Rate My Professor Edna Wangui

E. Edna Wangui is Interim Associate Dean for Curriculum, Professor, and Chair of the Department of Geography at Ohio University in the College of Arts and Sciences. She earned her Ph.D. from Michigan State University in 2004. Wangui's research examines the gendered dimensions of rural development and rural livelihood change, environmental conservation, and climate change adaptation, particularly in East Africa. Her ongoing projects investigate the gendered dynamics of sustainable land management practices in the Upper Tana watershed in Central Kenya and the gendered consequences of climate, land use/cover, and livelihood change among pastoralists in Africa’s drylands. These biophysical and socio-economic interactions have compelled pastoralists, traditionally reliant on migration, toward more sedentary livelihoods. From an environmental and development perspective, Wangui stresses the importance of understanding these transitions to devise effective intervention measures for conservation and socio-economic advancement. She focuses on local knowledge and practices as critical foundations for such interventions, addressing three primary areas: the nature and root causes of land use/cover and livelihood change; linkages between these changes, gender relations, and gendered labor within households; and livelihood factors affecting the nutrition security of grandparent caregivers of AIDS orphans.

Wangui has published numerous influential works on these themes. Key publications include "Multiple methods in the study of driving forces of land use and land cover change: a case study of SE Kajiado District, Kenya" (Human Ecology, 2005), "Differentiated livelihoods, local institutions, and the adaptation imperative: Assessing climate change adaptation policy in Tanzania" (Geoforum, 2015), "Development interventions, changing livelihoods, and the making of female Maasai pastoralists" (Agriculture and Human Values, 2008), "African heritage in a changing climate" (Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa, 2020), "Gendered knowledge and adaptive practices: Differentiation and change in Mwanga District, Tanzania" (Ambio, 2016), and "Space and the performance of gender: Negotiating inequality in the context of pastoral livelihood shifts in East Africa’s rangelands" (Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 2014). She contributed to the Africa chapter of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). Wangui received the Ohio University Professor Award in 2017-18 for outstanding teaching and the Global Engagement Faculty Award in 2016.