Singumbe Muyeba

Singumbe Muyeba

Assistant Professor

What I do

I research and teach African development. My main research interests are in institutions and poverty. In particular, I research property rights to urban land as an intervention into slums and their effects on urban poverty in Sub-Saharan African Cities. I also research housing interventions in the United States, specifically the housing first model as a solution to homelessness. I also research foreign aid targeted at pro-poor sectorsl. With regard to community engagement at DU, I am involved in research on women and people of color in the construction trades. I offer two graduate courses; INTS 4427 - Political Economy of Sustainable Development in Africa, and INTS 4350 - Economic Development. I also offer an undergraduate course INTS 3365 - African Development: Patterns and Issues. I am also proud to be the Faculty Advisor for Students for Africa in the Korbel School.

Professional Biography

I am an Assistant Professor of African Studies at University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies. My research interests are in urbanization, and property rights to land and housing as interventions to the crisis of slums in Africa, foreign aid, institutions as forms of capital as well as innovative interventions for ending poverty in general and urban poverty in in general. My research projects are on urban property rights for the poor in slums in Africa and on institutional capital and household wealth among the urban poor. I have previously worked for the United Nations Development Program on an environment project in Zambia and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. I have published a book on globalization and Africa in the Twenty First Century, and several articles on institutional capital and urban poverty, property rights to land and housing in Southern Africa, the impact of housing subsidies in South Africa, and privatization of public rental housing in Zambia. I have also done research and published on social innovation financing pay for performance interventions on homelessness in Massachusetts, and on the ‘Housing First’ model and utilization of emergency public services in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I hold a PhD in Sociology and MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Cape Town in South Africa, and a BA from University of Zambia. In the United States, I was a Fox International Fellow at Yale University and attended summer school on Development and Inequality in the Global South at Brown University. I have also attended summer school at University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

Degree(s)

  • Postdoctoral Fellowship, Sociology of Development, University of Cape Town , 2015
  • Ph.D., Sociology, University of Cape Town, 2014
  • MA, Development Studies, University of Cape Town, 2009
  • BA, Public Administration and Development Studies, University of Zambia, 2005

Professional Affiliations

  • African Studies Association
  • International Studies Association