Tahira Shariff is from Northern Kenya. She is an anthropologist and holds a Master’s Degree in International Studies from the University of Nairobi. Her MA project was on human smuggling across the Kenya-Ethiopia Border.

Tahira is very interested and enthusiastic about research-based work, driven by a personal interest in working with communities, coupled with her academic foundations in anthropology.

As a pastoralist woman, Tahira has noted the lack of minority representation in academia and this deficit has motivated her to seek a doctoral degree under the PASTRES Project, both to increase her own knowledge and experience, but also to provide her with skills and experience to mentor and engage the next generation of female Kenyan scholars.

Recently, Tahira has worked with the Effective State and Inclusive Development (ESID) Research Centre at the University of Manchester on a project examining governance and the politics of implementing social protection in Kenya through the case for Marsabit County in Northern Kenya. For her PhD, Tahira aims to examine how pastoralist communities evolve community safety nets and coping strategies in response to external shocks, and how such strategies are rooted in cultural institutions.