Dr Jessica Kampanje

Dr. Jessica Kampanje is a social anthropologist specialized in understanding the sociocultural dimension of poverty and food systems from an inclusive and community engagement perspective. Currently employed as a senior lecturer at the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Dr. Kampanje-Phiri brings with her more than 10 years’ experience in interdisciplinary and multicountry research. She was the Malawi lead researcher on a multimillion-dollar climate change-related project in collaboration with University of Cape Town; a co-PI on a Feed the Future’s Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement Center for East and Southern Africa in collaboration with Cornell University; and a social analyst for the Prioritizing Options for Women’s Empowerment and Resilience in Food Tree Value Chains in Malawi (POWER) Project in collaboration.

The novelty of her work is bringing social-culturally sensitive and context-specific insights to programs, policies, innovations, and research related to poverty, food systems, climate change, governance, livelihood security, power and gender relations, humanitarian assistance, and development aid, amongst other issues. Dr Kampanje-Phiri is also a former deputy head for the Human Ecology Department at LUANAR and recently an AAP African Futures Research Leadership Fellowship recipient from Michigan State University (Sept 2022–July 2023).