Opportuna Kweka
Geography
University of Minnesota

I received a BA in Land Use Planning and Environmental Studies at the University of Dar es Salaam in 1997, where I major in Geography and minor in Economics. In 1999 I graduated with an MA degree in Demography. My MA dissertation is on Land use changes and migration of the Maasai. In this study I was looking at the changing pastoral economy, movement of the Maasai to urban areas and associated socio- economic and cultural changes.

I have worked as a Research and Administrative Assistant of the Center for the Study of Forced Migration in the Faculty of Law at the University of Dar es Salaam for one and half year before I joined the University of Dar es Salaam as a faculty member in 2001. I taught courses on migration, water resource development and hydrometeorology in geography department before I joined the University of Minnesota in Fall 2001.

My interest has always been on migration, forced migration, economic development, land use, environment and Africa as a region. Recently, I have drawn interest on human rights and humanitarian laws, environmental laws, and GIS.

I have been awarded the United Nations Funds for population Activities to study MA at the University of Dar es Saalam. In the year 2001, I also received USAID fund for women and governance to attend a summer course at the American University on Humanitarian and Human rights. While at the center for the Study of Forced Migration I have been granted British Council funds to be a visiting fellow at the Refugee Studies Center in Oxford University, used this time to review literature on refugee migration. As a third year PhD student at the University of Minnesota in geography department I have been awarded the MacArthur and Compton Fellowships.