Professor Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela is a Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Stellenbosch University where she currently holds the DSI-NRF Research Chair in Violent Histories and Transgenerational Trauma and is Director of the Centre for the Study of the Afterlife of Violence and the Reparative Quest. Prof Gobodo-Madikizela studied Social Work and Psychology at the University of Fort Hare where she obtained her Bachelors and Honours degrees before completing her Master’s in Clinical Psychology at Rhodes University. She completed her PhD in Psychology at the University of Cape Town. She lectured in Psychology at the University of Transkei and served as Chair of the Human Rights Violation Committee of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

In addition to a number of Fellowships at Harvard University and the University of Michigan, she held a part-time co-teaching position on the Politics of Trauma and Memory at Wellesley College, Radcliffe College and Brandeis University in the USA. She also served as a Senior Consultant and Research Advisor at the Unilever Ethics Centre at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. From 2003 to 2012 she worked at the University of Cape Town first as an Associate Professor and later as a Full Professor in the Psychology Department before taking up a Research Professorship at the University of the Free State. She also spent two years serving on the World Economic Forum’s Council for Human Equality and Respect. Prof Gobodo-Madikizela has authored and co-authored nine books exploring the concepts of historical trauma, gender and forgiveness and 27 book chapters as well as numerous articles in international and local journals.

Prof Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela serves as a member of the Research Development Committee and the Remuneration & HR Committee.