People working on the Trust Project

Keith Breckenridge

Keith Breckenridge's picture Keith holds the Standard Bank Chair in African Trust Infrastructures. He studied at Wits and Johns Hopkins and completed his PhD at Northwestern in 1995. He writes about the cultural and economic history of South Africa, particularly the gold mining industry, the state and the development of... more

Janaina Costa

Janaina Costa's picture Janaina Costa has a bachelor's degree in Law from the Federal University of Minas Gerais UFMG, a Master's degree in Economic and Social Development from IEDES - Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, and a postgraduate degree in Digital Law from the State University of Rio de Janeiro. Her... more

Adila Deshmukh

Adila Deshmukh's picture 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... more

Najibha Deshmukh

Najibha Deshmukh's picture 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... more

Georges Eyenga

Georges Eyenga's picture Georges Macaire Eyenga holds a doctorate in sociology from the University of Paris Nanterre. His research focuses on technoscapes in Africa, based on case studies of telesurveillance, drones and biometrics. He is currently working on the digitisation of voting registers and on how the Leave No... more

Caroline King

Caroline King's picture Caroline King is a PhD student at WiSER, focusing on Trust Infrastructure in Ghana and Togo. She holds a BA in History and English from the University of Zurich, as well as an MA in African Studies from the University of Leipzig. Her research interests include infrastructure and connectivity in... more

Jonathan Klaaren

Jonathan Klaaren's picture Jonathan Klaaren is Professor of Law and Society at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.  He is appointed at the Law School and at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WiSER). He teaches, researches, and writes in the areas of human rights,... more

Hannah Krienke

Hannah Krienke's picture My name is Hannah Krienke, and I will be pursuing a PhD Fellowship with the Trust Project.I will be focusing closely on the analysis of the politics surrounding the EcoCash mobile money platform. The objective is to gain a deeper comprehension of the political and economic influence impact EcoCash... more

Hilary Lynd

Hilary Lynd's picture After completing her Ph.D. in History at the University of California, Berkeley, Hilary Lynd will begin as a postdoctoral fellow at WiSER in 2024. She has published articles about the land deal that convinced Inkatha to join elections in 1994 and about ideas of race and Blackness in the Soviet... more

Youssef Mnaili

Youssef Mnaili's picture Youssef is currently a researcher at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER). Former Eiffel Excellency scholar, he holds a PhD in Political and Social Sciences from the European University Institute (Florence, Italy). He studied at the International University of Rabat,... more

Hlonipha Mokoena

Hlonipha Mokoena's picture Hlonipha Mokoena is the Director 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 history. Her new research is on... more

Fatima Moolla

Fatima Moolla's picture Fatima Moolla is a PhD research fellow with a multidisciplinary academic background. Her undergraduate studies focused on International Relations and African Literature, fostering a diverse approach to her work. Building upon this strong foundation, she pursued a Master's degree in Development... more

Babatunde Okunoye

Babatunde Okunoye's picture Tunde Okunoye is a Doctoral Fellow under the Standard Bank Chair in African Trust Infrastructures at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg South Africa, where he is affiliated with the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WiSER) and the Department of Political Studies. His... more

Raymond Onuoha

Raymond Onuoha's picture Raymond Onuoha was until recently a Technology Policy Fellow at the Lagos Business School (LBS) Nigeria, where his research and teaching focused on the institutional and policy challenges in the evolution of the digital economy and technology innovation in developing countries, with a... more

Joel Pearson

Joel Pearson's picture Joel Pearson is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at WISER. He has undertaken extensive research on the local state in rural South Africa. His PhD dissertation focused on the spatial, administrative and extractivist histories that have together shaped the ground of contemporary governance in the Mogalakwena... more

Laura Phillips

Laura Phillips's picture Laura Phillips is Researcher in the African Trust Infrastructures Chair. She holds a PhD in African History from New York University and has worked on histories of rural South Africa, histories of mining, and class formation. Laura also holds a grant from the National Institute for the... more

Gabriella Razzano

Gabriella Razzano's picture Gabriella Razzano is the co-founder and Executive Director of OpenUp, a civic technology hub in Cape Town. She is also a Senior Atlantic Fellow on Social and Income Inequality, and an Advisor to the African AI Observatory. She is a human rights activist, lawyer, and researcher,... more

Richard Rottenburg

Richard Rottenburg's picture 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... more