Godwin Murunga is a Lecturer in the Department of History at Kenyatta University and Course Director at the African Leadership Centre (ALC) in Nairobi leading the Centre’s Academic Programmes on part-time basis. He is also a former member of the Executive Committee of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) which is based in Dakar. His research interests focus on history of urbanization in Africa, democratization processes in Africa, politics of knowledge production and on gender and masculinities in Africa. Currently he is working on research on young women’s political participation in Kenya with the support of the International Development research Centre (IDRC).
Murunga holds a BA from Kenyatta University and MA in History from Kenyatta University and another from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, USA and a doctorate from Northwestern University, Evanton, Illinois USA.
Research
Murunga has researched and published on a range of issues in urbanization, democratization processes, gender and on refugees.
Publications
Spontaneous or Premeditated? Mapping Post-Election Protest Violence in Kenya, Uppsala: Nordic Africa Institute (NAI) Discussion Paper (forthcoming).
Edited collection essays by Issa G. Shivji, Where is Uhuru? Reflections on the Struggle for Democracy in Africa, Oxford: Fahamu Books, 2009, iv+240pp. ISBN 978-1-906387-46-4.
Edited with Shadrack W. Nasong’o, Kenya: The Struggle for Democracy, Dakar and London: CODESRIA in association with Zed Books, 2007, xxi+344pp. ISBN: 978-1-84277-832-6 (Hb) 978-1 84277-857-9 (Pb).
Co-Edited (with Souleymane Bachir Diagne), Africa Development, Vol. 33, No. 1, 2008 Special Issue on The Politics of Knowledge Production on Africa: Nurturing the Fourth Generation.
2009: “Refugees at Home? Coping with Somalia Conflict in Nairobi, Kenya,” in Michel Ben Arrous and Lazare Ki-Zerbo (eds.) African Studies in Geography from Below, Dakar: CODESRIA Book Series, pp. 198-232.
2007: “The state, its reform, and the question of legitimacy in Kenya,” in George Klay Kieh, Jr. (ed.) Beyond State Failure and Collapse: Making the State Relevant in Africa, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2007. Originally published in Identity, Culture and Politics: An Afro-Asian Dialogue, Vol. 5, No. 1, (2004), pp. 179-206.
2005: “Inherently Unhygienic Races: Plague and the Origins of Settler Dominance in Nairobi, 1899-1907,” in Steven J. Salm & Toyin Falola (eds.) African Urban Spaces in Historical Perspectives, Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2005, pp. 98-130
“African Women in the Academy and Beyond,” in Oyeronke Oyewumi (ed.) African Gender Studies: A Reader, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, pp. 397-416 (ISBN 1-4039-6283-9). Also published in Jenda: A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies, 2, 1, 2000 at http://www.jendajournal.com/ and reprinted in Nigerian Journal of International Affairs, Vol. 28, Nos. 1&2, 2002, pp. 340-376
2002: with Shadrack W. Nasong’o, “Bent on Self Destruction: The Kibaki Regime in Kenya,” in Journal of Contemporary African Studies, vol. 24, no. 1, 2006, pp. 1-28
2005-06: «Anesthésie du débat public au Kenya», in Manière de voir 84 DÉCEMBRE 2005 - JANVIER 2006, pp. 44-45
2005: “A Note on the Knowledge Question in Africa’s Development,” in CODESRIA Bulletin, Nos. 3 & 4, 2005, pp. 8-11. Also published as « Note sur la problematique du Savoir dans le developpement de l’Afrique,» in CODESRIA Bulletin, No. 3&4, 2005, pp. 8-10
“Conflict in Somalia and Crime in Kenya: Understanding the Trans-Territoriality of Crime,” in African and Asians Studies, Vol. 4, Nos. 1&2, pp. 137-161.
2003: “Ethnicity, Community Relations and Civil Society in Contemporary Kenya: Trends and Field Experiences,” in Ufahamu, Vol. XXIX, Nos. 2/3 Winter/Spring 2003, pp. 15-65.
2002: “A Critical Look at Kenya’s Non-Transition to Democracy,” in Journal of Third World Studies, Vol. XIX, No. 2, Fall 2002, pp. 89-111.
2001: “Private Universities in the Kenyan Higher Education Experience,” in CODESRIA Bulletin, Nos 1&2, 2001, pp. 11- 15. Also published in French as « Les universités privées et l’expérience kenyane en matière d’enseignement supérieur, » Bulletin du CODESRIA, Nos, 1 & 2, 2001, pp. 13-18
2000: Civil Society and the Democratic Experience in Kenya: A Review of “Constitution-Making from the Middle: Civil Society and Transition Politics in Kenya, 1992-1997”, Sareat & Mwengo, Nairobi, 1999, in African Sociological Review, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2000, pp. 97-118.
1999: Urban Violence in Kenya’s Transition to Pluralist Politics, 1982-1992, in Africa Development, Vol. XXIV, Nos. 1 & 2, (1999), pp. 165-198
