Meredith McKittrick is a historian of southern Africa whose interests include dryland environments, water, and agriculture. Her articles have appeared in the Journal of African History, the Journal of Southern African Studies, Environmental History, and History of Meteorology. Her first book explored the gendered and generational dynamics of the creation of a large and youthful Christian community in northern Namibia in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Living and working in the driest country in sub-Saharan Africa led her to her current work on water resources and aridity. She is completing a book on popular ideas about climate, water and environment in early 20th-century southern Africa. Other ongoing projects examine the history of underground water resources in the world's driest places, and the ways that local communities, colonial governments, and post-colonial states have claimed and utilized river resources in southern Africa.

Professor McKittrick teaches a variety of African history courses, including the second half of the African History survey, Resistance and Rebellion, Apartheid, and Environmental History.