Background
Brenda Chalfin is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Florida where she served as Director of the Center for African Studies from 2016-2022. Chalfin is the author of 3 books: Waste Works: Vital Politics in Urban Ghana (Duke, 2023); Neoliberal Frontiers: An Ethnography of Sovereignty in West Africa (Chicago 2010) and Shea Butter Republic (Routledge 2004) and numerous peer-reviewed articles. Her research examines state processes, border regions, urbanization, public life and the governance of material flows, from plastics and waste, to water, off-shore oil and indigenous commodities.
Professor Chalfin’s recent work explores the politics of urban form through the case study of popular responses to infrastructural breakdown in Ghana’s city of Tema. She is currently pursuing a new project in partnership with colleagues in Ghana and Uganda addressing plastics, water supply and urban development. During the 2022-23 academic year Chalfin was on sabbatical at Aarhus University as visiting faculty member in Global Studies and collaborating with Aarhus School of Architecture to advance her knowledge of studio and design-based inquiry to inform Anthropology teaching and research.
Chalfin has been affiliated with University of Ghana, Stellenbosch University (South Africa), Harvard University Radcliffe Institute, Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton), and received grants from US Department of Education, Social Science Research Council, National Science Foundation and Wenner-Gren. Chalfin has supervised 20 PhD degrees in Anthropology and mentored and recruited numerous African nationals in graduate study at University of Florida and hosted 3 Fulbright scholars during her tenure as Director of the Center of African Studies.
Personal Website
Contact Information
Office: 427 Grinter Hall
Phone: 352-392-2183
Email: bchalfin@ufl.edu
Mailing address:
Department of Anthropology
University of Florida
P.O. Box 117305
Gainesville, FL 32611-7305