Elizabeth Hull
Fellow, SCAS
Senior Lecturer in Anthropology and Chair of the Food Studies Centre,
SOAS University of London

Photo: Mikael Wallerstedt
Elizabeth Hull has been conducting ethnographic research in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa since 2006. Her research focuses on diverse livelihood practices and food access, and how these activities relate to experiences of citizenship, aspiration, and state expectations. A theme running through her research concerns the ways in which familial and social values intersect with fluctuating
values for labour, money, or food.
Hull’s first book, Contingent Citizens: Professional Aspiration in a South African Hospital (2017) explored the ambiguous status of South Africa’s public-sector workers. Focusing on a resource-constrained government hospital, Hull showed that nurses experienced professional identity as necessary but insufficient for meeting aspirations. Based on these findings, she argued that formal sector work is both a privileged and a precarious site of citizenship-making in contemporary South Africa. Recently, her research has focused on the experiences of people working in food-based livelihoods, and how they are rebuilding rural food systems after Covid-19. Her research has been published in leading anthropology, development and regional
journals including World Development, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, and Africa: Journal of the International African Institute.
While a resident fellow at SCAS, Hull will be researching how people in South Africa are navigating economic and political volatility while securing food and income for their families.
This information is accurate as of the academic year 2024-25.
Learn more about Elizabeth Hull's research project.