s research network on crime and criminal justice, CrimNet.

Gernot’s current research and publications focus on crime and drugs and their role in broader debates about trade, development, the state and health in Africa, China and globally. At the moment, he works on three related research areas: (1) Pharmaceuticals and their Regulation in the Global South. He has recently completed a project on the politics of ‘fake prescription drugs’ in Nigeria and a project on China’s growing economic and political engagement with Africa in the pharmaceutical sector. He continues working and publishing in this area. (2) Cannabis Africana. With colleagues in Bristol and Cape Town, Gernot is also working towards a modern history of cannabis use, trade and control in Africa, which will culminate in a monograph. An important aspect of this work is an exploration of cannabis’s role as an ‘illicit livelihood’ and its impact on socio-economic development in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa. (3) Politics of Crime and Drugs. He continues researching and publishing on the politics of illegal drugs, crime and policing in Africa and globally, and in 2017 he co-hosted an international workshop on the Policing of Illicit Flows in West Africa at York. Theoretically, his work in all three areas has been held together by a focus on the role of ideas and policy transfer, ‘organised crime’, as well as the state and the illicit in the Global South.