Professor William Beinart

William Beinart, formerly Rhodes Professor of Race Relations (1997-2015),  is emeritus professor at St Antony’s College and the African Studies Centre.  He served as chair of the Board of the Journal of Southern African Studies, Dean of the College, Director of the African Studies Centre at Oxford and President of the ASAUK.  In 2009 he was elected to the British Academy. 

His research has focussed largely on the history of rural society in South Africa and on environmental history.  Publications include Twentieth-Century South Africa (2001), The Rise of Conservation in South Africa (2003),  Environment and Empire (2007, with Lotte Hughes); Prickly Pear (2011 with Luvuyo Wotshela) and African Local Knowledge (2013 with Karen Brown).  He recently completed an overview, with Saul Dubow, on The Scientific Imagination in South Africa, 1700 to the Present.   Since the 1990s he has researched on land reform and land restitution cases in South Africa and is currently working on a project with Sonwabile Mnwana and Luvuyo Wotshela of the University of Fort Hare.  Publications include: Rights to Land (2017 with Peter Delius and Michelle Hay); ‘Smallholders and Land Reform: A Realistic Perspective’ and ‘Next Steps Towards Land Reform’ (2019 both with Peter Delius).