PlastiCITIES

Kenyatta University is advertising three fully funded PhD scholarships under the PlastiCITIES: Changing Waste Work in Urban Kenya research project. The project examines the social dimensions of the circular economy for plastics and the changing forms of waste work in Nairobi, Mombasa, and Busia.

The advertised positions are for PhD candidates who will be enrolled at Kenyatta University, in the Department of Environmental Studies and Community Development. Each project site focuses on a different urban context: Mombasa (ocean plastics and informal inclusion), Nairobi (dense urban waste flows and private-sector waste management), and Busia (border-town plastics and contraband flows from Uganda).

The research is interdisciplinary and strongly oriented toward the social sciences, with relevance to anthropology, sociology, development studies, environmental studies, political science, and law. The project investigates how waste workers collect, sort, broker, wash, and process plastics, and how new markets, recycling technologies, and government policies are reshaping livelihoods and labor conditions in the plastics economy.

Funding: the positions are fully funded and include a competitive stipend and educational fees. The scholarship runs for three years starting in September 2026 and includes a research stay in Denmark. Students will also have the opportunity to use office space at Busara.

Eligibility highlights: applicants should have at least a bachelor’s degree with minimum Second Class Honours and a master’s degree with Excellent or Credit in a relevant social sciences discipline. The call prefers candidates with qualitative methods experience, prior fieldwork experience, research experience in East Africa, and interest in waste, circular economy, or environmental governance. Strong academic writing and communication skills are required.

Application window: deadline is 05 July 2026 at 12:00 PM East African Time. Applicants must submit a single PDF containing a concept note of about four pages (maximum 1,600 words excluding references), CV, certified certificates and transcripts, MA thesis, relevant publications, and contact details for two academic referees. Applications are sent by email to the named supervisors, with the subject line specified for the chosen site.

Supervision: the main supervisor is Dr. Eric Kioko at Kenyatta University, with co-supervision by Prof. Ben Jones at the University of Copenhagen. The collaboration also includes Hannah Elliott, Mario Schmidt, Juhi Jain, and Akinyi Eurallyah.