Dr. Sandra F. Joireman
-
Profile
Sandra F. Joireman is the Weinstein Chair of International Studies and Professor of Political Science at the University of Richmond. She has published five books and numerous articles on property rights, law, and post-conflict return migration, most recently Peace, Preference, and Property: Return Migration after Violent Conflict (University of Michigan Press, 2022). She has served as a fellow or consultant with the UN, USAID, and the World Bank, and is affiliated with the Indian Ocean World Centre at McGill University. Joireman has held leadership roles in both academia and the private sector and has participated in international research collaborations on land, law, and post-conflict reconstruction. More information is available at: www.sandrajoireman.com.
Datasets
Zanzibar Revolutionary Property Confiscations
Joireman, Sandra; Verne,Julia, 2025, "Consolidated Data on Confiscation and Revocation Orders“, Harvard Dataverse, V1
Created by Sandra F. Joireman of the University of Richmond and Julia Verne of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, this dataset consolidates published confiscation and revocation orders appearing in the Zanzibar Gazettes between 1964 and 1987. It records the individuals named in the orders and the properties affected, providing a systematic source for examining property confiscation following the 1964 Zanzibar Revolution. The orders were issued under Presidential Decree No. 8 of 1964, the Confiscation of Immovable Properties Decree. The dataset supports historical, legal, and comparative research on property rights, revolutionary redistribution, land governance, postcolonial state formation, and the long-term consequences of state property confiscation.
Joireman, Sandra; Verne, Julia, 2025, "Confiscation Order PDFs", Harvard Dataverse, V1
Created by Sandra F. Joireman of the University of Richmond and Julia Verne of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, this digital archive contains PDFs of public confiscation orders associated with property takings during and after the 1964 Zanzibar Revolution. The orders were issued under Presidential Decree No. 8 of 1964, the Confiscation of Immovable Properties Decree. The archive preserves the original published documents underlying the companion consolidated dataset, allowing researchers and other individuals to consult the source materials directly and examine the language and implementation of individual confiscation orders. Together, the PDF archive and consolidated data provide primary-source and structured-data resources for research on property confiscation, land governance, revolutionary change, and the legal history of Zanzibar.
Research using these datasets
Sandra F. Joireman and Julia Verne, “Property Confiscation in the Zanzibar Revolution,” African Affairs, Volume 124, Issue 496, July 2025, Pages 235–260, https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/adaf022.
Verne, Julia, and Sandra Joireman. “Enteignungen und Flucht, Besitz und Belonging? 60 Jahre nach der Revolution in Sansibar.” In Geographien der Gewalt: Konfliktgeographien. Aktuelle Brennpunkte und didaktische Impulse, edited by Volker Wilhelmi, Elmar Theveßen, and Florian Pfeil. Mainzer Kontaktstudium Geographie, Band 24. Mainz: Geographisches Institut, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 2025.
Ethiopian Pre-revolutionary Court Records
Joireman, Sandra F., High Court, Ethiopia, 1947-1974. ICPSR 37819.
This collection contains archival records from the Shoa High Court in Ethiopia and was assembled to support research on land tenure, judicial practice, and the policies and intentions of the Ethiopian imperial government. The collection includes a systematic sample of High Court cases from 1947, 1957, 1967, and 1974, comprising 412 cases and, for many of them, a detailed summary of the dispute. Researchers should note that the court’s jurisdiction changed in 1967 from serving as an appellate court for the country as a whole to serving Shoa alone, which affects comparability across the sampled years. The collection nevertheless provides an unusual record of property disputes, court activity, and legal and institutional change during the final decades of imperial rule in Ethiopia.
Joireman, Sandra F., Awraja Courts, Ethiopia and Eritrea, 1947-1974”. ICPSR 37817.
This dataset contains archival records from three awraja, or sub-provincial, courts in Ethiopia and Eritrea during the final decades of Ethiopian imperial rule. The records were collected from Tegulet and Bulga in Shoa, Sidama in Sidamo, and Hamasien in Eritrea—areas selected because they represented three distinct systems of land tenure while remaining under the authority of the Ethiopian state. Individual court cases provide information about the geographic location and nature of disputes, as well as demographic characteristics of plaintiffs and defendants, including gender and ethnic group. The collection supports comparative research on land litigation, tenure systems, access to formal courts, and demands for institutional change before the 1974 revolution and the subsequent nationalization of land.
Research using these databases
Joireman, Sandra Fullerton, “Property Rights and the Role of the State: Evidence from the Horn of Africa,” Journal of Development Studies, Vol. 38, No. 1, October 2001.
Joireman, Sandra Fullerton, Property Rights and Political Development in Ethiopia and Eritrea: the State and Land, 1941-1974, (Oxford: James Currey/ Athens: Ohio University Press), 2000.
Joireman, Sandra Fullerton, “Contracting for Land: Lessons from Litigation in a Communal Tenure Area of Ethiopia,” Canadian Journal of African Studies, Vol. 30(3) (February 1996).
Expand All-
Grants and Fellowships
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Partner Grant: Appraising Risk, Past and Present: Interrogating Historical Data to Enhance Understanding of Environmental Crises in the Indian Ocean World, 2018-2026
Earhart Foundation Research Grant, “Where There Is No Government: Enforcing Property Rights in Common Law Africa,” 2009
National Science Foundation Grant, “Enforcing Property Rights in Common Law Africa” #0549496, 2006-2008
Law and Social Sciences Program Earhart Foundation Research Grant, “Enforcing Property Rights in Uganda,” 2006
Earhart Foundation Research Grant, “Legal Institutions and the Rule of Law: comparing the effectiveness of common law and civil law countries,” 2002
-
Awards
University of Richmond Distinguished Scholarship Award, 2025
Faculty Fellow, University of Richmond, 2024
Clinton High School Hall of Honor, inducted 2019
Sanjaya Lall Prize for the Best Paper Published in Oxford Development Studies in 2018
Fulbright Senior Scholar Award, Kosovo, 2012-2013
Centennial Center Scholar, American Political Science Association, 2009
APSA prize for the best poster presentation in Comparative/IR, 1996
Fulbright Dissertation Fellowship Award, Ethiopia, 1993-1994
Phi Beta Kappa
-
Presentations
“Property Confiscation in the Zanzibar Revolution,” European Conference on African Studies, Prague, Czech Republic, June 28, 2025.
“How (not) to communicate your research to policymakers,” Workshop designed and led at Research-Policy Links in the Indian Ocean World, Mainz, Germany June 23-24, 2025
"Land, Livelihoods, and Repeated Displacement During Conflict: evidence from the Democratic Republic of Congo," World Bank Land Conference, Washington. May 8, 2025.
"Securing Land, Securing Futures: The Gendered Impact of Climate and Conflict affected situations on Women’s Land Access," World Bank Land Conference, Washington. May 5, 2025.
“Property Confiscation in the Zanzibar Revolution,” International Studies Association Annual Meeting, Chicago IL, March 5, 2025.
"Customary Law in Nontraditional Settings," International Conference on Legal Pluralism, Commission on Legal Pluralism, Jakarta, Indonesia. January 14, 2025.
"Property and legal pluralism in post-conflict settings," Invited Lecture. International Course on Legal Pluralism, Commission on Legal Pluralism, Jakarta. January 9, 2025.
“Lessons and Legacies of Forced Displacement in Serbia,” Invited Lecture. Institute for European Studies, Belgrade, Serbia, October 10, 2024.
“Gender and Forced Displacement in Cities,” Central and Eastern European International Studies Association-International Studies Association Joint International Conference, Rijeka, Croatia, June 21, 2024.
“Property Confiscation in the Zanzibar Revolution,” Central and Eastern European International Studies Association-International Studies Association Joint International Conference, Rijeka, Croatia, June 20, 2024.
“Property Confiscation in the Zanzibar Revolution,” Southeast Regional African Studies Seminar, Chapel Hill, NC March 9, 2024.
"Gender and Forced Displacement in Cities," The World Bank, Washington, DC., November 16, 2023.
"Post-conflict Restitution of Customary Land," International Studies Association, Ifrane, Morocco. June 21, 2023.
“Return Migration after Violent Conflict,” Global Migration Working Group, United States Agency for International Development, Washington, DC, Feb 14, 2023.
“Post-conflict Restitution of Customary Land: Guidelines and trajectories of change,” London School of Economics-University College London Land Politics Seminar, London, Dec 1, 2022.
“Peace, Preference and Property: Return Migration After Violent Conflict,” Invited Lecture Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz and the Forthem European University Alliance, Mainz, Germany, Nov 29, 2022.
“Doing No Harm while Doing Good: Climate and Conflict Sensitivity in Humanitarian Projects,” Plenary address, virtual international workshop, UN Food and Agriculture Organization Dryland Forestry Group, June 29, 2022.
“Customary Law and Property Restitution After Violent Conflict,” African Studies Association Annual Meeting, virtual, November 16, 2021.
“Local Land Governance and Conflict Resolution in the Sahel,” UN Food and Agriculture Organization Webinar, Drylands: at the crossroads between climate change and conflict, July 29, 2021.
"Customary Tenure in Sub-Saharan Africa," Author's Workshop, African Land Flagship, World Bank, Washington, DC, United States, March 24, 2021.
-
Memberships
American Political Science Association
International Studies Association
African Studies Association
African Politics Conference Group
-
Grants and Fellowships
-
Selected Publications
Books
Joireman, Sandra F., Peace, Preference, and Property: Return Migration after Violent Conflict, (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press), 2022.
Joireman, Sandra F., Where There is No Government: Enforcing Property Rights in Common Law Africa, (New York: Oxford University Press), 2011.
Joireman, Sandra F. (ed.), Church, State and Citizen, (New York: Oxford University Press), 2009.
Joireman, Sandra F., Nationalism and Political Identity, (London and New York: Continuum Press), 2003.
Joireman, Sandra Fullerton, Property Rights and Political Development in Ethiopia and Eritrea: the State and Land, 1941-1974, (Oxford: James Currey/ Athens: Ohio University Press), 2000.
Journal ArticlesSandra F. Joireman and Julia Verne, “Property Confiscation in the Zanzibar Revolution,” African Affairs. 2025, https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/adaf022.
Rachel Vanderhill, Sandra F. Joireman and Roza Tulepbayeva, “In the Shadow of the Dragon: Chinese soft power in Central Asia,” International Affairs, 101:4, 2025 1441- 1461. https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiaf103
Sandra F. Joireman and Rosine Tchatchoua-Djomo, “ Post-conflict Restitution of Customary Land: Guidelines and trajectories of change,” World Development, 168, August 2023, 106272.
Sandra F. Joireman and Fidaa Haddad, “The Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus in practice: Building Climate and Conflict Sensitivity into Humanitarian Projects,” Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, (62), 2023, 101272 doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2023.101272
Catherine Boone, Fibian Lukalo, and Sandra F. Joireman “Promised Land: Settlement Schemes in Kenya, 1962 to 2016,” Political Geography, August 2021, Vol. 89, Article 102393.
Rachel Vanderhill, Sandra F. Joireman and Roza Tulepbayeva, “Between the bear and the dragon: multivectorism in Kazakhstan as a model strategy for secondary powers,” International Affairs, Volume 96, Issue 4, July 2020, 975–993.
Emily Stubblefield and Sandra F. Joireman, “Law, Violence and Property Expropriation in Syria: Impediments to Restitution and Return, Land, 2019, 8(11), 173.
Laura Meitzner Yoder and Sandra F. Joireman, “Possession and precedence: Juxtaposing customary and legal events to establish land authority,” Land, 2019, 8(8), 126.
Rachel Vanderhill, Sandra Joireman and Roza Tulepbayeva, "Do Economic Linkages through FDI Lead to Institutional Change?: Assessing Outcomes in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan" Europe-Asia Studies, 2019. DOI: 10.1080/09668136.2019.1597019.
Joireman, Sandra F., “Future Rights for Future Citizens: children’s property rights in fragile environments,” Oxford Development Studies, 46(4), 2018:470-482. This article received the Sanjaya Lall Prize for the best article in ODS in 2018.
Joireman, Sandra F., “Intergenerational Land Conflict in Northern Uganda: children, customary law and return migration”, Africa, 88(1), 2018: 81–98.
Joireman, Sandra F., “Ethnic Violence, Local Security and Return Migration: Enclave communities in Kosovo,” International Migration, 55(5), October 2017, 122-135.
Joireman, Sandra F. and Laura S Meitzner Yoder, “A Long Time Gone: Post-conflict Rural Property Restitution under Customary Law, Development and Change, 47(3), 2016, 563–585.
Joireman, Sandra F., External Conditionalities and Institutional Change: Constructing Constituencies for the Rule of Law in Kosovo, East European Politics & Societies, 30, May 2016, 315-331.
Joireman, Sandra F., “Aiming for Certainty: The Kanun, Blood Feuds and the Ascertainment of Customary Law,“ The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law, 46(2), 2014, pp. 235-248.
Joireman, Sandra F. and Jason Brown, “Property: Human Right or Commodity?” Journal of Human Rights,12(2), 2013, pp. 165-179.
Joireman, Sandra F., Adam Sawyer and Juliana Wilhoit, “A Different Way Home: Resettlement Patterns in Northern Uganda,” Political Geography, 31(4), 2012, 197-204.
Henrysson, Elin and Sandra F. Joireman, ”On the Edge of the Law: Women’s Property Rights and Dispute Resolution in Kisii, Kenya,” Law & Society Review, Volume 43 (1), 2009, 39-60.
Joireman, S.F. “The Mystery of Capital Formation in Sub-Saharan Africa: Women, property rights and customary law,” World Development, July 2008 (Vol. 36, No. 7), p.1233-1246.
Joireman, Sandra F., “Enforcing New Property Rights in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Ugandan Constitution and the 1998 Land Act,” Comparative Politics, 39(4), 463-480, July 2007.
Joireman, Sandra Fullerton, “The Evolution of the Common Law: Legal Development in Kenya and India,” Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, 41(2), July 2006.
Joireman, Sandra Fullerton, “Colonization and the Rule of Law: comparing the effectiveness of common law and civil law countries,” Constitutional Political Economy, 15(4), December 2004.
Corey, Allison and Sandra F. Joireman, “Retributive Justice: The Gacaca Courts in Rwanda,” African Affairs, 103:73-89, 2004.
Joireman, Sandra Fullerton, “War and State Formation: A Mennonite Critique,” Christian Scholars Review, 33(2), 181-195, 2004.
Joireman, Sandra F., “Justice for a Genocide?” Global Review of Ethnopolitics, Volume II, Number 2, January 2003.
Joireman, Sandra Fullerton “Inherited Legal Systems and Effective Rule of Law: Africa and the colonial legacy,” Journal of Modern African Studies, 39(4), 2001.
Joireman, Sandra Fullerton, “Property Rights and the Role of the State: Evidence from the Horn of Africa,” Journal of Development Studies, Vol. 38, No. 1, October 2001.
Joireman, Sandra, Good Fences Make Good Neighbors, Policy Brief, Number 14, University of California, Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, July 2000.
Bevan, Phillipa and Sandra Fullerton Joireman, “The Perils of Measuring Poverty: Identifying the ”Poor” in Rural Ethiopia,” Oxford Development Studies, Volume 25(3), (October 1997).
Joireman, Sandra Fullerton, “Opposition Politics and Ethnicity in Ethiopia: We Will All Go Down Together,” Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol.35, No.3, (September 1997).
Joireman, Sandra Fullerton, “Contracting for Land: Lessons from Litigation in a Communal Tenure Area of Ethiopia,” Canadian Journal of African Studies, Vol. 30(3) (February 1996).
Joireman, Sandra Fullerton, “The Minefield of Land Reform: Comments on the Eritrean Land Proclamation,” African Affairs, Vol. 95 Number 379, (April 1996).
Joireman, Sandra Fullerton, A Political Model of Property Rights, Centro Studi Luca d’Agliano, Development Studies Working Papers, No. 95, (March 1996).
Book ChaptersVerne, Julia and Joireman, Sandra, Enteignungen und Flucht, Besitz und Belonging: 60 Jahre nach der Revolution in Sansibar, in: Wilhelmi, V., Theveßen, E. and Pfeil, F. (eds.) Geographien der Gewalt – Die Welt in Unruhe. Konflikte und ihre Wirkungsmacht, Kontaktstudium Geographie: Mainz, forthcoming 2025.
Joireman, Sandra F., “Property and Land Tenure, “Handbook of African Economic Development, James Murphy and Padraig Carmody, eds., Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd, 2024, pp. 268-281.
Joireman, Sandra F. “Customary Law,” Elgar Encyclopedia of Development, Matthew Clarke Ed., Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., 2023, 138-142.
Joireman, Sandra F., “The State,” Handbook of Anabaptism, Brian Brewer ed., London: Bloomsbury/T&T Clark, 2022, pp. 237-250.
Joireman, Sandra F., “Resigning their Rights? Impediments to Women's Property Ownership in Kosovo,” Global Trends in Land Tenure Reforms: Gender Impacts, Caroline Archambault and Annelies Zoomers eds., Routledge, 2015, pp. 237-250.
Joireman, Sandra F. “Entrapment or Freedom: enforcing customary property rights regimes in common law Africa,” Jeanmarie Fenrich, Paolo Galizzi and Tracy Higgins, eds., The Future of African Customary Law, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011).
Joireman, Sandra F., “Anabaptism and the State: An Uneasy Coexistence,” Church, State and Citizen, Sandra F. Joireman, ed., (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009).
Joireman, Sandra F., “HIV/AIDS in Africa,” Africa- US Relations: Strategic Encounters, Donald Rothchild and Edmond Keller (eds.), (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2006), p. 147-166.
Joireman, Sandra Fullerton, “Secession and its aftermath: Eritrea,” Managing and Settling Ethnic Conflicts: Comparative perspectives from Africa, Asia and Europe, Ulrich Schneckener and Stefan Wolff (eds.), London: Hurst Press and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
Joireman, Sandra F. and Thomas S. Szayna, “The Ethiopian Prospective Case,” in Thomas S. Szayna, ed., Identifying Potential Ethnic Conflict: Application of a Process Model, (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2000).
Joireman, Sandra Fullerton, "Land Contracts and Traditional Tenure," Land Tenure and Land Policy in Ethiopia after the Derg, (Trondheim, Norway: Reprosentralen AVH, 1994).
- Links