Thembela Kepe

Thembela is a Professor in the Department of Geography, and is cross-appointed to the Department of Global Development Studies (UTSC). He has interdisciplinary training, including an undergraduate training in agriculture and land use planning. Over the last few years his research interests have been in the areas of land rights, rural resistance politics, politics of development and political ecology. His field research has mostly been in southern Africa, particularly his home country, South Africa, but has also carried out research in Liberia and in Canada. In addition to publishing about 60 peer-reviewed journal articles, he co-edited four books, on topics such as Land Claims; Rural Revolts; Domains of Freedom and Land Justice and Conservation. He is currently completing a biography of his late uncle, who was a commander and commissar in the underground armed resistance against apartheid in South Africa, between the 1960s and early 1990s. In 2020 he was awarded the Fellowship of the Society of South Africa Geographers (FSSAG), which recognizes outstanding contribution to the field of geography. Thembela is also the chair of the Department of Human Geography at UTSC.