UCT Appoints Four Honorary Professor & Associate Professorships from the CZA Consortium

Environmental Humanities South [EHS] is pleased to welcome four honorary professorships and associate professorships from across sub-Saharan Africa. These awards are a celebration of African led science and collaboration between the University of Cape Town [UCT] and leading scholars on the continent.

The recipients of the awards are principal investigators on the Critical Zones Africa research project and lead teams of local researchers who are doing transdisciplinary appraisals of landscape habitability. The awardees of the five-year professorships and associate professorships are:

• A/Professor Christine Noe, Principal of the College of Social Sciences, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
• A/Professor Sileshi Degefa, School of Environmental and Computational Sciences, University of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
• Prof Billy Mukamuri, Deputy Dean: Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, University of Zimbabwe
• A/Prof Jessica Kampanje Phiri, Dept of Human Ecology, Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Malawi.  

The awardees are doing work in the critical fields of conservation and development politics, climate change and food security, and the social sciences of soil, water, and poverty. Their work is crucial to understanding how climate change is landing on the continent, how landscape processes are changing, and what knowledge(s) of change and hope exist beyond Northern hegemonies. Full bio’s on their work can be found on the EHS website.

The honorary professorships mark a great moment for UCT as they show their support for leading African scholars and foster collaborative relationships for climate research and teaching on the continent. 

These awards are the beginning of a relationship that will enhance the EHS graduate program with expertise from across the continent and build research networks across discipline and countries. During their tenure, the awardees will work closely with EHS to co-teach, supervise, and mentor our graduate students while UCT and EHS will provide institutional support for the awardee’s research.

This is an excellent accolade for all parties. The recognition of leading work by the scholars, a celebration of cross-continental research dialogues led by EHS and CZA, and DELTAS Africa II (Science for Africa Foundation) for funding African led science for the next generation of African leaders. 

EHS congratulates these scholars on their achievement and looks forward to working with them in the coming years.