Christi van der Westhuizen joins HUMA

Huma is delighted to welcome Christi v.d.Westhuizen as the new Postdoctoral Fellow. Christi received her PhD in Sociology from the University of Cape Town and a Masters in Political Economy and South African Politics (Cum Laude) from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. She previously held research associateships with the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice at the University of the Free State. Her books include White Power & the Rise and Fall of the National Party (2007) and, as editor, Gender Instruments in Africa: Critical Perspectives, Future Strategies (2005).She has contributed to In the Balance: South Africans Debate Reconciliation (2010) and to various journals, including to African Studies as guest editor.

Van der Westhuizen worked as a journalist, starting at the independent anti-apartheid weekly Vrye Weekblad, and was awarded the Mondi Paper Newspaper Award for her political columns in the media. A collection of her columns in the Independent Newspapers, Working Democracy: Perspectives on South Africa’s Parliament at 20 Years, is due out in 2014. She writes a regular column in Beeld. Follow her blog Thoughtleader and watch an interview on her research HERE on post-apartheid identities, with particular reference to Afrikaans-speaking, white, middle-class, heterosexual women.