Godisang Mookodi
Chair
Godisang Mookodi is a senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Botswana. She holds a BA in Social Sciences (Sociology and History) from the University of Botswana, MA in Development Studies from Leeds University, and a PhD Sociology from the University of Toronto. She joined the Department in 1993 after working in the Women's Affairs Department in the Ministry of Home Affairs and served as Head of the Department (2009–2012). Dr Mookodi has extensive teaching and research experience in the areas of gender, sexualities feminism and masculinities. Her current research project, "Young Women's Leadership on Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights in Universities", is a regional feminist action university-based research network of seven universities coordinated by the African Gender Institute (AGI) at the University of Cape Town. Dr Mookodi is a keen social activist who engages in community activities on gender equality, LGBTI rights, disabled women and youth activism.
Colleen Tiny Neo Diswai
Colleen Tiny Neo Diswai is the Deputy Permanent Secretary: Corporate Services for the Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security in Botswana. She recently served as Director of Administration and Finance for the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA). She previously worked at the then Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, where she served the then Central Tender Board. She also worked for the Botswana Railways, Botswana Development Corporation), Kingdom Bank Africa Limited, Institute of Development Management (IDM) and Debswana Orapa, Letlhakane and Damtshaa mines. She also served the Botswana Public Enterprises Evaluation and Privatisation Agency as Deputy Chief Executive Officer. She holds a BCom degree from the University of Botswana, an MBA (Finance) from the University of Windsor, Canada and a Certified PPP Specialist.
Lara Foot
Lara Foot is a multi-award-winning playwright, director and producer. She is the CEO and Artistic Director of the Baxter Theatre Centre at the University of Cape Town; a former protégé to Sir Peter Hall in the prestigious Rolex Mentor and Protégé programme as well as a Sundance Fellow. With a passion for the development of new indigenous work, young writers and directors, she has put most of her energy into helping playwrights and theatre-makers realise their work, having nurtured several dozen new South African plays to their first staging. With a host of South African theatre accolades to her name, her own hard-hitting plays tackle social issues in South Africa earning her great respect and recognition locally and internationally.
Grace A Musila
Grace A Musila is an associate professor in the Department of African Literature at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Her teaching and research centres on Eastern and Southern African literature, African popular cultures and gender in Africa. She has published journal articles and chapters in these areas. She is the editor of Wangari Maathai's Registers of Freedom (HSRC Press, 2020), author of A Death Retold in Truth and Rumour: Kenya, Britain and the Julie Ward Murder (Boydell & Brewer, 2015); and co-editor of Rethinking Eastern African Intellectual Landscapes (Africa World Press, 2012; with James Ogude and Dina Ligaga).
Bjørn Enge Bertelsen
Bjørn Enge Bertelsen is the Executive Director of the Global Research Programme on Inequality (GRIP) and a professor of Social Anthropology in the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen, Norway. His research is concerned with political anthropology, egalitarianism, protest and urban Africa. Recent publications include the monograph Violent Becomings: State Formation, Sociality, and Power in Mozambique (2016); Navigating Colonial Orders: Norwegian Entrepreneurship in Africa and Oceania, ca. 1850 to 1950 (with Kirsten Kjerland, 2015); Violent Reverberations: Global Modalities of Trauma (with Vigdis Broch-Due, 2016); and Critical Anthropological Engagements in Human Alterity and Difference (with Synnøve Bendixsen, 2016).
Ato Kwamena Onoma
Ato Kwamena Onoma is a senior program officer at the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA). He holds degrees in Philosophy and Political Science. His current work uses epidemics and interment practices to explore mobility, belonging and intercommunal relations in Africa.