At the intersection of Africana and Environmental Studies is the inevitable need to examine social inequalities within capitalist systems and explore issues such as: sustainable development, gender-based discrimination, labor rights, environmental degradation, food, seed, and water security, and food justice. I agree with Rubin Patterson author of, Greening of Africana Studies: Linking Environmental Studies with Transforming Black Experiences(2015) who argues that, “Africana studies is uniquely positioned to educate and prepare students for African transnational projects, if not Pan-African projects related to environmental sustainability.” Whether it be climate change in Africa or the the Flint water crisis in Black communities in Michigan— African Diasporic voices bring new conversations to the environmental justice movement.
My PhD dissertation , Traditional Terrain: Land, Gender, and Cultural Biodiversity Preservation in Venda, South Africa is an empirical study of the environmentalism and cultural biodiversity preservation efforts of the community-based organization Dzomo La Mupo (DLM). Through ethnographic-style interviews, participant observation, and archival research, the study investigates the historical and contemporary land legislation and gender politics that have contributed to the erosion of cultural biodiversity in the former apartheid homeland of Venda. I also explore how neocolonialism and globalization impact gender-based discrimination and environmental sustainability in Venda today. Specifically, I analyze how political and corporate actors appropriate colonial and apartheid frameworks and gender ideologies which disenfranchise Indigenous Vhangona women amidst new power relations in the region.
Finally beyond the research, the dissertation is essentially a chronicle of how Vhangona women activists define their agency by reinvigorating their ancestral roles to preserve the sanctity of the environment in South Africa’s post-apartheid era.
Research and Teaching Interests:
Pan-African Studies, Comparative Ethnic Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Globalization in Africa, Race/ Racial Identity, Black Diasporic Feminisms, Global Feminist Politics, African Gender Studies, Gender and The Environment, Environmental Sustainability, Media and the Politics of Representation