People at WISER
Professor and Director
Sarah Nuttall is Professor of Literature and Director of WiSER (Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research) in Johannesburg, South Africa. For many years she taught the Fall semester in the English and African and African American Studies departments at Yale and Duke Universities. She is...
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Professor Achille Mbembe, born in Cameroon, obtained his Ph.D in History at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1989 and a D.E.A. in Political Science at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques (Paris). He was Assistant Professor of History at Columbia University, New York, from 1988-1991, a Senior Research...
moreProfessor and Deputy Director
Keith is a Professor and Deputy Director at Wiser, and one of the editors of the Journal of African History. He writes about the cultural and economic history of South Africa, particularly the gold mining industry,...
moreProfessor
Pamila Gupa is Professor at WISER (Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research) at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. She holds a PhD in Socio-cultural Anthropology from Columbia University. Her research explores Lusophone (post)colonial links and legacies in...
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Isabel Hofmeyr is Professor of African Literature at Wits and Global Distinguished Professor at New York University. Over the last two decades, she has pioneered research on global, oceanic and transnational forms of literary and cultural history that seek to understand Africa’s place in the...
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Professor Rottenburg is working with and from WiSER to build a continent-wide focus on science and technology studies in Africa. He is known internationally for his pathbreaking contributions to major intellectual areas of study which include postcolonial social theory and debates on...
moreVisiting Professor
Shireen is a Professor of Politics at Wits. She has been seconded to WISER for a period of three years from the Department of Political Studies. She is co-editor of many books and author of Women’s Organizations and Democracy in South Africa: Contesting Authority (2006), which won the...
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Jonathan Klaaren is a Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, serving at the Law School and with the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WiSER). He teaches, researches, and writes in the areas of human rights, competition law, and socio-legal...
moreAssociate Professor
Hlonipha Mokoena is currently an Associate Professor at WISER. Before June 2015 she worked in the Anthropology Department at Columbia University. She is the author of Magema Fuze: The Making of a Kholwa Intellectual and has a strong research interest in South African intellectual...
moreAssociate Professor
Richard Pithouse is an Associate Professor at WiSER, the editor of New Frame, the coordinator of the Johannesburg office of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and a columnist for the Mail & Guardian. His current academic interests are focussed on political...
moreSenior Researcher
Nolwazi Mkhwanazi is a medical anthropologist who is interested in issues relating to gender and the politics of reproduction. She received her PhD from Cambridge University. Nolwazi teaches courses in the anthropology of medicine and the body; medical anthropology; and ethnographic writing and...
moreFinancial Manager
Adila Deshmukh joined WISER in June 2004 after having pursued a fulfilling career in the tourism industry for ten years, promoting and selling Southern Africa. At WISER, her focus is on financial management and she works closely with staff, doctoral fellows, visitors and writing fellows. Adila...
moreSenior Administrator
Najibha Deshmukh joined WISER in September 2002. Before joining WISER, Najibha worked in a number of positions at the University, including at Wits TV, the Faculty of Humanities, the School of Human and Community Development and, for a short period , the office of the Dean. She has completed...
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