Prof Thenjiwe Meyiwa
Institutional Registrar, Durban University of Technology (DUT), South Africa.
The life of South Africa's rural womanhood: Agency of two decades and lessons for future research (download presentation here 
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Topic C: Sex and gender knowledge, improving people’s lives
Professor Thenjiwe Meyiwa, a NRF Rated social scientist, is DUT’s Institutional Registrar. She is a Faculty of Arts & Design Honorary Researcher Affiliate. Prior to joining DUT she was Research Director in the Education and Skills Development Programme at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). Her basic education schooling was done in eMahlongwa a rural village south of Durban. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Feminist Oral Studies from the University of Natal and a Mcom (Organisation and Systems Management) from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
She has been a Research Professor at a rural university, Walter Sisulu University in the Eastern Cape and has also worked as a Director for the UKZN’s Gender Studies Programme for more than a decade. Her areas of research interest broadly encompass contemporary human behavioural patterns; with a focus on the cultural constructions of gender, self-study, indigenous knowledges, and the impact of HIV/AIDS on parenting.