Blair Rutherford
Areas of Interest
Politics and possibilities of international development, civil society in Africa; rural livelihoods in Africa; anthropology of citizenship, gender, race, and the state; colonialism/post-colonialism/decolonization; migration; public anthropology.
I am currently accepting graduate students interested in the fields of political anthropology, political economy, and engendered livelihoods and welcome inquiries about specific areas of supervision.
杏吧原创
My ethnographic research began in southern Africa, initially in Zimbabwe concerning commercial farm workers and then in northern South Africa concerning migrant Zimbabwean workers in the border-zone. I examined the economic strategies, institutional arrangements and the constitutive cultural politics shaping current and former farm worker strategies to access resources, particularly land, during the land redistribution exercises in Zimbabwe and deepening political and economic crises in these southern African nation, including Zimbabweans working on and around northern South African farms.
More recently, I have been engaged with two research projects with research from 杏吧原创, other Canadian institutions and from African universities and organizations examining gender and artisanal and small-scale mining in Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and DRC, which has entailed my carrying out ethnographic research in Sierra Leone and Mozambique.
For more information on our current interdisciplinary research see Artisanal Mining and Gender in sub-Saharan Africa.
I also carried out a small research project in 2020-21 with Doris Buss (Law and Legal Studies, 杏吧原创), Aisha Ibrahim (University of Sierra Leone), and Sarah Kinyanjui (University of Nairobi, Mombasa campus) called 鈥淎ttending (to) Class: An intersectional study of COVID-19 Adaptation in Canada, Kenya and Sierra Leone Universities.鈥
Recent Courses Taught
Graduate: Thesis Writing Seminar; Research Design; Anthropology Doctoral Seminar; Anthropology of Natural Resources; Introduction to Migration and Diaspora Studies (co-taught); Research Seminar in Migration and Diaspora Studies (co-taught); Theory and Methods I and II African Studies Abroad: Migration Lives and Livelihoods in South Africa (taught in South Africa)
Undergraduate: Anthropology of Natural Resources; Studies in Contemporary sub-Saharan Africa; Contemporary Anthropological Theory; African Studies Abroad: Migration Lives and Livelihoods in South Africa (taught in South Africa)
Recently Completed Supervisions (since 2017)
Postdoctoral
Daniel Rogei, 鈥淓-Bell and 鈥榬esource theft鈥: Using technology to understand causes and outcomes of cattle theft among pastoral communities in Western Kenya.鈥 Mitacs Accelerate, 2022-24.
Miriam Hird-Younger, 鈥淭he Value, Meaning, and Gendered Experiences of Fair-trade Cocoa Production Among Smallholder Famers in Ghana.鈥 SSHRC Postdoctoral Award, 2022-2024
Daniel Rogei, 鈥淓-Bell and 鈥榬esource theft鈥: Using technology to understand causes and outcomes of cattle theft among pastoral communities in Western Kenya.鈥 Mitacs Accelerate, 2022-24.
Logan Cochrane. “The Wogagoda Language Policy: Citizen Engagement and Responsive Government.” Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2017-2019.
PhD
Chike Nwoke (Anthropology), If not for my Hustling Spirit: Youth Apprenticeships and the Complexity of Empowerment in Southeast Nigeria, April 2025 (co-supervised).
Akintunde Akinleye (Anthropology), Pentecostal Christianity and Yoruba Oracular Practices: Religious Differences and Ambivalences in the Utilization of the Media in Urban Lagos and its Environs, January 2025 (co-supervised).
Daniel Salau Rogei (Anthropology), Mediating Maendeleo: Examining the nexus betweengeothermal extraction, wildlife conservation and community well-being in Olkaria-Suswa, Southern Kenya, May 2021 (co-supervised).
Vivianna Boil猫s-L茅onard (Anthropology), Substantive Belonging in a Post-Apartheid City: Examining the Intersection of Race, Class, Space, and Colonial Legacies in Cape Town, August 2023 (co-supervisor).
Sheila Rao (Anthropology), Women鈥檚 Sweet Success? Interrogating Nutritionism in Biofortified Sweet Potato Promotion in Mwasonga, Tanzania, December 2018 (co-supervisor).
Ying-Ying Tiffany Liu (Anthropology), Intra-Migrant Economy: Chinse Restaurant Entrepreneurship and Zimbabwean Migrant Workers in South Africa, September 2018.
MA
Jillian McArthur (Anthropology, Thesis), Portrait of a Lost Girl: Understanding Narratives Used in Barrie鈥檚 Anti-Human Trafficking Movement, April 2024.
Fathiya Warsama (Anthropology, Thesis), Poor Black Women. The Surveillance of Class, Race, and Gender in Canadian Urban Planning: An Autoethnography, July 2024 (co-supervised).
Courtney Joshua (Migration and Diaspora Studies, Thesis), Perspectives of South African Women of Colour: Understanding Diasporic Networks and Levels of Engagement within the South African Diaspora in Canada, May 2023.
Sarah George (Sociology with a specialization in African Studies, Thesis), Pan-Africanism in Canada: Anti-Blackness and Black Consciousness in Canada’s Capital, September 2021(co-supervised).
Eman Nasrat (Anthropology, Research Essay), Performing an 鈥業dentity鈥 Influenced by Ancestry tests, January 2020.
Emma Bider (Anthropology with a specialization in African Studies, Thesis), The Sound of Home: Tuareg Women鈥檚 Tend茅 Drumming in France and Belgium, May 2018 (co-supervisor).
Tyler Paziuk (Political Economy, Thesis), Trade Unions and Noncitizens in South Africa: Towards an Organizational Norm of Differentiated Universalism, September 2017
Honours
Claire Jaworski (Arthur Kroeger College of Public Affairs, Honours Research Essay), Banking with Biometrics: Biopolitical Implications for South Africa鈥檚 Vulnerable Populations, April 2020.
Erin Newman-Grigg (Arthur Kroeger College of Public Affairs, Honours Research Essay), Internal Remittances in the Context of a Capabilities-Based Development Approach: The Case of Nigeria, April 2018.
Recent Publications (since 2017)
2023 (1st editor with Doris Buss), The (In)Visibility of Women and Mining: The Gendering of Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining in Sub-Saharan Africa. London: Routledge.
2022 (3rd editor with Chris Brown and David Moore) New Leaders. New Dawns?
South Africa and Zimbabwe Under Cyril Ramaphosa and Emmerson Mnangagwa. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen鈥檚 University Press.
2023 (second author with Doris Buss). 鈥淕endering Women鈥檚 Livelihoods in Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining: An Introduction鈥 in Doris Buss and Blair Rutherford (eds.), The (In)Visibility of Women and Mining: The Gendering of Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining in Sub-Saharan Africa, pp. 1-16 London: Routledge (reprint).
2023 (second author with Aisha Fofana Ibrahim and Doris Buss). 鈥淕endered 鈥楥hoices鈥 in Sierra Leone: Women in artisanal mining in Tonkolili District,鈥 in Doris Buss and Blair Rutherford (eds.), The (In)Visibility of Women and Mining: The Gendering of Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining in Sub-Saharan Africa, pp.154-173 London: Routledge.
2023 (first author with Laila Chemane-Chilemba). 鈥淭he Governance of Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining in Manica District, Mozambique: Implications for Women鈥檚 Livelihoods,鈥 in Doris Buss and Blair Rutherford (eds.), The (In)Visibility of Women and Mining: The Gendering of Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining in Sub-Saharan Africa, pp. 174-192. London: Routledge (reprint).
2022 鈥淢igration, Authority, and the Gendered Organization of Labour in Artisanal Gold Mining in Sierra Leone (and Mozambique).鈥 Africa 92(3): 354-372.
2022 鈥淭he Political Economy and Cultural Politics of Zimbabwe鈥檚 Land: A primer for the Post-Mugabe Era鈥 in Chris Brown, David Moore and Blair Rutherford (eds.), New Leaders. New Dawns? South Africa and Zimbabwe Under Cyril Ramaphosa and Emmerson Mnangagwa, pp. 273-301. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen鈥檚 University Press.
2021 (second author with Doris Buss et al.) “A Mine of One鈥檚 Own?: Gender Norms and Empowerment in Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining,” in K. Grantham, G. Dowie, and A. De Haan (eds.), Women鈥檚 Economic Empowerment: Insights from Africa and South Asia, pp.157-169. London: Routledge.
2021 (2nd author with Prosper Matondi) 鈥淭he Politics of ‘Land Grabs鈥 and Development Contradictions in Zimbabwe: The Case of the Chisumbanje Ethanol Project鈥 in Logan Cochrane and Nathan Andrews (eds.), The Transnational Land Rush in Africa, pp. 189-212. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
2021 鈥淥n Ethnography, Politics and Critique,鈥 Anthropologica 61(1): 1-5.
2020 (second author with Doris Buss et al.) 鈥淏eyond the Rituals of Inclusion: The Environment for Women and Resource Governance in Africa鈥檚 Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Sector,鈥 Environmental Science and Policy 116:30-37.
2020 鈥淭he moral politics of gendered labour in artisanal mining in Sierra Leone,鈥 Development and Change 51(3): 771-793.
2020 (second author with Doris Buss). 鈥淕endering Women鈥檚 Livelihoods in Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining: An Introduction,鈥 Canadian Journal of African Studies 54(1): 1-16.
2020 (second author with Aisha Fofana Ibrahim and Doris Buss). 鈥淕endered 鈥楥hoices鈥 in Sierra Leone: Women in artisanal mining in Tonkolili District,鈥 Canadian Journal of African Studies 54(1): 157-176.
2020 (first author with Laila Chemane-Chilemba). 鈥淭he Governance of Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining in Manica District, Mozambique: Implications for Women鈥檚 Livelihoods,鈥 Canadian Journal of African Studies 54(1): 139-156.
2020 鈥淣ervous Conditions on the Limpopo: Gendered Insecurities, Livelihoods, and Zimbabwean migrants in northern South Africa,鈥 Studies in Social Justice 14(1):169-187.
2019 (second author with Doris Buss and six others) 鈥淕ender and artisanal and small-scale mining: implications for formalization,鈥 The Extractive Industries and Society 6(4): 1101-112.
2019 (second editor with Pius Adesanmi) Africa Matters: Cultural politics, political economies, & grammars of protest. Ottawa: Daraja Press.
2019 (first author with Doris Buss) 鈥淕endered Governance and Socio-economic Differentiation among Women Artisanal and Small-Scale Miners in Central and East Africa,鈥 Third World Thematics 4(1): 63-79.
2019 “(Dis-)Graceful Leadership: On familial logics and politics in Zimbabwe.” Cahiers d’脡tudes Africaines LIX (2), 234: 625-654.
2018 Commentary: “Mugabe’s Shadow: Limning the penumbrae of post-coup Zimbabwe.” Canadian Journal of African Studies 52(1): 53-68.
2017 (third author with Chris Huggins and Doris Buss) “A ‘cartography of concern’: place-making practices and gender in the artisanal mining sector in Africa.” Geoforum 83: 142-152.
2017 (second author with Doris Buss) “‘Dangerous Desires’: Illegality, Sexuality, and the Global Governance of Artisanal Mining.” In Di Otto (ed.) Queering International Law. London: Routledge. pp. 35-52.
2017 . Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
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