The Department of Women and Gender Studies (WGS) at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) this year marks its 30th anniversary and has recently contributed, edited, and published four international publications that showcase the department’s ongoing contributions to feminist, decolonial, and justice-oriented research.

These publications, released within the last year, reflect the department’s deep engagement with global conversations on gender, justice, and knowledge production. While each book is distinct, they are unified by a shared commitment to decolonial feminist scholarship and the reimagining of the university and feminist scholarship for justice. Prof Tamara Shefer is a co-editor on all four publications, which include staff members and students of the WGS department.

Prof Shefer said: “It’s not only about doing research towards gender equality in local and global contexts …it’s also about doing scholarship differently—creatively, critically, and inclusively.”

The first volume is the Routledge International Handbook of Feminisms and Gender Studies, which emerged from one of the annual conferences of The International Research Association of Institutions of Advanced Gender Studies (RINGS) held in Lisbon in 2018 and is edited by and with contributions from scholars from across the globe. It includes a chapter co-authored by UWC scholars, Prof Shefer and Sisa Ngabaza, that elaborates on contemporary concerns in gender studies in South Africa, with a focus on decolonial feminist pedagogies and research, and the department’s role in rethinking research and pedagogical practices in the university.

The second publication is Reimagining Social Justice Scholarship: Creative Decolonial Feminisms in South Africa and Beyond, which emerges from a five-year AW Mellon-funded project in Women’s and Gender Studies. It was edited by two staff members - Prof Shefer and Dr Carmine Rustin, with Floretta Boonzaier, a well-known feminist scholar at the University of Cape Town. This volume features a large number of contributions from early-career scholars, including Master's, PhD, and postdoctoral researchers, many of whom are affiliated with UWC. “Most of the chapters from the book that we edited come from research that was done in the project by early-career scholars. Our pedagogies and our research speak to the project of rethinking the university and reconceptualising scholarship…particularly the decolonial feminist work that we do,” said Dr Rustin.

The third publication, Decolonial Feminisms, Decolonising Feminisms, is from a RINGS conference, hosted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), edited by three global southern feminist scholars. It focuses on decolonial feminism, interrogating how feminist theory itself must be decolonised to move beyond its historically Eurocentric foundations. Prof Shefer said: “Feminist theory has often been dominated by Global North perspectives. This book pushes back and opens space for voices from the Global South.”

The fourth publication, edited by Prof Shefer with WGS Emerita Prof Viv Bozalek (and UWC alumnus Nike Romano), engages with a cutting-edge focus on hydrofeminist thinking towards social and environmental justice in South African contexts.

The book includes contributions from early-career scholars in WGS and elsewhere. It showcases a rich offering of watery research, pedagogies, art, and activism in local historical and contemporary locations.

While each book stands on its own, the thread of decolonial feminism runs through all three. Together, they reflect Women and Gender Studies at UWC’s commitment to challenging dominant paradigms, amplifying marginalised voices, and producing scholarship that is both locally grounded and globally relevant.