Doctoral Student in Anthropology and History
About
Areas of Interest/Fields of Study
International political economy • Legal and Economic Anthropology • Political thought • Regional focus on Southern African mineral extractives and financial capital outflows • Global focus on modern formation of offshore and non-sovereign tax haven states.
Affiliations
Department of History
My research interests broadly revolve around international political economy, intellectual history, and political thought. I study the formation of non-sovereign tax haven states in the Caribbean alongside the intersections between extractives and financial capital outflows through the history of mining in Southern Africa from the 19th century. By underlining the role of natural resources in historically shaping geopolitical forces, I trace the configurations, trajectories, and possibilities of political thought to meet the contemporary postcolonial predicaments of sovereignty, survival, and advancing freedom and global justice.
My background is in financial accounting and taxation, and I was signed with Ernst and Young in South Africa. Thereafter I worked with unions and social movements which were a part of the Economic Justice Network in Southern Africa tackling profit shifting, and I led research and campaigns on corporate mining taxation. Simultaneously, I enrolled for my MA in Sociology. When I started my master’s, it was with the intention of conducting fieldwork in the DRC and writing my thesis on artisanal mining. Covid happened, and I ended up writing on non-sovereign tax havens in the Caribbean through a developmental history of the British Virgin Islands. After submitting my MA dissertation, I undertook additional campaign work seeking compensation for ex mineworkers affected by TB or silicosis. I now mostly work independently as a research consultant, organiser, and policy lobbyist.
For my doctoral research, I’ll be aiming to use the ambitions of the New International Economic Order as a departing point to revisit the political thought which attempted to grapple with and theorise conditions that can secure freedom and a just world.
You may visit my personal website to learn more about my background and interests.
