Phillan Zamchiya

Dr Phillan Zamchiya is a Departmental Lecturer in Development Studies at the University of Oxford. He holds a DPhil in International Development from the University of Oxford. 

Zamchiya serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of Oxford Development Studies and on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Southern African Studies (JSAS). His research focuses on agrarian change, democratisation and post-colonial state formation in Africa. Before joining Oxford, he served as a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), and previously held a Research Fellowship at Oxford. 

Zamchiya's work is grounded in more than a decade of field-based research across Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Namibia, and South Africa. He has published on agrarian change, customary tenure, land-based investments, women’s land rights, electoral politics, political parties, and state–society relations in Africa. His research has appeared in international journals, including the JSAS, Journal of Peasant Studies, Review of African Political Economy, Journal of Agrarian Change, and Journal of Asian and African Studies. Alongside his academic work, he engages closely with civil society organisations, the media and policy actors, enabling him to bridge scholarly research and practical engagement in addressing some of Africa's pressing political and development challenges.