The University of Cape Town is delighted to announce the appointment of Dr. Kharnita Mohamed as the new Head of the Department of Anthropology, effective 1 January 2026, for a five-year term.

Dr. Mohamed is a distinguished scholar and Senior Lecturer whose multifaceted career encompasses rigorous academic inquiry, creative expression, and transformative pedagogy. A former Fulbright scholar (2006–2008), she earned her PhD in Women’s and Gender Studies from the University of the Western Cape in 2023. Since joining the UCT Anthropology faculty in 2016, she has been a vital force in shaping the department’s intellectual life and curriculum innovation.

Her research offers a critical, decolonial lens on the intersections of disability, debility, race, gender, and citizenship. Dr. Mohamed is recognised for her pioneering work on “onto-epistemic” erasure and the endemic violences of settler colonialism, themes she has explored extensively in both her doctoral research and international symposia. Her commitment to opening new epistemic horizons earned her the UCT Humanities Faculty Dean’s Teaching Award in 2020 for innovative curricula design.

Beyond her academic scholarship, Dr. Mohamed is an acclaimed novelist and editor. Her debut novel, Called to Song (2018), received the 2020 UCT Meritorious Book Award and was shortlisted for the National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS) Book Award for Fiction. Most recently, she has co-edited significant volumes that bridge global feminist discourses, including Conversational Bridges in African Feminisms (2025) and Pluriversal Conversations on Transnational Feminisms (2024).

Dr. Mohamed brings significant leadership experience to this role, currently serving as an Anthropology Department Representative in the Senate and a university-wide Curriculum Change Facilitator. Her international engagement is equally robust, involving leadership roles in the World Anthropological Union and collaborative research projects with institutions in Japan, Sweden, and Brazil.

In her new role as Head of Department, Dr. Mohamed will provide visionary leadership to further strengthen UCT Anthropology’s academic excellence, foster the professional development of staff and students, and advance the department’s engagement on both local and global stages.

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Kharnita Mohamed on her appointment and wishing her every success in leading the Department of Anthropology into this exciting new chapter of growth and impact.