College of Graduate Studies
Dr Praise Karuma
| College of Graduate Studies | |
|---|---|
| Post-Doctoral Research Fellow | |
| E-mail: | karumpg@unisa.ac.za |
Other
Dr. Praise Gamuchirai Karuma is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of South Africa (UNISA), School of Transdisciplinary Research and Graduate Studies, College of Graduate Studies. Holding a PhD in Anthropology (Development Studies) from the University of Pretoria, his scholarship is centrally anchored in feminist and womanist traditions, foregrounding women’s agency, gendered livelihoods, and the intersections of gender, climate change, and socio-ecological resilience in Southern Africa. His doctoral dissertation, Gender and Socio-Ecological Resilience to Climate Change (2023), critically examines how gendered power structures shape women’s adaptive capacities in post-Fast Track Land Reform Zimbabwe. This sustained gender focus is further demonstrated across his research career: he served as Lead Researcher on Women’s Adaptation Experiences in Mashonaland West (2019), Lead Researcher on the Gender and Socio-Ecological Resilience to Climate Change project (2022–2023), and Fieldwork Coordinator on both the FAO Climate Change, Gender and Migration Nexus Survey (2022) and a Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) project with CUSP and the University of Zimbabwe (2022). He has additionally served as a consultant training Zimbabwe’s Parliament on Gender, Climate Change, and Disaster Risk Reduction (2025). His published scholarship includes a peer-reviewed articles centring narratives of female farmers navigating climate change and sustainable development, and book chapters interrogating how climate and socio-economic forces reshape marriage, gender relations, and women’s lives in contemporary Zimbabwe. As a Lecturer, Dr. Karuma has taught courses on gender issues at both undergraduate and MSc levels and supervised several student dissertations on gender and rural development. He is currently leading a postdoctoral research project entitled ‘Unlocking Climate Finance for Building Resilience to Climate Change Amongst Women Smallholder Farmers: Barriers and Pathways in Selected Post-Fasttrack Farms in Zvimba District, Zimbabwe,’ which interrogates gendered barriers to climate finance access and advances feminist pathways for equitable climate resilience. Drawing on ethnographic and intersectional methodologies, his work consistently centres women’s voices and advances transformative, gender-just development frameworks in Southern Africa.
UNISA contact person: Prof Jesicca Murray