Project partners
Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR) is a leading interdisciplinary research centre at Makerere University, Uganda’s oldest and largest public university. The Institute’s current mission is to train researchers, decolonise knowledge, inform public policy, and contribute to economic and social development. MISR critically reflects on its institutional history, particularly the influence of market-driven thinking in recent decades. It maintains an active research culture through seminars, workshops, publications, and collaborations with local and international partners.
Land and Equity Movement in Uganda (LEMU) was established in 2003 with the aim of strengthening the recognition and protection of customary land rights in Uganda. Through research, community engagement, and advocacy, LEMU works to reduce inequalities in how customary land is understood and governed, with special attention to protecting vulnerable groups such as women, youth, pastoralists, indigenous communities, and the rural poor. The organisation empowers communities to analyse their own land challenges, assert their rights, and engage with state and non-state actors affecting land governance.
Danish Institute Against Torture (DIGNITY) is an international human rights organisation committed to preventing torture, rehabilitating torture survivors, and promoting justice and accountability. Its mission is to generate and apply research-based knowledge to reduce torture and organised violence worldwide
Researchers
Andrea Cassatella is an educator, scholar and activist trained in the humanities, social sciences, and psychology. He is currently Senior Research Fellow at Makerere Institute of Social Research, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, where he teaches and researches at the intersections between the political, cultural and psychological domains, and holds his clinical practice. Before joining Makerere, he was a Lecturer in Social Sciences at the University of Toronto Scarborough (2015-2016), and a Visiting Assistant Professor of Humanities at Al Quds University, Palestine (2017- 2019). He also held research fellowships at Columbia Global Centers | Amman (2019-2020), University of Cape Town (2020), Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (2020), and the Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa, University of Ghana (2021). His recent book is Beyond the Secular: Jacques Derrida and the Theological-Political Complex (2023). Prior to his scholarly career, he served as Community Service Officer for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees missions in Bosnia Herzegovina and Djibouti. Cassatella will collaborate with the ‘Farms and Lakesides’ SEF team.
Anitah Atwijuka is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Makerere Institute of Social Research on the ENVIU research project. She holds an interdisciplinary PhD and MPhil in Social Studies from Makerere University, building on a foundation in Literature and Education (MA, Literature, and BA, Education, English Language and Literature). Her research explores the intersections of nationalist politics, identity, culture, violence and decolonization
Florence Ebila is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Women and Gender Studies, Institute of Gender and Development Studies, Makerere University, Kampala. She is also a Lecturer and Research Associate at the Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR). She holds a PhD and Masters in African Languages and Literature from the University of Wisconsin, Madison – USA; a Masters in Women’s Studies and a Bachelor of Arts Degree (Hons) of Makerere University. Her research interest is in Gender and Cultural Studies, Feminist Postcolonial, Literary, Ecological and Conflict Studies. Ebila will collaborate with the ‘Farms and Lakesides’ SEF team.
Ivan Ashaba completed his PhD in Development Studies at the University of Antwerp in Belgium. His areas of interest are broadly in (environmental) politics, political ecology and conservation social science. His doctoral research looked at long durée management and conservation law enforcement for which he conducted extensive research in Uganda’s Murchison Falls National Park. Part of his work is published in journals like International Affairs, Review of African Political Economy, Annals of the American Association of Geographers. Besides this, he closely follows political developments in Uganda and has been a regular contributor to the Political Chronicles of the African Great Lakes published by the University of Antwerp. He has also written opinion pieces in top academic blogs like African Arguments, Democracy in Africa and Open Democracy.
Josefine Overgaard Frederiksmose is a student assistant at DIGNITY- Danish Institute Against Torture in the International Programmes Department. She is connected to the ENVIU project and assists with research, communication, organisation, and ad-hoc tasks. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and is currently studying for her masters in Applied Cultural Analysis at the University of Copenhagen.
Joseph Kasule received his Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Social Studies from Makerere University. He is currently a Research Fellow at MISR, where he researches and convenes courses in cultural anthropology. He works on aspects of Islam, Secularism, Violence, and Coloniality/Decoloniality. His recent book Islam in Uganda: The Muslim Minority, Nationalism & Political Power (James Currey, 2022) provides a genealogy of the historical Muslim Question in Uganda and its relationship with non-Muslim political power. He has also published the Historical Dictionary of Uganda (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022). His ongoing book projects include: Kasangwawo ne Sselwajj’okwoota, being a Luganda translation of Mahmood Mamdani’s Citizen & Subject (Forthcoming, 2026); Intimate Colonialities: Public Intellectualism, Diasporic Sovereignty, and Decolonization, EHFF: Kampala (Forthcoming, 2026).
Muhamed Lunyago, Ph.D. is an ENVIU Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Makerere Institute of Social Research, Makerere University. He holds a PhD in Social Studies (2025), an Interdisciplinary MPhil in Social Studies (2022) and Bachelor of Development Studies (2018) all from Makerere University. His broader research interests are interdisciplinary with keen interest in: land and agrarian questions, state-society relations, environment and the politics of climate change, the peasantry and peasant movements. Muhamed also currently serves as the Vice Chair of the Land and Equity Movement in Uganda (LEMU)’s Core (Research) Working Group on Land and Agrarian Questions. He was a Guest Researcher at the University of Bergen in the Department of Government in 2022. Before joining MISR, he was working with the Anti-Corruption Coalition Uganda (ACCU) under the advocacy and research department.
Steffen Jensen is senior researcher at DIGNITY-the Danish Institute Against Torture and Professor at the Department of Society and Politics, University of Aalborg. He has published extensively on gangs and policing, violence and conflict as well as on human rights and development based on ethnographic work in Cape Town, Manila and Marseille. His books include Communal Intimacy and the violence of politics: Understanding the war on drugs in the Philippines and Gangs, politics and dignity in Cape Town. Along side his work on environmental change and everyday violence in Uganda, he is currently working on a large ERC-funded research project on Confined lives. In ENVIU, he will focus on Towns and settlements.
Tomas Max Martin is the principal investigator of ENVIU. He specializes in the anthropology of the state with a focus on prevention of violence and the appropriation of rights and reforms. Martin is a senior researcher and Head of Research and Learning at DIGNITY – Danish Institute Against Torture. Alongside his research on everyday violence and environmental change in Uganda, he currently explores the present histories of confinement in Myanmar/Thai borderlands and seeks to conceptualize the notion of ‘vernacular accountability’ as a bottom-up response to atrocious harm. Martin will collaborate with the ‘Forests and Grasslands’ SEF team.
Yahya Sseremba is a scholar of political power, political thought and political identity based at Makerere University in the Ugandan capital, Kampala. His most recent book looks at how American and Ugandan governments define Islamic knowledge to shape docile Muslim subjects in the name of countering religious extremism in east Africa. His ongoing book project seeks to explore the ways in which the specificity of the intersection of ethnic, religious and gendered identities in Uganda allows him to rethink the Western formulations of the intersectionality framework. Sseremba will collaborate with the ‘Forests and Grasslands’ SEF team.
CSO Partners
Adventino Banjwa is a Research Fellow at the Land and Equity Movement in Uganda (LEMU), and a Doctoral Fellow at the Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR), Makerere University. Adventino holds an Interdisciplinary MPhil. in Social Studies of Makerere University (Kampala-Uganda, 2021), an Interdisciplinary MSc. in Development Studies of Lund University (Lund-Sweden, 2017), and a Bachelor of Development Studies of Makerere University (Kampala-Uganda, 2013). Adventino’s research and scholarly interests are of an interdisciplinary nature, with core engagements and a number of writings on questions emerging from broader thematic areas of ‘development’, ‘neoliberalism’, ‘colonialism’, ‘the postcolonial state’, and ‘decolonization’. ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4773-9489
Dr. Theresa Auma holds a PhD in Social Studies from Makerere University in Kampala, and one of her research areas is The Land Question. Her Doctorate study investigated the role of clans, as a socio-political force from within society regulates the expansion of land markets within the domains of customary land tenure in Northern Uganda.
Since 2020, Theresa has been the Executive Director of Land and Equity Movement in Uganda (LEMU). In this role, she has directly contributed towards key interventions in Uganda’s land sector, key among them include; engaged in the National Land Policy Review Process, interventions that Promoted Responsible Investments in Land, Promoting documentation of Communal Land through the formation of Communal Land Associations, Carried out Action Research on Land-Based Investments in Uganda and conducted research on the use of Certificate of Customary Ownership (CCOs) for Access to Finance and initiatives that connect questions around land and food/seed.
Beyond LEMU, Theresa is affiliated with Academic and Research Institutions within Africa including Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR), Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of Western Cape. She has in addition, undertaken several land related consultancy assignments in Uganda, with Institutions including GIZ, Namati, FAO, ZOA and Uganda Agribusiness Alliance.
Admin & Support
Jeremiah Jaloli is a Ugandan Certified Public Accountant with over 23 years of progressive experience in financial management, grant coordination, audit, and institutional leadership. He currently serves as Principal Accountant at Makerere University, where he oversees financial operations, budgeting, reporting, and technical support to strengthen internal controls and organizational efficiency. Jeremiah has previously held key roles including Finance & Grants Coordinator at Makerere University, Finance Manager for Global Fund grants at the Ministry of Health, and Chief Finance Officer at Tororo District Local Government. His expertise spans grant management, risk oversight, financial reporting, revenue mobilization, and staff supervision. Jeremiah holds an MBA (Finance), a B.Com (Accounting), a Postgraduate Diploma in Monitoring & Evaluation, and several professional certifications. He is known for his integrity, diligence, and commitment to institutional excellence.
Una Marquard-Busk is a project manager in DIGNITY – Danish Institute Against Torture’s Internal Programme Department. She oversees DIGNITY’s project portfolio in Uganda, working to strengthen collaboration and synergies between civil society-led projects and research projects.
I am Sandra Nalumu, a Project Assistant with the ENVIU Project in Uganda. I am dedicated to supporting the project’s planning and coordination. My responsibilities include managing schedules, preparing documents, and ensuring effective communication across teams. In my previous position as a Library Assistant, I developed valuable skills in information management, including providing reference services, maintaining records, and providing research support. These experiences have enhanced my ability to organize and process information efficiently. I assess my performance through feedback from colleagues and the successful execution of project tasks. I am dedicated to delivering high-quality support and consistently improving the efficiency of the ENVIU project operations.