Postgraduate Program and Supervision

My mandate at North West is to develop a top postgraduate program in anthropology. I am working closely with colleagues and the CTL to do this, and of course our remarkable MA students. A weekly seminar series, regular workshops and a virtual community are all part of this process.

Education

PhD Anthropology, Stanford University 2017

MSc Forced Migration, Oxford University 2010

BSocSci (Hons) University of Cape Town 2008

Undergraduate Teaching

I currently teach and support at all levels of the undergraduate curriculum. My goal is to bring a distinctly non-South African orientation into the department, and expose students to new perspectives.

Regions2050: South Atlantic and Indian Ocean

One of my primary research focus areas at present is an ethnographic study of undersea internet cables in the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean Region through WiSER's 'Regions2050: Mobile Spaces, Porous Borders, and Pathways of Regionalisation'.

Carbon

In recognition of the carbon my academic training has cost the word, I work with the Great Labyrinth of Africa Initaitve in planting and maintaining spekboom trees.

Why Jahaj?

Jahaj is the Hindi word for boat. It is also what happens when my own initials are placed next to those of my life partner. Using the word in this way, I acknowledge that my work takes place within the family, nourished by home, relationality and care. (On a practical level, the text is pointed here from jessauerbach.net).

I am currently the Director of the MPhil in Inclusive Innovation at the University of Cape Town, and regularly lecture in the Graduate School of Business, Anthropology, and other fields. I do many invited lectures each year, including a regular slot with the Oxford University Executive MBA program. Prior to UCT I supported recurriculation of North-West University's undergraduate offerings and postgraduate program. I spent three years in Mauritius in which time I was founding faculty for the African Leadership University's Social Science program, and then Interim Director of the Centre for Interculturality at the Open University of Mauritius. I have done extensive training workshops on decoloniality and inclusion with primary, high-school, university level and university and corporate staff.

Here is a link to a Summer/Winter School on Decolonisation and the Environment that I participated in with the UN Network for Human Rights and the Environment in 2021.

Here is a link to a workshop on new tools in anthropological research that I participated in hosted by Yale University and the Wenner Gren Foundation in 2021.