Anja Shortland

Dr Anja Shortland is Reader in Political Economy and Director of Postgraduate Research in the Department of Political Economy. Her current research projects are in peace science and the economics of crime. Although largely based on data analysis, her work usually cuts across disciplinary boundaries adopting techniques and insights from sociology, engineering, geography, politics, international relations and economics.
Anja was an Engineering and Economics undergraduate at Oxford and then did her Masters and PhD in International Relations at the LSE. Before coming to King's she worked as a lecturer in Economics at Leicester, a Reader in Economics at Brunel University and as a consultant to the World Bank.

Anja's research broadly falls into three categories: 1) crime, conflict and security policy, 2) the role of government in finance, and 3) using geographic information science in economic analysis. She is particularly interested in maritime security, war economies and informal modes of governance. She has published widely on the issue of maritime piracy and co-authored the 2013 World Bank Policy Report: "The Pirates of Somalia: Ending the Threat; Rebuilding a Nation."

Her recent work uses cutting edge techniques in remote sensing and image analysis to study development failed states, where no economic data have been collected for decades.

Anja welcomes PhD applications in the fields of peace science, the political economy of development and the economics of crime, including from professionals with experience in these areas.