UP and the University of Cape Town (UCT) have formed a significant collaborative partnership with the appointment of Prof Maano Ramutsindela, a professor of geography at UCT, as the new Research Chair in Sustainability Transformations.

The University of Pretoria’s (UP) Future Africa, a pan-African platform for collaborative and transformative research, recently welcomed Professor Maano Ramutsindela as the new UP-UCT Future Africa Research Chair in Sustainability Transformations. Prof Ramutsindela, who is a professor of geography at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and a Canon Collins scholar, brings a wealth of expertise and experience to the role.

In his new position, Prof Ramutsindela will lead and develop the activities of the Future Africa Institute’s sustainability transformations domain, which involves co-directing the African Research Universities Alliance- Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities Cluster of Research Excellence on the politics of sustainability. This collaborative effort, jointly led by UP and the University of Oslo, engages in research to address critical sustainability issues.

“I will initiate dialogues through which colleagues can share knowledge on the politics of sustainability with the plan of curating views, perspectives and research findings from the dialogue,” he says of his short-term plans. “I will also conclude some work on the political ecology of peace parks that I plan to use to launch the politics of sustainability at regional level. Additionally, I am working on the development of a PhD programme under the theme ‘the politics of sustainability’.”

With a PhD in Geography from the University of London’s Royal Holloway College and a master’s in the subject from the University of the North, Turfloop, Prof Ramutsindela’s research focuses on socio-ecological dynamics and the political ecology of peace parks.

He is the author of several influential books – including Transfrontier Conservation in Africa: At the Confluence of Capital, Politics and Nature – and has edited more recent works such as Africa and the Sustainable Development Goals (with David Mickler, Springer 2020) and The Violence of Conservation in Africa: State, Militarization and Alternatives (with Frank Matose and Tafadzwa Mushonga, 2022). He is the associate editor of Environmental Conservation and has held past editorial roles with the South African Geographical Journal and other respected journals.

Prof Ramutsindela is the immediate past dean of the Faculty of Science at UCT. His accolades include the National Research Foundation’s President’s Award, and international recognitions such as the Mandela Fellowship at Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute.

In discussing his new role, Prof Ramutsindela expressed excitement at the prospect of focusing on research and postgraduate training, emphasising his commitment to supporting African science and cultivating a generation of critical scholars who are equipped to tackle the challenging questions that will shape the continent’s future. His appointment is more than just a job; it aligns with his passion for building pan-African scholarship.

His vision for the Chair includes a commitment to making the Future Africa Institute a truly pan-African platform by using the domain of sustainability transformations as an avenue to tackle research questions of significance to the future of Africa and the place of the continent in the production of knowledge.

Prof Ramutsindela invites UP faculty members and students to collaborate, drawing on their varied experiences and expertise to contribute to research, policy and community engagement through the lens of sustainability transformations. He emphasises his role as a bridge between UP and UCT, aiming to facilitate connections among researchers from both institutions.

Author: Lerato Mpetshwa