Professors Yolande Bouka and Darlene Miller
Their visit aligns with the theme of the 115th International Women’s Day, “Give to Gain”, which highlights generosity, collaboration and reciprocity to enhanced opportunities for women and girls.
Based at the CWGS, they will participate in public engagements focused on co-creating the MA in Gender Studies curriculum, interdisciplinary knowledge exchange, and global questions affecting women and feminist mobilisation.
Topics include anticolonial resistance, African feminist approaches to ending war, foreign policy shifts and imagining feminist futures. They will also engage with graduate students and emerging researchers.
Professor Miller, former Associate Professor in Citizenship Studies at UNISA’s Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs, is known for her work on social theory, gender justice, food systems and identity politics.
Her research examines how power operates through race, gender and political economy, addressing African food multinationals, consumption politics, matrilineal leadership models and epistemic injustice affecting Khoi and coloured women. She is committed to community-engaged research that produces knowledge with communities.
Professor Bouka is the Canada Research Chair on Afrofeminist Thought and Political Transformation and Associate Professor of Gender and Politics and International Relations at Queen’s University.
Her scholarship focuses on international relations, conflict, memory and postcolonial state-building in Africa. She explores how histories of violence, diaspora and belonging shape political life and considers feminist approaches to post-conflict societies and international relations.
Her work centres narrative, archives and lived experience, foregrounding African perspectives in debates on peace, governance and justice.
A series of public engagements
During their visits, Professors Bouka and Miller will present lectures, masterclasses and workshops open to the University community.
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6 March: Professor Bouka will lead a masterclass titled “Women, Resistance and the Coloniality of the Modern State System”, with two prescribed book chapters.
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13 March: The CWGS will host a conversation between Professors Bouka and Miller, “Future Feminism(s): Global Configurations and Feminist Response”, chaired by CWGS Director Professor Babalwa Magoqwana. The seminar will examine how African feminist perspectives can respond to contemporary geopolitical challenges.
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27 March: In collaboration with the Department of History and Political Studies, Professor Bouka will present “The State, the International System, and the Feminist Right to Self-Defence”. The seminar will explore feminist critiques of state security, sovereignty and global power, drawing on experiences of women in conflict and post-conflict settings, particularly in Southern Africa.
Strengthening research networks
The coinciding visits contribute to Nelson Mandela University’s expanding national and international research partnerships. Their work supports the University’s commitment to socially responsive scholarship, African-centred knowledge production and intellectual leadership, and aligns with the Centre’s focus on amplifying African women’s intellectual, activist and creative legacies in rigorous and ethically grounded ways.
Advancing the African footprint
Prof Bouka and Prof Miller’s concurrent visits strengthen the University’s expanding national and international research partnerships, reinforcing institutional ties between Nelson Mandela University, local institutions, and global research networks.
Their work aligns with the University’s transformative, socially responsive mission and its commitment to African-centred knowledge production and intellectual leadership.
Their research also supports the Centre’s dedication to examining and amplifying African women’s intellectual, activist, and creative legacies through rigorous, ethical, and intergenerational scholarship.
For more information on these events, please contact Wendy Adams at and visit the CWGS website
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