Caryn Abrahams, a senior lecturer, holds a PhD in Social and Political Science from the University of Edinburgh, in the Centre for African Studies. 
She completed her Masters, Honours and undergrad degrees at the University of the Witwatersrand, with specialisation in Human and Urban Geography. Before joining the WSG, Caryn was a senior researcher at the Gauteng City-Region Observatory – a partnership of Wits University, University of Johannesburg and Gauteng Province – where she focused on social cohesion, anti-racism, urban inclusion, and urban food systems in Gauteng Province.
Previously, Abrahams completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Development Studies at UNISA, and was the research manager at the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, a prominent civil society organisation concerned with deepening non-racialism in South Africa. At the NGO she designed an exhibition on Eight Decades of Kathrada’s Life, oversaw public discussion series, commissioned research and contributed to the Presidency’s 20 Year Review on Social Cohesion.
Before completing her doctoral studies, Abrahams lectured development and post-development at the University of the Witwatersrand School of Geography. She has guest lectured at the University of Edinburgh, Sociology, and taught a module on Sustainable Development at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.
Abrahams’ research and publications are concerned with two areas of work – governing urban food systems (the basis of her doctoral studies), and anti-racism and social cohesion (an interest that grew from her civil society involvement). She has published work on alternative food networks in the developing South, supermarkets and informal food markets, and the developmental imperative in urban food systems thinking. She has also published work on non-racialism, social cohesion, and has forthcoming chapters on the future of race in South Africa, and uncertainty and nation-building in South Africa in edited collections. She is the editor of and contributor to the GCRO’s Pathways to Anti-Racism (2016). Her interest in governance brings together these bodies of work – how food systems or societal interaction are co-governed by the interests at work, particularly by the imperatives of ordinary people. 
Abrahams’ research is anti-disciplinary as it draws on a range of scholarship broadly in the social sciences – urban studies, development, economic geography, sociology, politics – but is not confined to a particular discipline. Her research interests and curiosities include anti-racism, urban inclusion, urbanity, urban food systems, urban society, Batho Pele governance, micro forms of governance, and localisation. 

Most Recent Publications:
 

1. Developing neighbourhood typologies and understanding urban inequality: a data-driven approach
Regional Studies, Regional Science
2022-12-31 | Journal article
DOI: 10.1080/21681376.2022.2132180
CONTRIBUTORS: Halfdan Lynge; Justin Visagie; Andreas Scheba; Ivan Turok; David Everatt; Caryn Abrahams

2. City Profile: Johannesburg, South Africa
Environment and Urbanization ASIA
2019 | Journal article
DOI: 10.1177/0975425319859123
EID: 2-s2.0-85071589489
Part of ISSN: 09763546 09754253
CONTRIBUTORS: Abrahams, C.; Everatt, D.

3. Twenty Years of Social Cohesion and Nation-Building in South Africa
Journal of Southern African Studies
2016 | Journal article
DOI: 10.1080/03057070.2016.1126455
EID: 2-s2.0-84960292767
Part of ISSN: 14653893 03057070
CONTRIBUTORS: Abrahams, C.

4. Social isolation in the GCR
2015-02 | Report
DOI: 10.36634/FBKF1135
CONTRIBUTORS: Caryn Abrahams; Kerry Bobbins; Guy Trangoš

5.  Socially isolated wards and gated communities in the Gauteng City-Region
2015-01-01 | Report
DOI: 10.36634/XSYH6817
CONTRIBUTORS: Caryn Abrahams; Kerry Bobbins

6. Social attitudes in the GCR
2014-10 | Report
DOI: 10.36634/RCEY9853
CONTRIBUTORS: Caryn Abrahams

7. 'We can't really say what the future holds for us': Non-Racialism in a Transitional Democracy
Politikon
2012 | Journal article
DOI: 10.1080/02589346.2012.656916
EID: 2-s2.0-84860785704
Part of ISSN: 02589346 14701014
CONTRIBUTORS: Abrahams, C.

8. Transforming the region: Supermarkets and the local food economy
African Affairs
2009 | Journal article
DOI: 10.1093/afraf/adp068
EID: 2-s2.0-77749341281
Part of ISSN: 00019909 14682621
CONTRIBUTORS: Abrahams, C.

9. Welcome to the academy
South African Geographical Journal
2007 | Journal article
DOI: 10.1080/03736245.2007.9713884
EID: 2-s2.0-55949113813
Part of ISSN: 21512418 03736245
CONTRIBUTORS: Abrahams, C.