Sophia Rabie

Sophia is a doctoral candidate whose research engages with the themes of labour, migration and life-making. She joined ODID in 2023 as a Rhodes Scholar to pursue an MPhil in Development Studies. Herein she conducted an ethnographic study about Venezuelan migrants living and labouring on a large-scale Colombian coffee farm. She investigated how workers construct meaningful lives within conditions of uncertainty shaped both by their displacement and the shifting dimensions of their work.

Sophia holds a BA in Philosophy, Social Anthropology and Classics, and an Honours in Social Anthropology from Stellenbosch University. During her studies, she worked for the University’s student-for-student fundraising campaign ‘Bridge the Gap’ and for the human rights law firm the Public Interest Practice in Pretoria. She was a researcher and contributing author for the UNHCR on preventing statelessness in eSwatini through legal reform, and for reports concerning freedom of assembly in SADC and migrant policing for the African Policing Civilian Oversight Forum.

Sophia currently serves as co-director of Africa IFI, an educational fundraising initiative within the Rhodes Trust.