Annsilla Nyar

Annsilla is a Senior Researcher at the Gauteng City-Region Observatory. In this capacity she is responsible for contributing to the complex multi-disciplinary research agenda of the Observatory, which includes high-level project management. She has over 15 years of experience in the development world. Her work focuses centrally on development issues related to social justice, civil society, human rights, democracy and governance.

Annsilla’s key interest in the Gauteng City-Region (GCR) is in people, the greatest asset of the GCR. She is currently working on research which critically examines the social fabric of the GCR, the inclusions and exclusions which structure life in the GCR including the aspects that divide us such as race, class and gender, and the prospects for social cohesion. She is also working on research which defines the ‘construct’ of the GCR, theoretically and analytically, with a particular emphasis on understanding how residents and citizens of the GCR perceive the spaces in which they live, and conceptualise their social, economic and political identities in relation to it.

Annsilla holds a Master’s Degree in Political Science from the University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN). She is currently reading for a PhD degree through the Department of Politics at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) with Professor Rupert Taylor.