Welcome, Dr. Gift Mwonzora and Viddy Ranawijaya!

Dr. Gift Mwonzora and Viddy Ranawijaya just joined the Brandt School team to work with Prof. Dr. Achim Kemmerling on the DFG-funded research project “Politics and the Future of Work in Middle-Income Countries (PolDigWork).” The project aims to examine how digitalization and automation affect labor market and social policies in middle-income countries using Mexico, Indonesia, and South Africa as case studies.

Dr. Gift Mwonzora is a senior researcher with a PhD in Sociology from Rhodes University in South Africa. He completed his M.A. in Development Studies at Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam and his B.A. Honors in History and Development Studies at Midlands State University in Zimbabwe. His areas of interest include the future of work and digitalization in Africa, as well as development policy and political economy. Prior to joining the PolDigWork project at the Brandt School, Gift held a Post-doctoral Research Fellow position at the Institute of Social Justice at the University of Free State, was a Visiting Research Fellow at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and worked as a researcher and lecturer in Zimbabwe.

Viddy Ranawijaya is a Doctoral Student and Research Associate in the PolDigWork project. He holds a B.A. in International Relations from Padjadjaran University in Indonesia and a joint-M.A. in European Politics, Society, and Culture in a Global Context from the University of Strasbourg, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, and the University of Groningen. Viddy is interested in research in the areas of digitalization, inclusion, and the internationalization and regionalization of higher education. Before becoming a part of the Brandt School Team, he worked for research think-tanks and non-governmental organizations.