Farewell to Dr Rebecca Hodes

Dr Rebecca Hodes has left the CSSR and UCT. Rebecca joined the AIDS and Society Research Unit (ASRU) as Deputy-Director in 2010 and took over as Director in 2015. Under Rebecca, ASRU worked with researchers at Oxford University on two major projects: Mzantsi Wakho (a longitudinal, mixed-methods study of HIV-positive adolescents) and HEY BABY (a study of adolescent mothers and their children). ASRU has not only published widely but was also awarded UCT’s Social Responsiveness Award in 2020 in recognition of the social impacts of the Mzantsi Wakho study, and particularly through the use of qualitative, participatory research methods to inform South Africa’s National Adolescent and Youth Health Policy. Rebecca has now been appointed as Director of the Centre for Sexualities, AIDS and Gender at the University of Pretoria (and as an Associate Professor in the Department of Historical and Heritage Studies). We congratulate and thank Rebecca for all of her work in ASRU and the CSSR and wish her well in her the next stage of her career.