UF Research Foundation Professor (2024-2027)
Affiliate Faculty, Center for African Studies(opens in new tab)
Faculty Member, Sahel Research Group(opens in new tab)
Coordinator, African Networks Lab
UF Scholar Profile(opens in new tab)
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-5768-2845
Focus Areas
- Focus Area 3: Places, Networks, & Flows
- Focus Area 4: Geopolitics & The Global Economy
- Focus Area 5: Catastrophes, Conservation, and Conflict
Research Statement:
I am an Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Florida and an affiliated researcher at the UF Sahel Research Group. Before coming to Florida, I held faculty appointments at the University of Southern Denmark and Rutgers University and worked as a researcher at the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research.
In the last 15 years, my research has focused on the development of cross-border trade and the emergence of transnational political violence in West Africa. I have conducted fieldwork in Niger, Nigeria, Benin, Mali, Mauritania, and Ghana. My research has pioneered the introduction of social network analysis(opens in new tab) to the study of borderlands in West Africa and introduced the concept of spatial conflict life cycle(opens in new tab) in the geography literature.
I have served as a lead investigator or collaborator on externally funded research projects from the National Science Foundation, NASA, the United Nations, the OECD, the European Commission, the European Spatial Planning Observatory, and the national research funds of Denmark and Luxembourg.
Currently, I am coordinating the West Africa research program of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD/SWAC(opens in new tab)), with a core objective to better understand political insecurity in the region. I am an Associate Editor of Political Geography(opens in new tab) and a “chief” of the African Borderlands Research Network (ABORNE(opens in new tab)).
Recent Courses
- GEO3502, Economic Geography
- GEO4024C Terrorism and Space
Recent Funded Projects
- 2025-2026. Modeling the Spread of Armed Conflict in North and West Africa. Principal Investigator (PI). Funded by the OECD.
- 2023-2024. Monitoring the Spatial Evolution of Conflicts in North and West Africa II(opens in new tab). PI. Funded by the OECD.
- 2023-2025. Integrating socio-economic and remotely sensed information to characterize conflict precursors and land degradation dynamics in Ghana(opens in new tab), Co-Investigator (Co-I). Funded by NASA SERVIR-USAID.
- 2021-2022. Monitoring the Spatial Evolution of Conflicts in North and West Africa I.(opens in new tab) PI. Funded by the OECD.
- 2021-2022. Inclusiveness and Diversity as Building Blocks of Resilient International Research Teams in the Age of COVID-19(opens in new tab). Co-PI. Funded by the National Science Foundation.
- 2020-2022. Linking deforestation, urbanization, and agricultural expansion for land-use decisions in Ghana (GALUP)(opens in new tab). Co-I. Funded by NASA SERVIR-USAID.
Recent Publications
Walther O, Radil S, Russell D. 2025. The spatial conflict life cycle in Africa. Annals of the American Association of Geographers 115(2): 456-477.
Walther O, Nugent P, Goewey S. 2025. The impact of transport policies on road accessibility in Ghana (2010-2019). African Geographical Review 44(1): 1-17.
Walther O, Prieto-Curiel R, Padron J, Scheuer J. 2023. Mapping the travel geography of the 9/11 network. The Professional Geographer 75(5): 855-869.
Trémolières M, Walther O, Radil S. (eds) 2023. Urbanisation and Conflict in North and West Africa. Paris, OECD Publishing.
Walther O, Radil S, Russell D, Trémolières M. 2023. Introducing the Spatial Conflict Dynamics indicator of political violence. Terrorism and Political Violence, 35(3): 533-552.
Radil S, Irmisher I, Walther O. 2022. Contextualizing the relationship between borderlands and political violence: A dynamic space-time analysis in West and North Africa. Journal of Borderlands Studies, 37(2): 253-271.
Rojas J, Walther O. 2022. Revolutionary insurgents or conservative reactionaries? National Liberation Army’s transnational expansion in Colombia and Venezuela. Journal of Latin American Geography 22(2).
Trémolières M, Walther O, Radil S. (eds) 2022. Borders and Conflict in North and West Africa. Paris, OECD Publishing.
Walther O, Radil S, Russell D. 2021. Mapping the changing structure of conflict in North and West Africa. African Security, 14(3): 211-238.
Skillicorn D, Walther O, Leuprecht C, Zheng Q. 2021. The diffusion and permeability of political violence in North and West Africa. Terrorism and Political Violence 33(5): 1032-1054.
Prieto Curiel R, Walther O, O’Clery C. 2020. Uncovering the internal structure of Boko Haram through its mobility patterns. Applied Network Science 5(28): 1-23.
Valerio V, Walther O, Eilittä M, Cissé B, Muneepeerakul R, Kiker G. 2020. Network analysis of regional livestock trade in West Africa. PLoS ONE 15(5): 1-15.
Educational Background
- PhD in Geography, University of Lausanne, 2006
- M.S. in Advanced Studies in Development Studies, University of Geneva, 2004
- M.S. in Geography, University of Lausanne, 2001
- B.S. in Geography, University of Lausanne, 1999
Current Graduate Students
Recent Graduate Students