Dr. Hannah J. Dawson

Dr. Hannah J. Dawson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Development Studies at the University of Johannesburg. She holds a DPhil (PhD) in Social Anthropology and an MPhil in International Development from the University of Oxford, as well as degrees in Sociology and Geography from the University of the Witwatersrand. Her research critically engages with the profound social, economic, and political shifts brought about by mass unemployment in South Africa, exploring how young people navigate livelihoods outside formal wage work, the role of digital technologies in reshaping labour, and the growing discourse around welfare and cash transfers. She is the author of Making a Life: Young Men on Johannesburg’s Urban Margins (Wits Press), which examines the everyday struggles and social worlds of unemployed youth on the edges of South Africa’s urban economy.