Chitewere, Tendai
Tendai Chitewere
Dr. Tendai Chitewere is broadly interested in the intersection of environmentalism, community, and justice. Specifically, she focuses on individual, neighborhood, and government responses to social and environmental degradation by creating sustainable ways to engage with each other and the environment. Building on her research on ecological cohousing communities and using political ecology to examine the relationship between being green and being just, her current research is focused on urban agriculture in the San Francisco Bay Area and the role of urban gardening and K-16 education. She is also interested in the consumption of green commodities to affect environmental change and create green lifestyles. She is intensely interested in qualitative and quantitative research design supporting participatory community-based research.
“Follow your passion, have a positive attitude, and find people who will support you. They are out there.” - Tendai Chitewere, 2012
Chitewere, T. 2018. Sustainable Community and Green Lifestyles. Routledge Press.
Chitewere, T., J.K. Shim, J.C. Barker, and I.H. Yen. 2017. How Neighborhoods Influence Health: Lessons to be learned from the application of political ecology. Health & Place 45. Pg. 117-123. Chitewere, T. 2015. Ecovillages: Lessons for Sustainable Community. In: Environmental Magazine, 57(2). Pg. 38-39.
Augsburg, T. and Chitewere, T. 2013. Starting with World Views: A Five-Step Preparatory Approach to Integrative Interdisciplinary Learning. Issues in Interdisciplinary Studies. 31:174-191.
Chitewere, T. 2012. Between a Rock and a Green Place: Exploring the relationship between green consumerism and social justice: In S.H. Emerman, M. Bjørnerud, S.A. Levy, and J.S. Schneiderman (eds.), Liberation Science: Putting science to work for environmental justice. Lulu Press.
“Even as a child, I remember being concerned about the environment and what we were doing to it,” Tendai Chitewere says (2016). Part of Dr. Chitewere’s concern stemmed from her love of nature and the outdoors, where she spent much time growing up on a small farm in Zimbabwe. Environment concerns were also prevalent in her community; questions about drought and agricultural production were central to everyday life. Thus, at an early age, Dr. Chitewere saw how she could transform her passion for nature into a career that improves life for people and the earth itself.
Dr. Chitewere’s academic and professional choices have reflected this. She majored in water resources while working various jobs as an undergraduate at the State University of New York (SUNY) Oneonta. She graduated from SUNY in 1995.
Dr. Chitewere pursued a Master of Professional Studies in agriculture and biological engineering after completing her undergraduate degree. She earned her master’s degree from Cornell University in 1997. She then pursued her doctorate in anthropology at Binghamton University, where her dissertation research focused on Eco-Village- a community in Ithaca devoted to socially and ecologically sustainable living. She was particularly interested in how the community reflected American environmentalism and its relationship to patterns of consumption and class. Dr. Chitewere acknowledges that it was novel for a black African woman to study a white, upper-middle-class American community from an anthropological perspective but says that the environmental community needs a perspective reversal.
Dr. Chitewere commented, “I found that what was missing [at Eco-Village] was something of the social justice priority, an awareness of the challenges people who can’t afford to live this way face. I’m trying to point out that we really need to pay attention to how everyone lives and interacts with the environment. We also need more research on the mainstream environmental movement in general and how to get people to communicate with and understand each other” (2016). She graduated with a Ph.D. in 2006.
Dr. Chitewere says that her work experiences at SUNY Oneota supplemented her education, both financially and in terms of content. She worked as a 4-H environmental educator, assistant director of Affirmative Action, and peer education coordinator.
The latter job particularly influenced her thinking; Dr. Chitewere says it made her realize the importance of education through mutual communication, especially regarding environmental issues. “I believe that the way we can change the planet is one person at a time and that what we need to do is educate each other about how we live and what impacts our lives have on the environment and vice versa,” Dr. Chitewere says (2016). It also convinced her of the importance of communication within the environmental movement, particularly between mainstream environmental groups and environmental justice activists.
Dr. Chitewere is now a San Francisco State University (SFSU) professor who teaches in the Department of Environment & Geography. She cites becoming a faculty member as one of the highlights of her career. “It allows me to bring my research, which was exciting and timely, to a broader audience,” she says. The program’s interdisciplinary nature is also a perfect fit for her: “It’s good because the environment is not just one subject. There are economic, legal, scientific, and socio-cultural aspects. Part of what I try to do is take science and make it relevant to the people who are most affected by EJ issues.”
While Dr. Chitewere loves the niche she has created for herself in the environmental field, she says it has been and remains very difficult to work as one of the few minorities in the field. “It can be very isolating and lonely at times,” she says. “There are broad structural problems that can be discouraging. While my research is exciting and my job is fun, there’s still discrimination out there, and we are still struggling to find ways to support and encourage more minorities who want to continue their education and become environmental leaders. We still have a long way to go.” Although significant, issues like these aren’t enough to make Dr. Chitewere consider leaving the environmental field. “I do this because it’s important,” she says firmly. “My energy and ideas for how we can make a difference are valuable. I have a lot of enthusiasm for asking tough questions, and I think the questions that I’m asking through my research are important ones” (2016).
One of Dr. Chitewere’s most significant achievements is her ability to live as she encourages others to live theirs. “I don’t own a car; I walk, use public transportation and a bicycle, I live in a very small apartment, and I grow some of my own food. It is not always convenient or easy, but necessary,” she says. “I have been fortunate to be able to do all of these things, and I still consume more than my share, but I think it’s an achievement to be able to go without certain luxuries in order to practice what I’m advocating. I really try to do what’s good for the environment, get to know my neighbors, create a sense of community where I live, and reduce the number of resources that I consume” (2016).
Dr. Chitewere has many mentors of her own. She credits her mother for encouraging her and modeling a good work ethic and environmental stewardship. Her mother gardened and produced much of their food. The experience of growing up in a rural Zimbabwean community at a time when Green Revolution technology was arriving was influential. “I was very involved at a young age in traditional agriculture in my community, where we shared cows, harvested from each other’s gardens, and constantly monitored the environment,” she says. “At the same time, we were trying all of these new technologies like high-yield corn varieties; people were struggling to figure out why the saved seeds to not grow the next year the way they had always grown” (2016).
In the academic realm, Dr. Chitewere also benefited from many mentors, including an undergraduate earth science professor, Art Palmer, who encouraged her through tough times of feeling out of place. She also received mentorship and support from her tremendous dissertation committee members. While she acknowledges that the benefits she received from mentorship have been enormous, Dr. Chitewere also stresses that she actively sought mentors for herself.
Dr. Chitewere also loves being a teacher and mentor. “Ever since I was a peer educator, I realized how important education and mentorship are. There are very few careers where you have the joy of listening to and working with students” (2016). Her desire to educate and mentor extends beyond being a professor; Dr. Chitewere was on the Board of Directors at Earth Team in San Francisco, an organization that helps high school students become environmental peer educators and foster the next generation of environmental leadership. She also worked with SF ROCKS, a program where SFSU faculty work with high school teachers to help teach earth science.
An NSF-funded Climate Change Scholars program gave students, including underrepresented minorities, an opportunity to be research assistants in a climate change-related research lab on campus. In addition, Dr. Chitewere is one of the members of an NIH BUILD grant. The main goal of BUILD is to affect institutional change to enhance the diversity of biomedical research and encourage and mentor a diverse group of students and academic researchers who examine health and health disparities in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Dr. Chitewere says that minorities seeking careers in the environmental field need self-motivation, persistence, mentorship, and a positive attitude. “Having a mentor is especially important for minorities, even more so if you’re like me and want to ask non-traditional questions in the environmental field, she says. You need to be motivated, and you need to find supporters. If you are working with someone who doesn’t support the kind of work that you want to do, find someone else who does. Create a community for yourself, [and] join the community of others who need you. Follow your passion, have a positive attitude, and find people who will support you. They are out there” (2016).
Interview conducted by Multicultural Environmental Leadership Development Initiative staff. 2016. University of Michigan – School of Natural Resources and Environment. Ann Arbor, MI.
San Francisco State University. n.d. Tendai Chitewere. Retrieved June 27, 2023 from https://geog.sfsu.edu/person/tendai.
Tendai Chitewere. n.d. Home [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tendai-chitewere-98a1414/]. LinkedIn. Retrieved June 27, 2023 from https://www.linkedin.com/in/tendai-chitewere-98a1414/.