Research Chair

SARChI Research Chair

Cherryl Walker, Professor of Sociology in the Department, holds the Research Chair in the Sociology of Land, Environment and Sustainable Development, awarded with effect from January 2016. The arid Karoo region of South Africa is its primary research site – the Karoo not as an isolated space but, rather, a nationally and globally networked arena. Hence the research programme’s byname: Cosmopolitan Karoo.

The Karoo is a compelling site through which to explore issues around land, environment and sustainability, given its history, its unique environment, and its contemporary social challenges. Currently several globally networked developments are also reshaping established relationships to land and place in significant ways; these include major investments in astronomy, notably SALT and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope, and a host of renewable and non-renewable energy projects, conservation initiatives and more.

The research programme is organised around a set of individual, core-team and collaborative projects. The commitment is to research that is empirically grounded, theoretically informed and alert to the importance of cross-disciplinary and comparative work. Postgraduate students are core to the programme and a limited number of bursaries are offered every year to qualified and motivated social science students.

The Research Chair is funded by the Department of Science & Technology (DST), administered by the National Research Foundation (NRF), and based in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Stellenbosch University.

For more information go to the Research Chair’s website at cosmopolitankaroo.co.za/.