Dr Rebecca Swartz undertook her undergraduate and Masters degrees at the University of Cape Town. She then relocated to the United Kingdom, where she completed her doctorate, entitled “‘Ignorant and idle’: Indigenous education in Natal and Western Australia, 1833-1875”, at the University of London in 2015. 

Her research focuses on the interactions between race, labour, childhood and education in the British Empire, with particular emphasis on the British settler colonies in the mid-nineteenth century.