Malika Kounkourou

Malika Kounkourou is a J.D. candidate at Harvard Law School. She holds a managing editor position on the Harvard Environmental Law Review and is a research assistant at the Harvard Environmental and Energy Law Program. She graduated from Boston University with a B.A. in International Relations, concentrating on Environment and Development in Africa and the Middle East. Her honors thesis, titled “No Justice, No Peace: Rethinking Sustainable Environmental Peacebuilding Through a Case Study of Uranium Mining Governance in Niger,” examined contextual factors—such as colonial legacies and political processes—often left out of prevailing frameworks when addressing the root causes of development and security challenges facing indigenous populations and their livelihoods.

Prior to law school, Malika was a Princeton in Africa Fellow, serving as a communications and research officer with the Francophone West Africa regional office of Population Services International in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Her interests lie at the intersection of alternative dispute resolution systems, corporate accountability, and climate justice, with a focus on extractive industry governance.