Ian Madison is a Lecturer in Humanitarian Studies at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM). Before joining LSTM, he was an LSE Fellow and Co-Director of the International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies programme at the London School of Economics. Ian holds a PhD in International Development from the University of Oxford and an MSc in International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies from the London School of Economics. Beyond academia, Ian has worked on issues related to resilience, natural resources, and community engagement for the World Bank, NGOs, government, and environmental consultancies.

A political scientist by training, Ian's research focuses on contested and 'de-facto' states, non-state actors, and the politics of public service delivery during periods of conflict or disaster. Drawing on fieldwork in Kosovo, his PhD examines how people navigate between competing ‘parallel state’ authorities during conflict, focusing on core public services closely tied to statebuilding, such as education, healthcare, and justice. In a follow-up project in Tanzania, he examined how people living in informal settlements have adapted community-based financial institutions to better cope with increased flooding. Ian is currently completing a book project on the politics of state-building in Kosovo. 

Ian's teaching focuses on humanitarian history and critique, complex emergencies, the practice of relief, and climate change. Ian also leads a professional skills module that pairs students with external organisations such as UNICEF, the UN Refugee Agency, Medecins Sans Frontieres, International Medical Corps, Action Against Hunger, or Plan International to work on an applied research consultancy. Beyond the classroom, Ian has also co-led a weekend mass-displacement simulation at Cumberland Lodge in Great Windsor Park and coordinates LSTM's student field trip to Geneva, Switzerland.