School of Education

Deevia Bhana is a Professor and the South African Research Chair (SARChI) in Gender and Childhood Sexuality whose research focuses on building an understanding of gender and childhood sexualities across the young life course in South Africa; and whose writing also concerns gender and childhood sexualities in education globally. Her research is committed to intersectional theoretical approaches spanning critical sexualities, feminist, childhood and masculinity studies in addressing the question of children and young people’s sexual agency. The research has implications for understanding young masculinities and femininities, heteronormativity and gendered ideologies which shapes; and shaped by children and young people’s experience of sexualities, inequalities, violence, schooling, health and gender equality. She is the author/editor of 9 books and widely published in top international journals including British Journal of Sociology of Education, Social Science and Medicine, Culture Health & Sexuality, Oxford Review of Education. Her most recent work, published by Palgrave MacMillan in 2021, is a co-edited book titled Gender, Sexuality and Violence in South African (SA) Educational Spaces which makes a claim for a ‘three-ply yarn approach’ to the study of violence from the standpoint of children and young people themselves.

She is the co-Chief Editor of Children & Society (Wiley), the Associate Editor of Health Education Journal (Sage) and is a member of 8 international editorial boards including Gender and Education, Sex Education and Discourse. Deevia is also co-Chair of RINGS (International Research Association of Institutions of Advanced Gender Studies). RINGS ‘connects leading research institutes and centres from Africa, Australia, Europe, and North and Central America and aims to facilitate collaboration and contacts within gender studies across the world.