Edmore Chitukutuku is the 2013 Wadsworth African Fellow!

Each year, the Wenner-Gren Foundation awards the Wadsworth African Fellowship to an African student to receive a international-level anthropological education at a South African university. We would like to extend our congratulations to the recipient of the 2013 fellowship, Edmore Chitukutuku of Zimbabwe, who will be pursuing a doctoral degree at Johannesburg’s University of Witwatersrand. Today we welcome Edmore as a guest-blogger to tell us a little more about his background and his future in anthropology.

I was born in Bindura, Zimbabwe in 1981. I hold a Bachelor of Social Science degree in Anthropology and Sociology from Great Zimbabwe University (2007) and a B.A. Honours (2011) and M.A. (2013) from Witwatersrand. I have worked for an international organization CARE INTERANTIONAL as a humanitarian field officer, Assistant Lecturer at the Great Zimbabwe University. I have been a Sessional lecturer in the department of Anthropology at The University of Witwatersrand in 2011 as well as in the International Human Rights Exchange Programme department in 2012.

My research interests are in understanding political violence as a complex social phenomenon in society. I am also interested in healing and reconciliation in the aftermath of political conflicts. My Honours, and Masters research have tried to make sense of political violence in rural Zimbabwe through understanding rural life and livelihoods. My Ph.D. research will continue to understand youth militia violence in rural Zimbabwe.

The University of Witwatersrand has been a university of choice to me because of the diversity it offers in anthropology. Wits University’s anthropology department has accomplished academics and researchers who have helped me to understand why anthropologists ask the questions they do and to get the interrelations of our scholarship with the questions that we face every day as citizens and as members of organizations and communities. This environment has further enhanced my genuine interest in thinking about the terms in which we can understand the organization of social and political life. The wits anthropology department hosts a colloquia presentation seminar every week where they invite scholars from all over the world to present and debate in emerging research and academic issues around the globe. The seminar offers a brilliant academic engagement forum that refreshes and enlightens our understanding of social phenomenon.

Congratulations to you, Edmore! To learn more about this program, visit our Programs page.