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Kezia Batisai

Prof Kezia Batisai

Professor
Name: Kezia Batisai
Location: C Ring 628A Auckland Park Kingsway Campus
Department of Sociology  Staff Members

Contact Details:
Tel: 011 559 3438

Email: keziab@uj.ac.za

About Prof Kezia Batisai

Biographical ​​​​​

Kezia Batisai is a Professor of Sociology. Focusing her research gaze on gender, sexuality, land, migration, HIV/AIDS and health policy recommendations, Kezia’s work questions the meaning of being different and notions of marginality that expose the politics of nation-building in Africa. Kezia has written several journal articles, book chapters, technical reports and opinion pieces that expand the theory of marginality. Beyond the academy, Kezia has engaged in action research as a principal researcher for local and international organizations working with those on the margins or peripheries of society, with a specific focus on gender, sexuality, migration, HIV/AIDS and health policy recommendations. She is an active member of the International Sociological Association; South African Association for Gender Studies; South African Sociological Association (convener for Gender Studies working group since 2015); and the Research Network Law, Gender and Sexuality (LEX) International Steering Committee. She is also an Associate Editor for Gender, Justice & Social Transformation, a specialty section within Frontiers in Human Dynamics.

Qualifications

PhD Gender Studies, University of Cape Town MSc Sociology and Social Anthropology, University of Zimbabwe BSc Hons. in Sociology, University of Zimbabwe​

Research interests

  • Gender
  • Sexuality
  • Political change
  • Questions of Being Different and Marginality.​​​

Selected publications

Batisai, K. 2022. Stratified and Violent: Young Women’s Experiences of Access to Reproductive Health in South Africa. In A. Pande (Ed.), ‘Controlled Birth – Selective Reproduction’. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 156–181.

Batisai, K. 2022. Re-theorising Migration: A South-South Perspective. In P. Rugunanan & N. Xulu-Gama (Eds.), A Southern Approach to Migration Studies: Developing A Sociology of Migration. Springer, 11–24.

Batisai, K. & Chipato, F. 2022. ‘Displacements and Land Conflicts: Implications for Land Tenure Security and Gendered Livelihoods in Zimbabwe.’ In G. Mkodzongi (Ed.), Zimbabwe’s Changing Agrarian Sector. London: Routledge.

Zvokuomba, K. & Batisai, K. 2022. ‘Can Women Own Land’? Land Inheritance Convolutions: Evidence from the Zimbabwean Resettlement Areas.’ In H. Mupambwa, D. Nciizah, P. Nyambo, B. Muchara and N.N. Gabriel. (Eds.) Food Security for African Smallholder Farmers. Singapore: Springer Nature, 375–388.

Zvokuomba, K. & Batisai, K. 2022. The Hydrology of Hope in the Semi-arid Region of Southern Zimbabwe: A Feminist Review of Mushandike Small-Scale Irrigation Scheme. South African Geographical Journal. https://doi.org/10.1080/03736245.2022.2028668

Batisai, K. & Mudimu, G.T. 2021. Beyond the Land Reform: Revisiting the Politics of Land Recovery among White Commercial Farmers in Zimbabwe. International Journal of Transitional Justice.

Sibanda A. and Batisai K. 2021. The Intersections of Identity, Belonging and Substance Misuse: Struggles of Male Youth in Post-Apartheid South Africa. International Journal of Adolescence and Youth. 26 (1): 143-157.

Batisai, K. 2020. “Understanding Health and Health Systems in Southern Africa.” In. J. Fritz and T. Uys, (Eds.) Clinical Sociology for Southern Africa. Cape Town: Juta Press, 245-269.

Batisai, K. 2020. “Culture, Land Rights, and Livelihoods in Rural South Africa – A Gendered Perspective.” In M. Khan & G. Mkodzongi (Eds.), Africa, History and Culture. Iowa: Kendallhunt Publishing Company, 103-119.

Batisai, K. & Dzimiri, P. 2020. “Not just a foreigner: ‘Progressive’ Self-Representations of African Migrants in Print and Social Media.” In D. Moyo and S. Mpofu, (Eds.) Mediating Xenophobia and Africa. Unpacking Discourses of Migration, Belonging and Othering. Palgrave, 323-340.

Batisai, K. & Manjowo L. 2020. Renegotiating Gender Identities and Sexual Bodies: Zimbabwean Migrant Women’s Narratives of Everyday Life in South Africa. Gender Questions. 8(1): # 6519 | 23.

Zvokuomba, K. & Batisai, K. 2020. Veracity of Women’s Land Ownership in the Aftermath of Land Re-distributions in Zimbabwe: The Limits of Western Feminism. Agenda. 34(1): 151-158.

Dzimiri C.T., Dzimiri P. & Batisai, K. 2019. Fighting against HIV and AIDS within a Resource Constrained Rural Setting: A Case Study of the Ruvheneko Programme in Chirumhanzu, Zimbabwe. SAHARA-J: Journal of Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS. 16(1): 25-34.

Batisai, K. 2019. “Black and Foreign: Negotiating Being Different in South Africa’s Academy.” In G.

Khunou, H. Canham, K. Khoza-Shangase & E. Phaswana, (Eds.) Black Academic Voices: The South African Experience. Cape Town: HSRC Press, 226-247.

Chipuriro, R. & Batisai, K. 2018. Unsung Heroines and Violence for the Land: Narratives of Elderly Women Farmers’ Experiences in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Agenda. 32(4): 54-64.

Batisai, K. 2018. “Gendered Nationhood and the Land Question in South Africa 20 Years after Democracy.” In F. Brandt and G. Mkodzongi (Eds.), Land Reform Revisited. Democracy, State Making and Agrarian Transformation in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Brill: Leiden, 78-96.

Batisai, K. 2017. “Mothering beyond National Borders: Trajectories of Zimbabwean Migrant Women in South Africa.” In D. Smith Silva, L. Malik and A. Palko (Eds.), Mothers, Mothering, and Globalization. Demeter Press: Ontario, 226-247. Batisai, K. 2017. Pushing the limits of motherhood: narratives of older women in rural Zimbabwe. African Studies. 76(1): 44-63.

Batisai, K. 2016. Interrogating questions of national belonging, difference and xenophobia in South Africa. Agenda. 30(2): 119-130.

Batisai, K. 2016. Towards an integrated approach to health and medicine in Africa. SAHARA-J: Journal of Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS. 13(1): 113-122.

Batisai, K. 2016. Transnational labour migration, intimacy and relationships: how Zimbabwean women navigate the diaspora. Diaspora Studies. 9(2): 165-178.

Batisai, K. 2016. Celebrating a life well lived: Professor Sam Moyo (23/09/1954-22/11/2015), South African Review of Sociology, 47(2): 119-121.

Batisai, K. 2015. Being gendered in Africa’s flag-democracies: narratives of sexual minorities living in the diaspora. Gender Questions. 3(1): 25-44.

Batisai, K. 2015. The Politics of Control and Ownership over Women’s Bodies: Discourses that Shape Reproductive and Sexual Rights in Zimbabwe. Perspectives: Bodies, Morals and Politics. Reflections on Sexual and Reproductive Rights in Africa. 2:6-11.

Batisai, K. 2014. ‘Policies on abortion: women’s experiences of living through a gendered body in Zimbabwe.’ AG AboutGender, International journal of gender studies. 3(5): 174-192.

Batisai, K. 2013. Body politics: – an illumination of the landscape of sexuality and nationhood? Re-seeing Zimbabwe through elderly women’s representations of their sexual and gendered lives. Cape Town, University of Cape Town.

Salo, E. Matshaka, N.S., Mupotsa, D., Baloyi, A., Batisai, K., Jobson, M., Chienga, M., and Roes, A. 2012. Feasibility Study on the (Re) Establishment of Sexual Offences Courts in Africa. Report Prepared for The Ministerial Advisory Task Team for Sexual Offences Courts (MATTSO), by the Institute for Women’s and Gender Studies, University Pretoria.

Batisai, K., Tansey, E. and Muteerwa, T.R. et.al. 2010. Regional Assessment on HIV-prevention Needs of Migrants and Mobile Populations in Southern Africa. Pretoria, International Organisation for Migration.

Batisai, K., Tansey, E. and Muteerwa, T.R. 2010. Country Assessment on HIV-prevention Needs of Migrants and Mobile Populations; Lesotho. Pretoria, International Organization for Migration.

Batisai, K., Tansey, E. and Muteerwa, T.R. 2010. Country Assessment on HIV-prevention Needs of Migrants and Mobile Populations; Swaziland.. Pretoria, International Organization for Migration.