Matt Hannaford
The consequences of past and future climate change for state formation and security in southern Africa
Supervisors: Dr Julie Jones, Professor Grant Bigg, Professor Martial Staub, and Professor Ian Phimister
Start Year: September 2011
Funding: University of Sheffield Energy and Environment Institute studentship
Current research
The environment plays an underpinning role in human development, yet often receives comparatively little attention regarding its significance in past events. The environment, and particularly climate change have been posited as causal factors in the rise and fall of settlements, societies and civilisations. With respect to these two themes, my thesis examines their significance in the southern African defining periods of the rise and fall of Great Zimbabwe (c. 1270-1450), the rise of the Zulu Kingdom (c. 1808) and its consequences, a regional series of wars and migrations known as the Mfecane (c. 1815-1840). While in its infancy in southern Africa, a multidisciplinary environmental history approach has been applied to examine similar questions elsewhere, such as the decline of Norse settlements in Greenland. My research will thus draw its multi-layered methods from physical geography and history through analysing early meteorological records in ships’ logbooks, climatic proxy data, Global Climate Model simulations, and palaeoclimatic data from documentary sources, in addition to archaeological and archival records, and African oral traditions. There is then the potential to examine such relationships during other periods, for instance colonial rule and the present. This insight from the past can be used to inform consideration of future development perspectives as global climate change begins to amplify.
Research interests
- The climate of the last two millennia
- Environmental history and historical geography
- Environmental change and human security
- Climate change impacts and adaptation
Academic background
BSc (Hons) Geography (First Class) from Nottingham Trent University
Conferences
Presented: Contested Environments postgraduate workshop, University of Nottingham, 7 June 2012. Environments, climate change and society in pre-colonial southern Africa.
Presented: NCCR Climate Summer School, Monte Verita, Switzerland, 9-14 September 2012. The consequences of past climate change for state formation and security in southern Africa: a multidisciplinary approach.
Attended: Sheffield International Development Network (SIDNet) postgraduate conference: The challenges for development studies, 16 March 2012.
Other Work
Unpublished BSc (Hons) Dissertation: Natural Resource Dependence and Sustainable Development: International Perspectives
Professional Affiliations
European Society for Environmental History (ESEH): http://eseh.org/
Contact Details
Address: Department of Geography, University of Sheffield, Winter Street, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK
Fax: +44 (0)114 222 7907
Email: ggp11mjh@sheffield.ac.uk