Xaba, Mzingaye Brilliant

I hold a PhD in Sociology from Rhodes University. My area of focus was on the South African land restitution programme. I attained my Masters and honours degrees in the same institution, and I obtained my Bachelor of Social Science degree at the University of Fort Hare. 

I am currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Johannesburg under the Institute for Pan African Thought and Conversation. I am researching the impact of the restructuring of land reform departments on the functioning of land reform projects in South Africa. Previously, I was a postdoctoral fellow at the SARChI Research Chair in the Sociology of Land, Environment and Sustainable Development Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Stellenbosch University. My research focus was around the potential impact of shale gas mining in South Africa, and the resultant resistance by communities and activists, many of whom are women. 

Broadly speaking, my key research focus is around the impact of the developmental projects, the related power dynamics, the meanings of development and environmental humanities or what is also called environmental sociology.