Prof Chris de Wet

Chris de Wet is professor in anthropology. He trained in Latin, political philosophy and anthropology at the University of Stellenbosch, and then did post graduate study in anthropology at Oxford University. His PhD (through Rhodes University) and subsequent research focused on land reform and resettlement issues in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa.

Since then he has been involved in collaborative research and consultancy into resettlement arising out of development projects, with the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University, the World Commission on Dams, and more locally, the Komati Basin Water Authority in Swaziland, and the Addo National Elephant Park.

In 2001 he spent four months doing resettlement related research in India, and returned there to a visiting professorship at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, and to carry on research in 2004. His principal research focus is on development issues: he is involved in debates around policy and ethics in connection with resettlement arising in relation to ‘development projects’ such as dams or agricultural projects, and he is writing a book on the cumulative socio-economic effect of development projects over 150 years on a rural settlement in the Eastern Cape. 

His teaching interests include social theory, land reform, resettlement and refugees, development and applied anthropology, anthropology of religion, and Southern African ethnography. He has published a book and edited four others, as well as written numerous journal articles. In 1998, he was joint winner of the Vice-Chancellor's Senior (over 40 years) Researcher Medal. He is married, with two daughters.  Chris can be contacted at c.dewet@ru.ac.za.