Welcome to Kudakwashe Chitofiri as AfOx-ODID Visiting Fellow
We are delighted to welcome Kudakwashe Chitofiri, who will be at ODID during Trinity Term as part of a 12-month AfOx-ODID Visiting Fellowship.
Kudakwashe is an economic historian whose work has focused on urban history, protest history and music, political violence and migration in Zimbabwe. He is currently a Research Associate with the Rhodes University African Studies Centre and a recipient of the prestigious African Humanities Program Postdoctoral Fellowship.
While at the University of Oxford, Kudakwashe’s research project, ‘Male Health and Well-being in Harare, Zimbabwe: A historical and gendered analysis of urban sexual health’ will investigate the indignity of African male pride caused by living in a segregated and controlled urban environment. The project will explore the blurring of belief in masculinity within the realities of the colonial and post-colonial city.
“The University of Oxford has world-class research facilities as well as a robust and internationally acclaimed group of scholars on Africa. I hope to have very useful conversations with them as well as make maximum use of the research material. I am keen to participate in the University's very vibrant seminars and workshops," Kudakwashe said.
Kudakwashe earned his PhD in Africa Studies from the International Studies Group, University of the Free State, South Africa, before working as the head of the department of historical studies at the National University of Lesotho. He has also worked as a lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe, the National University of Lesotho and taught at the University of Zimbabwe’s economic history department.
The AfOx Visiting Fellowship Programme is designed to allow exceptional African researchers to build international networks and focus on a project of their choice in collaboration with Oxford-based scholars. The Fellowship is open to researchers across all academic fields. Fellows are affiliated with the University for 12 months, including ten months of virtual engagement and a two-month in-person visit to Oxford during Trinity Term.
ODID is one of six key AfOx partners, alongside TORCH, the Law Faculty, the Mathematical Institute, the Refugee Studies Centre and the African Studies Centre.