On 7 July 2022, Emile Smidt successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled 'Beyond Militarized Conservation: The policy labour regime and its effects in the Kruger National Park'.
His thesis proposes to move the debate about violence in conservation beyond that of militarized conservation and focuses our attention to how police, in its wider meaning, shapes the conservation workplace and in what ways it intersects with characterizations of the broader South African workplace, typified by structural features that perpetuate low wages, precarity and racism.
Rewatch Emile's defence introduction
Photos of the defence
Read Emile's thesis
The full thesis will be available for download via the ISS Library
In the meantime, you can download the abstracts (English and Dutch) below.