Nelly Ganta

University of the Witwatersrand
Urban Geography

Nelly Ganta is a PhD student in the Department of Urban Geography at the University of the Witwatersrand, and a fellow of the A.W. Mellon Supranational Research Project, ‘Other Universals: Theorizing Postcolonial Locations on the Politics of Aesthetics.” Nelly holds a BSc. in Construction Management (UCT), a BSc. Hons in Quantity Surveying (UCT) and a Masters in Development Finance from the Univeristy of Stellenbosch. Her research interests include urban economics, informalities, personhood, the making of social/ cultural space, infrastructure, social infrastructures, gender and sexuality, music cultures and popular economies. In 2021, Nelly published “Survivalist Economics in the Time of Covid-19” in Agenda. She describes doctoral research, Financial Freedoms: The Hustling For a Bed Called Home her own poem, the object held back by the first edges of light – in its confrontation with anti-blackness, a housing crisis, urban spatial planning and universal design.