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Programmes| Research| Publications

Staff

PROFESSOR LESLIE BANK

Professor Leslie Bank is Director of FHISER. A social anthropologist by training, his main research interests are in the field of urban studies, although he is currently managing a large research project investigating land tenure and land reform in the Eastern Cape.
 
Prof Bank is the leader of a National Research Foundation (NRF) focus area on Food Security Livelihoods and Identity in the Eastern Cape and is also supervising a number of post-graduate students exploring issues of material culture and urban experience in the post apartheid city. He has edited a number of special collections on rural livelihoods and land reform as well as a recent special collection of historical essays on the Eastern Cape.
 
Prof Bank received his doctorate from the University of Cape Town in 2002. He has served as a research fellow at the University of Cambridge's Centre for African Studies and as the Sir Harry Oppenheimer senior research fellow at St Antony's College at Oxford University. As such, he has extensive experience with the management and supervision of research projects. In 2006, Prof Bank received the University of Fort Hare Vice-Chancellor 's Senior Research Medal. He currently co-ordinates one of the Institute's four research programmes - the Urban Renewal and Local Economic Development Programme.

LATEST RESEARCH

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LUVUYO NTOMBANA

Dr Luvuyo Ntombana is a Senior Researcher at FHISER responsible for the Youth, Gender and Reproductive Health program; he is an anthropologist and has just completed his PhD with the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (2011). He graduated with Masters in Theology at the University of Fort Hare.  He taught at the University of Fort Hare in the department of Theology and at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in the department of Sociology and Anthropology. He served as a PEPFAR fellow in HIV/AIDS related projects and sits at various boards of HIV/ AIDS related projects and organisations.

His academic interests are in issues related to African culture and religion,

Indigenous knowledge life, youth adolescence and HIV/AIDS prevention, traditional circumcision and initiation practice.

He presented academic papers and published articles related to traditional circumcision and the state of initiation schools in the Eastern Cape.

 

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DR TERESA CONNOR

Dr Teresa Connor is a Senior Researcher at FHISER. She completed her PhD in  Anthropology at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, based upon  fieldwork   among   farm labourers in the Sundays River Valley. Her research to  date   has focused on  land and dispossession, displacement, conservation as  well as the dynamics of  new ecological reserves in southern Africa.   

She has done fieldwork in Mozambique, Limpopo Province and the Eastern Cape in South Africa. Her current interests include rural agrarian issues, urban housing patterns, as well as patterns of democratisation and service delivery in South Africa. She is currently involved in a research project with the Centre for the Study of Democracy, in Butterworth, in the Eastern Cape.

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NKOSAZANA NGCONGOLO

Nkosazana Ngcongolo is the Institute’s Research Manager. She graduated in 2007 with a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Rhodes University where she majored in Information Systems and Economics.
 
Nkosazana provides vital day-to-day administrative and budgeting support to senior researchers as well as ongoing research projects and FHISER’s post-graduate programme.
 
These are duties in which she proved herself highly competent while still attached to the Institute as a student, earning herself her present position on graduation.
 
Nkosazana is currently studying part-time towards an Honours degree in Economics (Financial Markets) with the University of Fort Hare.
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PROJECT STAFF
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ADAM PERRY
Adam Perry is a Phd candidate and also a student Assistant at  FHISER.
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CLIFFORD MABHENA
Clifford Mabhena recently obtained his Phd  at the University of Fort Hare. He co-ordinates research projects at FHISER.
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OCTAVIA SIBANDA
Octavia Sibanda is a Phd candidate. She is also responsible for Publications and website management at FHISER. She is also involved in research projects at FHISER.
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