Larry Swatuk
Biography
Larry Swatuk holds a variety of honorary and substantive appointments: Emeritus Professor in the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development (SEED) at the University of Waterloo, Canada; Extraordinary Professor in the Institute for Water Studies, University of the Western Cape, South Africa; External Researcher, Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies, Germany; and Vice-President of the Environmental Peacebuilding Association. Among other things, Swatuk spent 11 years at the University of Botswana – 7 years on main campus in the capital city of Gaborone and 4 years as Associate Professor of Natural Resources Governance at the Okavango Research Institute in Maun, Botswana. He is also in his third and final three-year term as a Member of the Board of Directors of Oxfam Canada.
Further details may be found here:
Publications
C. Bruch, R. Weaver, R. Matthew, E. Weinthal, L.A. Swatuk, eds, 2026. Essential Concepts of Environmental Peacebuilding: An A-Z Guide. London: Routledge.
Glenn Galloway, Karen Brown, Pádraig Carmody, Lucia Rodriguez, Larry A. Swatuk, eds, 2026. Transforming Education for Sustainable Development: Perspectives from a Global Network, Classrooms and the ‘Field’, London: Routledge.
Natasha Tang Kai and Larry Swatuk, 2023. Prioritizing the Environment in Urban Sustainability Planning: Policies and Practices of Canadian Cities, (Palgrave: Macmillan). https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-46522-2
Corrine Cash and Larry A. Swatuk, eds, 2022. The Political Economy of Climate Finance: Lessons from International Development, (Palgrave: Macmillan).
Larry A. Swatuk and Corrine Cash, eds, 2022. The Political Economy of Urban Water Security under Climate Change, (Palgrave: Macmillan).
Education
- 1993 Ph.D. in Political Science, Dalhousie University
- 1986 M.A. in Political Science, University of Windsor
- 1982 B.A. (Hons.) in Political Science, University of Windsor
Teaching
- GENS/GENV 2101
Research
Swatuk's research has centered on the question 'can cooperation on environmental challenges build sustainable, just and lasting peace?' Much of the focus of his work has been on renewable resources - in particular, freshwater systems - in sub-Saharan Africa, a part of the world he first visited as a Canadian Crossroads International volunteer to Lesotho in the mid-1980s. Taking a socio-ecological systems perspective, the spatial scale of his work varies from small rural communities, to large cities, to transboundary river basins, forests, parks and protected areas.
Grants, awards & honours
WaterNet Silver Jubilee Award "in recognition of long-standing service to the advancement of the water sector in the SADC region" (SADC/WaterNet, October 2024).