Carilee Osborne
About
I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at Brown University where I study how state-society relations shape development policy and practice. I am currently conducting fieldwork for my dissertation project tentatively entitled “Taken for Granted: The Political Economy of the Post-Apartheid Welfare State”. I hold an MA in Sociology from Brown University. My MA thesis was entitled “Repertoires of Engagement: The Case of South Africa’s Special Covid Relief of Distress Grant”. I also hold an MPhil in Justice and Transformation and a BCom in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Cape Town. My MPhil thesis examined debates about the role of intellectuals in South Africa putting discourses about their position in post-apartheid social movements in a longer historical trajectory.
Prior to starting my PhD, I worked at several non-profit and non-governmental research institutes in South Africa including the Institute for African Alternatives (IFAA) in Cape Town and the Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) in Johannesburg.
I was born in Durban and moved to Cape Town for undergrad in 2008 living there for most of the next 12 years. After that I moved to Johannesburg in 2020 before moving to Providence and starting my PhD in 2021. I currently live in Johannesburg with my husband while conducting my fieldwork and travelling back to Providence regularly.
Get in touch
Feel free to reach out to me especially if you are a South African/African student who is interested in studying a PhD in social sciences at graduate school in the US- I am happy to help with the (daunting) application process.
Carilee Osborne 