Blessing Masuku is an urban sociologist, human and urban geographer with background that cuts across the disciplines of Sociology, Development Studies, and Geography. His research interests include Southern urban studies, urban food and nutrition security, governance, food systems, food policy, urban informality, informal food markets, Southern infrastructural geographies, social safety nets, the post-colonial state, and the restructuring of the post-colonial city; urban space and urban spatial justice, everyday urbanism, and township economies.

Masuku's research focuses on urban food and nutritional insecurity. Over 2.6 million South African households have inadequate access to food, and 1.1 million households face a severe food shortage. This problem is particularly acute in major metro areas. This prevalence of food inadequacy varies significantly by gender, citizenship, region, and city. Informal food markets provide both access to food and are the primary source of income for over 70% of South Africa’s poor and marginalized urban populations. Yet informal food markets remain neglected by public policy and institutional funding. His dissertation research, building off a multimodal study in and around the city of Johannesburg, argues that achieving spatial justice, food justice and sustainable food security in the context of urban inequality and increasing climate variability are some of the most pressing challenges for the contemporary South African city.

Masuku received his PhD  in Built Environment & Urban Studies from the University of KwaZulu Natal in 2024. He previously earned a Master of Social Sciences in Development Studies from University of Fort Hare in 2019 and a Bachelor of Commerce Honors in Development Studies and Bachelor of Social Sciences in Human Resource Management from the University of Fort Hare in 2019 and 2014, respectively. Before coming to Princeton he was a Visiting Fox Fellow at Yale University's McMillan Center for International and Area Studies.

In Spring 2025, he will offer a new course on Socio-Spatial Dynamics of Post-Urbanism in the Global South. 

Masuku's fellowship is supported by the Program in African Studies and the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies.