J. Richard Walz, PhD
Dr. J. Richard Walz is chair of the Climate Change and Global Sustainability MA program at SIT Graduate Institute and academic director of the SIT Study Abroad Tanzania programs. He teaches environmental social science and methodology courses that integrate field studies primarily located in eastern Africa. His research and publications emphasize contemporary and historical topics at the human-environment interface, especially how communities forge social mosaics around resources and how they perceive and utilize landscapes and seascapes in an era of environmental change. His teaching and publications incorporate community-based research and promote independent student field studies on climate, resources, and society where Africa meets the Indian Ocean. He oversees the Zanzibar office and programs or excursions to Pemba and Mafia islands in Tanzania and to Seychelles.
See Dr. Walz’s full list of publications
Graduate Courses Taught
Climate Change and Global Sustainability Capstone
Natural Resource Management in East Africa
Climate Change on Tropical Coasts: Social and Environmental Methods
Select Publications
Schmidt, P., Walz, J., Besigye, J., et al. (2024). The tapestry of human-induced and climate-driven environmental change in western Uganda. History in Africa, 51, 1-33
Walz, J. & Kwekason, A. (2022). Ceramics, copal, and coconut: results of archaeological investigations at Mlongo, Mafia Island, Tanzania, AD 250-1000. South African Archaeological Bulletin, 77(216), 67-75
Edwards, G., Gellert,… & Walz, J. (2022). Climate obstruction in the Global South: future research trajectories. PLOS Climate, 2(7): e0000241
Walz, J. & Dussubieux, L. (2022). Inland glass beads in northeast Tanzania, 8th-17th centuries CE. In L. Dussubieux & H. Walder (Eds.), The Elemental Analysis of Glass Beads: Technology, Chronology, and Exchange (265-286). Leuven University Press
Walz, J. (2021). The great guano rush of 2007-2008: ‘filth’, bats, and food sovereignty on northern Pemba Island, Tanzania. Arcadia: Explorations in Environmental History (Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität), 31, online
Walz, J. & Gooding, P. (2021). Reality and representation of eastern Africa’s past: history and archaeology redress the ‘coast-inland dichotomy’. African Studies Quarterly, 20(4), 56-85
Chami, M., Walz, J. & Sarathi, A. (2021). Community and caves in contemporary Zanzibar. Journal of Indian Ocean Archaeology, 17/18, 92-99
Myers, G., Walz, J., & Jumbe, A. (2020). Trends in urban planning, climate adaptation and resilience in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Town and Regional Planning, 77, 57-70.
Douglass, K., Walz, J., Quintana-Morales, E., et al. (2019). Historical perspectives on contemporary human-environment dynamics in Southeast Africa. Conservation Biology, 33(2), 260-274
Walz, J. (2018). Inland entanglement in the Swahili World, c. AD 750-1550. In S. Wynne-Jones & A. LaViolette (Eds.), The Swahili World (388-402). Routledge
Select Presentations
Walz, J. (2024). Updating Swahili history. Roundtable contribution at conference: 67th Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association. Chicago, Illinois.
Walz, J. (2023). Indian Ocean livelihoods: the blue economy initiative in Zanzibar. Presentation at forum funded by U.S. Social Science Research Council. School for International Training. Zanzibar City, Tanzania.
Walz, J. & Sharkey, R. (2021). Climate change on Zanzibar (Unguja) Island: the outcomes, factors, and origins of an unnatural disaster. Presentation at conference: Environmental Crises in the Indian Ocean World, since 1800. Indian Ocean World Centre, McGill University. Montreal, Canada
Walz, J. (2017). Excrement in the Zanzibar Archipelago: agriculture and public health dynamics in historical perspective. Presentation at conference: 60th Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association. Chicago, Illinois.
Walz, J. (2016). Rethinking the outer landscapes of the urban Swahili, c. AD 750-1550. Invited presentation: Tropical Archaeology Research Laboratory, James Cook University. Townsville, Australia.
Education
- PhD, Anthropology, University of Florida
- MA, Anthropology, University of Florida
- BA, Anthropology and African Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
