Martha Geiger Mwenitete

Martha Geiger Mwenitete serves as an Assistant Professorial Research Fellow and Strategic Manager at the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa (FLIA), London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Her transdisciplinary work bridges sociology, geography, and animal studies, with a decade-long focus on human-animal labor relations in Eastern and Southern Africa, particularly involving donkeys and horses. She actively collaborates with animal welfare organizations including The UK Donkey Sanctuary and the Maun Animal Welfare Society.

Her educational background includes:

• PhD in Sociology, University of Warwick
• MA in Geography, University of Guelph

Geiger's research centers on multispecies environments and more-than-human worlds, investigating how humans and animals co-labor in changing climates. She challenges anthropocentrism through innovative methodologies that incorporate animal perspectives and ethological insights, with extensive fieldwork on donkey labor in Ethiopia and Botswana. Her work addresses ethical complexities in multispecies research while emphasizing intertwined human-animal well-being.

Her recent publications (2020-2023) reveal consistent focus on socio-economic valuation of working donkeys, human-animal bonds in crisis contexts, and feminization of animal labor. These studies employ mixed sociological-ethological methods to expose systemic undervaluation of animal contributions in development frameworks, with urgent policy implications for humanitarian support systems.

As Strategic Manager at FLIA, Geiger drives institutional growth while maintaining active research partnerships with veterinarians, geographers, and anthropologists through the Lives of Animals Research Group. Her work bridges academic scholarship with practical interventions for animal welfare policy reform in African contexts.