Mathew Ruguwa is a postdoctoral Fellow with AEGT and the International Studies Group (ISG), University of the Free State. Mathew completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Zimbabwe in 2013. He then moved to do his MA and PhD degrees at Trent University and the University of Calgary, Canada. In 2022, he joined the Department of History, Heritage and Knowledge Systems at the University of Zimbabwe where he facilitated a number of undergraduate and Masters modules.

His current research lies in the extractive industry (lithium and diamond mining), dispossession and displacement, natural resource management, climate change and rural livelihoods in twentieth and twenty-first century rural Zimbabwe, addressing questions about more socially and environmental issues. Relying largely on oral sources provided by marginalized rural communities who normally don't leave traces in the government archival records, his research illustrates the endurance of the family institution in times of trouble and the intersectionality between dispossession, displacement, familial resilience, and creativity in rural Zimbabwe.