Kate Law - Gendering the Settler State

by Philippa Levine

In the course of writing this book, which first began life as my doctoral thesis at the University of Sheffield, I have incurred many debts. First and foremost I wish to thank Ian Phimister for the detailed readings he has given this book; without his support and encouragement it would never have been written. I have now worked with Ian for over ten years; he has been a constant champion of my work, who has given his time with grace and good humour.

The past three years of my life have been spent at the University of the Free State, in Bloemfontein, South Africa, first as a post-doctoral fellow in the International Studies Group (ISG) and latterly as a lecturer in the Gender Studies Programme. I would like to thank Andy Cohen (who also read the manuscript), Helen Garnett, Nadine Lake and Jenny van Molendorff for making me feel at home. Friends and colleagues in the ISG, chief amongst them Ilse Le Roux, Daniel Owen Spence and Neil Roos have, in their own ways, helped me to navigate this journey. Special thanks must also go to Jonathan Jansen for having the vision to make the ISG happen.

The research for this book was carried out in various archives and libraries around the world. Thanks are due to Lucy McCann in Oxford, Lesley Hart in Cape Town, Jacky Hodgson in Sheffield and Carol Leadenham in Stanford. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the women I came into contact with through Rhodesians Worldwide. Their generosity towards me, someone they had never met, was humbling. Diana Mitchell indulged me with a number of interviews, as did Tim and Bryan Haddon, the sons of Eileen Haddon. I would also like to thank Max Novick and Jennifer Morrow at Routledge for helping prepare this book for publication and Philippa Levine for agreeing to write the foreword.