Pumla Gqola

Pumla Dineo Gqola is professor of Literary and Cultural Studies and South African National Research Foundation Chair in African Feminist Imagination at Nelson Mandela University. She is a graduate of the Universities of Cape Town (South Africa) and Warwick (United Kingdom). Gqola graduated with a DPhil in Postcolonial Studies from the University of Munich (LMU) in Germany. Her seven books include the landmark study, _What is slavery to me? Postcolonial/Slave Memory in Post-apartheid South Africa_ (Wits University Press, 2010), the 2016 Alan Paton Award winner for Non Fiction, _Rape: A South African Nightmare_ (MF Books, 2015), and _Miriam Tlali: Writing Freedom_ (HSRC Press, 2021) on the pioneering Black feminist author. Her most recent book, _Female Fear Factory_ (2021, MF Books; 2022, Cassava Republic Press) was short-listed for the South African Literary Awards and received the National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS) 2022 Non Fiction Best Book Award. 

Pumla Dineo Gqola was Falling Walls Science Breakthrough of the Year 2023 in the Social Sciences & Humanities category.