Kerry Ryan Chance

Kerry Ryan Chance is an Associate Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Bergen (UiB) and a Non-Resident Du Bois Fellow at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. Her research examines urban ecology and climate change dynamics intersecting with gender, race, and class in South Africa and the United States.

• Marie Sklodowska Curie Fellow (2022-26), The Sorbonne
• Visiting Researcher (2021-22), MIT's Science, Technology, and Society Program
• Research Associate (2019-23), Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research

Her scholarship explores how marginalized populations navigate environmental and economic precarity, with monographs including Living Politics in South Africa's Urban Shacklands and the forthcoming Habitable Air: Urban Inequality in the Time of Climate Change. She has contributed to critical debates on eco-anxiety, urban ungovernability, and infrastructural violence.

Recent publications focus on:

• Climate change impacts on urban marginalization
• Environmental justice in petrochemical regions
• Gendered dimensions of urban survival
• Postcolonial urban governance
• Ethical implications of climate policy
• Technological mediation in political movements

Scientific awards include:

• Marie Sklodowska Curie Fellowship (2022-26)
• Du Bois Fellowship at Harvard University

She leads the Research Council of Norway project Habitable Air (2021-2026) and has participated in multiple collaborative projects on urban futures and egalitarianism.