Motlalepule Nathane-Taulela

Motlalepule Nathane-Taulela is a Senior Lecturer and Qualitative Researcher at Wits University. She holds a Doctoral degree in Social Work from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She practiced as a Social Workers for four years and joined academia in 2007. Her career trajectory shows holistic contribution in practice, teaching and learning, academic citizenship and advocacy research. She is a Chancellor’s Fellow and was awarded the Female Academic Leadership Fellowship funding in 2021. This initiative afforded her excellent mentoring and leadership training. The Fellowship also allowed her to be part of a community of practice with colleagues across faculties at Wits University. The FALF fellowship programme also opened opportunities for collaboration in discipline and Schools within the University.

Nathane-Taulela’s research philosophy is grounded in social justice perspective and foregrounding African knowledge systems. She is intentional about bringing African indigenous knowledge system and practices research and social intervention. The scope of her research has mainly been on African families, fatherhood and maternal headed households, Gender Based Violence & Femicide and Human Rights. Nathane-Taulela is active in service to students, national and professional associations. She is a Principal Investigator of a study on Gender Based Violence and Femicide research in South Africa.

Nathane-Taulela looks forward to building relationships with scholars working in the field of family and society. She’s also keen to learn more about international policy debates and social interventions that can inform African contexts. Most importantly, she aims to explore opportunities that integrate insights from social work research with families in the UK and South African contexts. Lastly, Nathane-Taulela would like to immerse herself in the rich and fascinating historical culture of Oxford University.