Dr. Jabulile Mavuso wins 2020 Paula Kantor Award

Dr. Jabulile Mary-Jane Jace Mavuso has been named winner of the 2020 Paula Kantor Award. The award was created to honor Paula Kantor, a former ICRW researcher who was killed in 2015 while working in Afghanistan. Paula was a leading expert on gender issues in international development, with nearly 20 years of experience in policy and program research related to integrating gender into agriculture and rural development. Dr. Kantor’s work was largely driven by her passion to improve lives in the global south, especially those of women and girls.

Dr. Mavuso is Research Associate for the Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproduction research program at Rhodes University, South Africa, where they obtained their PhD in Psychology. They are also a member of the Sexual and Reproductive Justice Coalition. A feminist, their activism centers on sexual and reproductive freedom and justice, and they encompass their research and teaching interests in gender, race, sexualities and reproduction. Their research has focused on abortion, and their published work encompasses abortion, pregnancy decision-making, sexual violence policy at higher institutions and African feminisms and decolonial psychology.

Dr. Mavuso has published work in Feminism & Psychology, Culture, Health & Sexuality, and Nursing Inquiry. They have chapters published in edited book collections and have presented at international conferences in Pretoria, Makhanda, Durban, South Africa and Belfast, Ireland. They are currently involved in a research project on abortion seeking behaviors and preferences and a proposal for a co-edited book that seeks to bring together marginalized perspectives on sexual and reproductive health and justice.