Deevia Bhana

Professor Deevia Bhana

Content

Profile

Deevia Bhana holds the South African Research Chair (SARChI) in Gender and Childhood Sexuality. Her research explores the significance of gender and sexuality in the young life course. In this research, she focuses on the everyday complexities of young people’s sexual cultures across race-class and digital contexts. Her work reflects a commitment to address gender inequalities and sexual violence as experienced by young people, the right to sexual well-being and safety and the critical role of institutions including education to envision collectively the work towards childhood sexual and gender justice.  

Publications

Recent Supervision (2018)

Science Engagement

A record of contribution to the public’s understanding of gender and childhood sexuality:

Upcoming Events

25 - 29 November 2024 The First Global Heads Forum in Education and The Inaugural Conference of GAELDH

Global South Forum (10.30 am – 12 pm, 29th November 2024):

Problematising Developmentalism in Global South Early Childhood Education

Developmental theories have long been influential and dominant in shaping policy, practice, and research in Early Childhood Education (Blaise, 2005; Gabriel, 2020; Wood & Hedges, 2016), including the often-associated brain theories and neurosciences. Key understandings of (early) child development include that children follow shared patterns of development at different stages of their growth; that the development is predictable and earlier-stage development provides the basis for later stages; that development spans across five main domains such as physical, cognitive, communication/language, social, and emotional; and that development must be holistic and cover all domains (Xu, Brooks, Gao, & Kitto, 2024). A prevailing approach to early childhood education underpinned by developmental theories is Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009; Gestwicki, 2013).

GAELDH Programme Book

Global South Forum – Hong Kong

HK2

13 November 2024 Global Childhoods Research Group (GCRG) and University of Nottingham Webinar

Global Childhoods Research Group (GCRG) and University of Nottingham Webinar: Meet with Journal Editors in Global Studies: A webinar series supporting  inclusive academic publishing and capacity building for less experienced authors in global childhood studies. 13 November 2024.

Meet with Journal Editors in Global Childhood Studies 

 

11 November 2024 Shaping Inclusive Futures: Gender Concepts and Curriculum Design in Education Webinar

Shaping Inclusive Futures: Gender Concepts and Curriculum Design in Education
Date: Monday, 11 November 2024
Time: 10:00 – 11:30
Venue: Microsoft TEAMS

DEF webinar

Programme

24 September 2024 BAICE (British Association for International and Comparative International Education) international webinar series

BAICE (British Association for International and Comparative International Education) international webinar series: Reaching the most marginalized: Gender Equality in Education and Employment. Reflecting on Gender Inequalities in South African Education: Boys, Girls, and Violence. 24 September 2024.

BAICE_Gender PNG

BAICE international webinar series pdf

3 - 4 September 20242nd Symposium on Care and Support for Teaching and Learning: “A Response to Ending Learning Poverty

2nd Symposium on Care and Support for Teaching and Learning: “A Response to Ending Learning Poverty”. ‘Our children are not safe’: Mothers’ Struggle to Address Gender and Sexual Violence in Schools, Gauteng, South Africa, 3-4 September 2024.

CSTL Programme 2024

Invitation_CSTL Research Symposium

19 - 22 August 2024 International Symposium on Global South Studies 2024

CALL FOR PAPERS
International Symposium on Global South Studies 2024
DUE JUNE 12, 2024
August 19 – 22, 2024
Hybrid – Online & Nha Trang, Vietnam
Centralizing the South in the Global Context:
Troubling What’s Known & Re-imagining What’s Unknown

The Global South, for sociologists like Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Emile Durkheim, and Lester Frank Ward, is a social, cultural, and political concept that denotes a global divide drawing broad distinctions between advanced and
primitive institutions and societies (Dados & Connell, 2012). The phrase Global South refers to the regions of Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania. As are colonial discourse in social and sociological theory that defines geopolitical power relations, Global South is one of a family of terms, including “Periphery”, which implies regions outside Europe and North America, mostly (though not all) low-income and often politically or culturally marginalized.

International Symposium on Global South Studies 2024

Call for Paper

 

19 July – 15 August 2024 Dr Estel Malgosa Gasol, Autonomous University of Barcelona

Dr Estel Malgosa Gasol Academic Visit UKZN Edgewood College 19 July – 15 August 202

The School of Education is pleased to welcome Dr Estel Malgosa Gasol, an economist and anthropologist from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, for an academic visit from July 19 to August 15, 2024. Dr Gasol, a member of the AFIN Research Group, focuses on the intersections of sexuality, gender, and childhood. Her research explores how children construct, experience and narrate their sexuality and gender identities within public schools in Barcelona.

During her visit, Dr Gasol will lead a discussion on the SexAFIN Project, addressing sexuality, gender and sexual education at a local-global level. She will conduct workshops on sexuality and sexuality education in schools, data analysis and writing for publication. Additionally, she will deliver a lecture on gender, sexuality and the school curriculum for B.Ed. Honours students and engage in collaborative discussions with colleagues. Her visit aims to enhance the understanding of sexuality and gender issues among faculty and students, fostering collaborative research efforts and contributing significantly to the academic and research environment at UKZN.

Dr Estel Malgosa Gasol Bio

Dr Estel Malgosa Gasol Agenda

06 July 2024 Discussant on Marc Epprecht’s new book, Accidental Queer

Accidental Queer Prof. Marc Epprecht (Queen’s University)

Discussant: Prof. Deevia Bhana (DSI/NRF South African Research Chair in Gender and Childhood Sexuality, UKZN)

When: Saturday, 6 July 2024
Where: Bessie Head Library Auditorium, 260 Church Street, Pietermaritzburg
Time: 09h30 for 10h00
RSVP to: Calda de Vries (devriesc@kzndsac.gov.za) by 3rd July 2024

Book Launch PDF Download

27-28 June 2024 Conceiving Change. Harare, Zimbabwe

Bronte Garden Hotel- Harare 27 – 28  June 2024

Conceiving Change Conference Programme 

Writing Workshop @WUA 26 June 2024 

Bronte Garden Hotel Harare 23-29 June

WUA Workshop PDF Download

 

17-20 June 2024 Dr Francesca Salvi, University of Nottingham

Dr Francesca Salvi Academic Visit to UKZN
June 17th- June 20th

The School of Education is delighted to host Dr Francesca Salvi, Assistant Professor at the University of Nottingham, from June 17-20 2024.

Dr Salvi is an interdisciplinary social scientist specialising in the transitions between childhood and adulthood, with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa.

Her research explores how global discourses of teenage pregnancy and parenthood intersect with education and employment.

During her visit, Dr Salvi will lead several workshops and lectures, including a SARChI Working Papers workshop, a session on writing a methodology chapter and a discussion on collaboration and interdisciplinarity in research. These sessions aim to enhance the research skills and knowledge of our faculty and students, fostering academic collaboration and inspiring innovative research in education. Dr Salvi’s visit promises to advance our understanding of critical educational issues.

Dr Francesca Salvi Bio

Dr Franscesca Salvi Agenda

08 -12 April 2024 Associate Professor Yuwei Xu, University of Nottingham

The School of Education is honoured to host Associate Professor Yuwei Xu from the University of Nottingham for a week-long academic visit from April 8-12 2024. Professor  Xu, a distinguished sociologist with expertise in early childhood education and gender studies, will deliver the keynote address at the SARChI one-day conference, “Reimagining Gender and Sexuality in Global South Early Childhood Education,” on April 8 2024, in Durban. Throughout the week, he will lead several insightful workshops and lectures, including sessions on writing for publication, crafting effective literature review chapters and exploring theoretical frameworks in gender studies. These sessions aim to enhance the research skills and knowledge of our faculty and students. Professor Xu’s visit is set to foster academic collaboration and inspire innovative research in education.

Yuwei Xu Bio-PDF Download

Professor Yuwei Xu Agenda PDF Dowload

08 April 2024 Reimagining Gender and Sexuality in Global South Early Childhood Education

Reimagining Gender and Sexuality in Global South Early Childhood Education Conference. 8 April 2024. Durban, South Africa.   https://www.youtube.com/live/euBt9kcVXJw

Programme

8 April 2024
8:30AM-4:30PM
The Southern Sun Elangeni & Maharani Hotel
Suite 4-5, Elangeni Tower

Early Childhood Education (ECE) has long grappled with the complexities of understanding and addressing gender and sexuality. Given the dominance of childhood sexual innocence, research and debate around these issues are often subdued and avoided. Grounded in colonial and postcolonial discourses, this conference aims to challenge the prevailing silence and confront the systemic reproduction of heteronormative and gendered ideologies within ECE settings. We seek to address several questions: What underlying assumptions continue to hinder the recognition and integration of gender and sexuality as vital components in ECE? How can we move beyond developmental models that perpetuate gender binaries and reinforce normative notions of sexuality, towards more inclusive and transformative approaches? In what ways do dominant discourses on childhood perpetuate notions of innocence and passivity erasing children’s capacity and lived experiences? How can we understand the intersection of race, space, class within the postcolony in shaping understandings of gender and sexuality in Global South ECE contexts? And finally, we ask, what are the transformative potentials of centering gender and sexuality in ECE research, policy, and practice for promoting social justice and gender equality.

One Day Conference-Reimagining Gender & Sexuality in Global South pdf download

Keynote Address download

30 Nov 2023 CERA 10th Anniversary Conference

Empowering Education in the Digital Age: Reflections on the Last Decade and Future Directions

Conference Venue: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/92497314393?pwd=Y1B6dzF4ckRnZVVJcnJaZmswOFk0QT09

Thursday, 30 November 2023
Chair: Enze Guo and Fang Xu

CERA 2023 Schedule Download

29 Nov 2023 Masculinities, social justice and education webinar

Masculinities, social justice and education webinar Hosted by Professor Amanda Keddie, Swarthmore College

When: 29th November, 6pm-8pm EST

The current moment is both rich with possibilities and beset with new challenges for gender
justice. New collective engagements with feminism have coincided with renewed scrutiny on the social construction of masculinities. While research, education and activism in this area is rich and longstanding, the current moment represents an opportunity for new conversations and ways of thinking in our work with men and boys for social justice.
This panel focuses on masculinities, social justice and education. It brings together renowned scholars across the globe to share their ideas about useful and productive theories or concepts for thinking and understanding masculinities, social and/or climate justice and education.

The panel
Naobi Way, New York University
Deevia Bhana, University of KwaZulu-Natal
Matt Pinkett, Author and Teacher Adam Howard, Colby College Joseph Nelson, Swarthmore College Anna Hickey-Moody, Maynooth University Garth Stahl, The University of Queensland
Carolyn Jackson, University of Lancaster
Please join us for this engaging and important event!
Here is the registration link: Register in advance for this webinar:
https://swarthmore.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_lOZS3_bzR8Si6F6x4wpLLQ
Registration QR code is also on the attached flyer

16 Nov 2023 Sexuality education for gender justice in South African contexts: Pitfalls and Possibilities

Invitation: Book Launch

Sexuality education for gender justice in South African contexts: pitfalls and possibilities

Join us for the virtual launch of this publication by Professors Tamara Shefer and Sisa Ngabaza (UWC) with Professor Deevia Bhana (UKZN) as discussant.

Date: Thursday, 16 November 2023 from 14:00 – 15:00
RSVP: to gabriela.pinheiro@up.ac.za to obtain the link.

Invitation Shefer Ngabaza Download

 

13 November 2023 Family Matters Reproduction & Care in Africa. Kisumu, Kenya.

Stephen Ombere (Maseno University), Lillian Owoko (Maseno University), Nolwazi Mkhwanazi (University of Pretoria), and Deevia Bhana (University of KwaZulu-Natal ) are convening this conference to enable an exchange of ideas between a number of people from South Africa and Kenya about families, kinship and care.

CfP Family Matters Kenya pdf

Kenya Conference v3 pdf

2 October 2023 Safe Surfing": Gender, Sexuality and Young People’s Digital Connections Seminar. Durban

“Safe Surfing”: Gender, Sexuality and Young People’s Digital Connections

Date: 02 October 2023
Time: 08:30 – 16:30
Venue: The Capital Pearls Umhlanga
Room: Ultramarine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNfyo36_U54

For young people, online surfing has become the ‘new normal.’ As early as the age of 13, young people worldwide gain access to a multitude of social media platforms, such as Instagram, TikTok, and more, providing opportunities for entertainment, information and communication, relationship building and social connections. These connections serve as crucial spaces for expressing gender and sexuality, exploring sexual curiosities and developing new intimacies and relationships. However, online surfing is also entangled with normative understandings of gender and sexuality, violence, harassment, and abuse, posing a significant threat to young people’s emerging sexualities, especially affecting young women and girls.

 

One Day Conference Safe Surfing Pdf

15-16 Dec 2022 2nd International Conference on Sustainable Development Goals & Gender Perspective

Keynote Address

2nd International Conference on Sustainable Development Goals & Gender Perspective (ICSDGAGP2022) (Online mode)

Dates: 15-16 December 2022

Faculty coordinators: Dr. Vasundhara Mahajan & Dr. Anandita Chowdhury, DoEE SVNIT Surat.

Organized by: Department of Electrical Engineering, Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology (SVNIT), Surat, Gujarat – 395007, India.

Conference website: https://sites.google.com/eed.svnit.ac.in/icsdgagp-2022/home

Institute website: https://www.svnit.ac.in

Brochure: Download

26 -28 Oct 2022 Decolonising Feminisms.

The International Research Association of Institutions of Advanced Gender Studies (RINGS) Conference and Annual Meeting 2022

Topic: Decolonising Feminisms. Hosted by UKZN, Durban

Attachments

11 Oct 2022 Webinar: African cities: what place for the youth?

Date: 11 October

Webinar African cities: what place for the youth?

Topic: “Challenging Cities: Young Men, Masculinity and Violence”

The programme is available using the link below: 

https://africancitieslab.org/en/african-cities-what-role-for-the-youth/ 

20-21 Sep 2022 REPRODUCTION IN AFRICA New Horizons

This event is the first of five events that takes place annually, once in each of the 5 countries that are part of the Re-imagining Reproduction: Making babies, making kin and citizens in Africa project. The keynote speakers will discuss the idea of whether there is a need to re-imagine scholarship on reproduction in Africa, what this might look like and/or what this might achieve.

Future Africa. Hosted by REPRODUCTION IN AFRICA New Horizons

Attachments

31 Aug 2022. 15h00-17h30 Gender, Sexuality and Sexual Health in Southern Africa

The University of Pretoria, in collaboration with the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the Centre for Social Research in Health (CSRH), cordially invites you to the launch of Gender, Sexuality and Sexual Health in Southern Africa.

Sex, sexuality and sexual health are often viewed through a narrowly biomedical lens. This ignores the fact that they are profoundly social and historical in character. Recent work in Southern Africa (and beyond) has sought to challenge this perspective, asking important questions about how to move beyond notions of damage and risk in relation to sex, sexuality and health, to a focus on recognition, rights, respect and pleasure.

Building on the contributions in the recently published book – Sex, Sexuality and Sexual Health in Southern Africa – and the experiences of seminar participants, this event will take the lid off these and related concerns.

This event will be of special interest to scholars, health professionals, community workers and activists seeking new ways of understanding and engaging with old issues

Date: 31 August 2022
Time: 15h00 – 17h30
Venues: Future Africa Auditorium, Hillcrest Campus and Online
Enquiries: danolien.vandenberg@up.ac.za

Attachments

25 Aug 2022. 09h00 Gender-Based Violence in Institutions of Higher Learning

Expert Roundtable on Gender-Based Violence in Institutions of Higher Learning: Plenary Panel I 10:30 – 12:00: Exploring the concept and nature of GBV, causes and influencing factors in institutions of higher learning A project of the Law Trust Chair in Social Justice (Professor Thuli Madonsela), Law Faculty, Stellenbosch University

25 August 2022 09:00 SAST at STIAS, Stellenbosch University

Programme

PROGRAMME GBV ROUNDTABLE AUGUST 2022zz

14 Jul 2022 Comprehensive Sexuality Education and Young Children: Needed and Denied

I SexAFIN International Virtual Conference “(Re)thinking about comprehensive sexuality education from a child-centered and gendered perspective”.  2nd Conference day: Strategies of CSE. https://en.sexafin-conference.afinbarcelona.com/

Topic: Comprehensive Sexuality Education and Young Children: Needed and Denied. 

Programa_I SexAFIN International Virtual Conference FINAL

20 Jun 2022. 14h00 Teenage girls and the entanglement with online porn

British Sociological Association New Materialisms study group seminar. 

Topic: ‘Teenage girls and the entanglement with online porn: A new feminist materialist perspective’ 

PsySSA 2022 Workshop Series: Workshop 1 – Sexual consent in young adults: A moment or a movement? 

Topic: Sexual Consent: Sex, Power and Young People