Professor Floretta Boonzaier has returned from a Visiting Professorship at Tokyo College Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Tokyo. The fellowship gave Professor Boonzaier space to advance her research on decolonial feminist approaches to violence and trauma, while building new collaborations with researchers across Japan.

Public lecture: Humanity, Ethics and Epistemic Justice

On 18 June 2026, Professor Boonzaier delivered a public lecture at Tokyo College entitled “Humanity, Ethics and Epistemic Justice in Trauma and Violence Research.” Drawing on more than two decades of research on gendered violence, the lecture examined how rehumanising research on violence and trauma demands an ethic of care, justice, and embodied humanity, reflecting on the intimate entanglements between harm, hurt, and possibility. The talk was attended by 125 people online, and included commentary from Dr Skye Tinevimbo Chirape, Postdoctoral Fellow at Tokyo College, and was moderated by Associate Professor Michael Facius.

Internal seminar and collaborative dialogue

On 3 July 2026, Professor Boonzaier delivered an internal seminar at Tokyo College, “On Doing Decolonial Feminist Research: Practice, Limits, Refusal,” followed by conversations with several postdoctoral researchers about their work. The seminar's themes were taken up again on 16 July in a hybrid dialogue hosted by Tokyo College's Reimagining Academic Practice research group, “Researching With, Not On: Feminist and Decolonial PAR in Pursuit of Just and Liberatory Praxis,” facilitated by Dr Skye Chirape with support from Dr Dilmurod Yusupov and Associate Professor Michael Facius. The session explored participatory action research through feminist and decolonial lenses, including photovoice and other creative, embodied methods Professor Boonzaier had developed with colleagues at the Hub for Decolonial Feminist Psychologies in Africa at UCT.

Building research collaborations in Japan

Alongside her formal talks, Professor Boonzaier met with researchers across Tokyo to explore shared interests in gender, intersectionality, violence, and migration. 

Throughout the fellowship, Professor Boonzaier continued to supervise her postgraduate students remotely, and carried on her roles as Editor-in-Chief of the South African Journal of Psychology and as Editor and acting Editor-in-Chief of Feminism & Psychology.