Patrick Lynn Rivers is a political scientist and professor who, along with Kai Wood Mah, co-directs the design research practice Afield.

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Rivers' hybrid and increasingly collaborative work is characterised by situated and comparative thinking that makes use of tools from academic and practice-based disciplines. This trajectory is reflected in the peer-reviewed book Governing Hate and Race in the United States and South Africa as well as peer-reviewed articles appearing in diverse journals like Critical Studies in Media Communication, Interventions, South African Law Journal, and Space and Culture. Published writings on contemporary political concerns by Rivers have run as opinion pieces in outlets like the Toronto Star and The Star (Johannesburg) as well as long-form journalism in Briarpatch. 

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Rivers has a PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed a postdoc at the University of Chicago. Originally from Miami, he lives between Cape Town, Chicago, and Montréal.