Immaculate Mogotsi, Joint Chief coordinator, Multi-disciplinary Research Centre, University of Namibia, Namibia
Ms. Immaculate Mogotsi is a research fellow at the Multidisciplinary Research Centre at the University of Namibia, heading the Gender Training and Research Program since 2012. Before then she was a lecturer in the Faculty of Education in the Department of Lifelong Learning and Community Education. Ms. Mogotsi has been with the University of Namibia 10 years. She holds a Bachelor Degree in Social Work and Community Development from the University of Namibia and a Masters or Arts in Women and Development Studies from the International Institute of Social Studies in the Netherlands. She is currently pursuing her Doctoral Studies in the Netherlands at the ISS. Her main research interests are Gender and Women’s issues, but have always treated the discipline as cross cutting. Her current academic work in both teaching and research cover gender based violence, women’s empowerment, sexual and reproductive health and right. An interest that has rekindled in recent years in her work is the teaching of languages, Setswana and San, particular the teaching of Ju/hoansi in schools. Ms. Mogotsi has been instrumental in the introduction of Masters of Arts in Gender and Development, a programme that is hosted by the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in the Department of Sociology.
She has a keen interest in advocacy. She is a board of directors for an organization that is advocating for the rights of workers and the poor, Labor Research and Resource Institute, where she is a deputy chairperson. She is also a chairperson of a Feminist Organization, Sister Namibia. She was also a board member of Namibia Tourism Board. At the International level, Ms. Mogotsi co-hosted a high profile event titled Gender Day: Dryland Women’s Empowerment during the Conference of Parties (COP 11) United Nation Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) which was hosted in Windhoek. She is a partner in a research project that aims to inform policy on women in dry lands. She also collaborate with several universities in Southern Africa, amongst others University of Cape Town, National University of Lesotho, Eduardo Mondlane University, Sonke Gender Justice that looks at the integration of HIV and women’s health and HIV and SRH. Through Forum for African Women Educationalist (FAWE), Ms. Mogotsi was part of a pilot project that looked at the Gender Score Card in Education.