Carolyn Chisadza

In this chapter, we engage with the narrative of leading development economist Carolyn Chisadza. Carolyn is renowned for her extensive research on economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa for which she has received visiting fellowships at leading international universities. The chapter not only recounts her journey southwards from Zimbabwe to South Africa, but it points to how much of mobility is a family affair. The element of family is an important tenet to academics, as many begin their academic careers while at the family building phase of their lives. It is therefore important to consider how the family dynamic plays out in academic mobility. Hence, understanding the foreign academic in the context of their family obligations is a major theme in this narrative. That academics make decisions about where to practice their scholarship not only based on scholarly development, but also on family proximal metrics is a theme that comes up several times in this case study. Carolyn’s story details the arduous process of navigating the Department of Home Affairs, the delays, and the strain it placed on her family.