Simukai Chigudu

Simukai Chigudu is an Associate Professor of African Politics at the Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford, and a Fellow of St Antony’s College. He holds multiple advanced degrees, including a DPhil in International Development from Oxford University.

• Education: MBBS, MRes, MPH, MSc, DPhil

His research focuses on the politics of global health and epidemics, race and identity, citizenship, activist movements, and decolonization, with a regional emphasis on Africa and the African diaspora. His work has been published in leading social science and medical journals, and he has conducted fieldwork in Zimbabwe, Uganda, The Gambia, and Tanzania.

Notable achievements include winning the Theodore J. Lowi First Book Award for The Political Life of an Epidemic: Cholera, Crisis and Citizenship in Zimbabwe (Cambridge University Press, 2020). He is currently writing a trade book, When Will We Be Free? Living in the Shadow of Empire and the Struggle for Decolonisation, slated for publication by The Bodley Head and Crown in 2024.

• Scientific Awards
  • Theodore J. Lowi First Book Award
  • Audrey Richards Prize for the best doctoral thesis in African Studies

Simukai teaches on the MPhil in Development Studies and supervises DPhil students. Prior to his academic career, he worked as a medical doctor in the UK’s National Health Service.