Join the celebrations at UCT Women’s Day event

Dear colleagues and students

Every year on 9 August, the University of Cape Town (UCT) joins the rest of the country in celebrating the tenacity of about 20 000 extraordinary women who, in 1956, marched to the Union Buildings in protest against the pass laws. The month of August provides us with an opportunity to acknowledge the contributions made by these women while also putting a spotlight on the challenges that women face in their everyday lives.

As part of our Women’s Day celebration, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Internationalisation, Professor Sue Harrison, together with the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Transformation, Student Affairs and Social Responsiveness, Professor Elelwani Ramugondo, will host the annual Women’s Day seminar and cocktail event on Thursday, 10 August 2023 at the UCT Graduate School of Business Conference Centre in V&A Waterfront. We will host this significant event under the theme ‘The future we want’.

Professor Salome Maswime, the head of the Global Surgery Division and Chair of the University of the Future Project, will deliver the keynote address. Professor Maswime is an advocate for women’s health rights, and for equity in surgical and maternal care. She recently received the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) Clinician-Scientist Award at this year’s National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF)-South 32 awards ceremony.

At this celebration event, we will honour the award recipients of the UCT For Womxn By Womxn research grants and other exceptional women from across the university. The For Womxn By Womxn research grants were launched in 2019 to build scholarship in areas of study where women are under-represented and in areas of study that are of relevance to women. The five-year research grant will end this year.

The research grantees and their projects are:

• Dr Katye Altieri: enabling a cohort of postgraduate black women and transgender oceanographers to become leaders of oceanography in South Africa and the Global South
• Professor Floretta Boonzaier: shifting the ways of thinking about and doing research on gender-based violence
• Professor Janet Hapgood: informed choices for women’s contraception in sub-Saharan Africa
• Professor Patricia Kooyman: training a cohort of black female or trans postgraduate researchers in critical skills in chemical engineering
• Dr Robyn Pickering: transforming the field of palaeoanthropology.

An update on the research projects will be shared at the event.

Please join us in celebrating the achievements of our female colleagues and the pivotal roles they are playing in creating a fair and just society.

Date: Thursday, 10 August 2023
Venue: GSB Conference Centre, Ground Floor, Protea Hotel by Marriot, Waterfront Breakwater Lodge
Time: 12:00 for 12:30 (until 14:00)

• Please register to attend the event.

Sincerely

Emer Prof Daya Reddy
Vice-Chancellor (interim)

Read previous communications:

• From the UCT Executive
• Campus Announcements