Future of Work(ers) team and Research Partners

Ruth Castel-Branco is a Senior Researcher on the Future of Work Project. She has a BA in Geography and African Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2005), an MA in Development Studies from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (2012) and a PhD in Sociology from the University of the Witwatersrand (2021). Previously, Ruth worked at the International Labour Office in Mozambique on social and maternity protection. She first became interested in questions of labour as a student activist, eventually cutting her teeth as a labour organiser at DC Jobs with Justice. Ruth is an alumnus of the International Centre for Development and Decent Work and a fellow of the Open Society Foundations’ Inequality Fellowship. Her research interests include agrarian transformation and the changing nature of work, (informal) workers’ rights and organization, the redistributive role of the state and social protection.

Working stream 1:

Future Works: Eastern and Southern Africa

Dr Eddie Cottle is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies. Eddie's scholarly focus and interest is on the theorisation of labour strikes, which remains an under-researched area globally in the labour studies field. He is particularly interested in strike theory, labour history, strike statistics and comparative studies in social conflict. He is currently an executive board member of the International Association Strikes and Social Conflicts and the editorial board of the Workers of the World Journal. He is a former trade unionist and was the policy and campaign officer for Building and Wood Workers International (BWI), Africa and Middle East Region. He also served as head of collective bargaining support at the Labour Research Service (LRS) in Cape Town.

Working stream 2:

Strikes and Inequality

Rozeena Das is an Associate Researcher on the Future of Works project. Previously, she worked as a researcher at the Centre for Researching Education and Labour (REAL). Rozeena holds a Master's degree in Labour and Economic Sociology, an Honours degree in Sociology, and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Sociology, all awarded by the University of the Witwatersrand. Her research interests include gendered labour, social reproduction, unpaid work, the just transition, and the changing nature of work.

Siphelele Ngidi is an Associate Researcher on the Labour Market Project at the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies. He holds an MCom in Economics, Honours in Economics, and a BCom degree in Economics, Finance, and Marketing from the University of KwaZulu Natal. His research interests include labour economics, health economics, and the economics of higher education. Siphelele has previously worked as a teaching and learning coordinator at the University of the Free State. He was previously employed as an academic development officer and an ad hoc economics lecturer at the University of KwaZulu Natal.

David Francis is the Deputy Director at the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies. His research interests focus on labour market economics, the informal economy, and inequality. He was the researcher for the Advisory Panel on the minimum wage in South Africa. He has previously worked as a development consultant, and a policy and budget analyst at South Africa’s National Treasury, where he worked in health and social policy. He has a PhD in economics from Wits University, an MA in development studies from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and a bachelor of social sciences in economics and history from the University of Cape Town.

Dr Courtney Hallink is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies. She recently completed her PhD in Sociology at the University of Cambridge. Courtney also holds an MSocSci in Sociology from the University of Cape Town and a BA (Hons) in International Relations from the University of Toronto. Courtney’s scholarly work explores the intersections between work, unemployment, social policy, and race, gender and class stratification. She is particularly interested in examining the ways in which the historical institutionalisation of social citizenship reproduces stratification in the (post)-colonial present. Courtney’s work is theoretically grounded in social reproduction theory; race and capitalism; critical whiteness studies; and the racial state.