Alex Lenferna is a post-doctoral research fellow at Nelson Mandela University in the Department of Development Studies – on a National Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences Fellowship. He is also the elected general secretary and co-founder of the Climate Justice Coalition – a South African coalition of civil society, grassroots, trade union and community-based organisations working together to advance a transformative climate justice agenda. Alex co-hosts Just Us and the Climate, a Climate Justice Coalition podcast which aims to bring climate change back down to earth to show how it’s not only a crisis, but also an opportunity to build a better, more just world. 

Alex has dedicated over a dozen years to studying, researching, writing, teaching, and activism on environmental and social justice, with a strong focus on climate and energy justice. He holds a PhD focused on climate and energy justice from the University of Washington. Alex has been a Mandela Rhodes, Fulbright, and Endeavour Scholar, through which he has worked, taught, and studied in South Africa, the United States, and Australia. He has published dozens of academic publications, briefings, and reports, and over one hundred opinion & analysis pieces in outlets such as the Mail & Guardian, the Sowetan, the Sunday Times, the Guardian, Jacobin, the Seattle Times, and the Conversation. His research and writing is freely available on Academia.edu here.

Alex is currently working on a book project entitled, Overthrowing Eco-Apartheid: And Winning a World Worth Fighting For. If you’re interested in connecting, you can contact Alex at: alexlenferna [at] gmail dot com, or connect on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook, which he uses to share content on social, environmental, and climate justice. Alex is a first generation South African, who grew up in Johannesburg, and whose family hails from Mauritius. He is currently based in Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth), in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. He speaks fluent English; intermediate French, Spanish and Afrikaans; basic isiZulu; and is currently learning isiXhosa. If you want to learn more about Alex and his work, you can also read his short online bio.