Chenai Murata, BA BA (Hons) MA PhD

Holding a BA History and Philosophy, Honours History, MPhil Environmental Studies and PhD Environmental Science, I am a transdisciplinary academic working as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the department of African Studies at the University of Vienna. I teach the following courses in Environmental History: (1) The state, economy and epistemology: the history of environmental conservation in central and southern Africa and (ii) Indigenous resource conservation practices in Africa, colonialism and incorporation into the modern state. Within that broader discipline of Environmental History, my research interests are focused on Indigenous Knowledge System (IKS), particularly its two branches of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and customary land tenure in African societies. While TEK concerns itself with traditional knowledge and practices of conservation and wise use of resources, customary land tenure is about traditional practices of administering land resources, including governance of use and rights.
Student Supervision
MSc Water Management; Water security challenges and distributive and contextual equity dimensions of related municipal response measures in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality. Institute for Water Research, Rhodes University, 2023-2024.
MSc Water Management: Equity dimensions of ecosystem service flow in the Kat River Catchment in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Institute for Water Research, Rhodes University, 2022-2023.
Honours Geography: Procedural equity dimension of water security challenges and municipal responses in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Department of Geography at Rhodes University, 2023.
BSc Environmental Science: Local people’s perception of plastic littering in Makhanda, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Department of Environmental Sciences at Rhodes University, 2019.