Puleng LenkaBula is a South African academic and university administrator. She is the first ever female vice-chancellor of the University of South Africa (UNISA). [1]
LenkaBula studied theological ethics at the University of South Africa, writing a PhD thesis on the ethics of bioprospecting in 2006. [2]
She was dean of students at the University of the Witwatersrand before joining the University of the Free State (UFS), where she was vice-rector of institutional change, student affairs and community engagement. [3] In November 2020 she was announced as the successor to Mandla Makhanya as principal and vice-chancellor of UNISA, in a unanimous decision by the university council. Her appointment comes into effect on 1 January 2021, though the council has extended Makhanya's term to April 2021 to ensure a smooth handover. [1]
Brenda Mary Gourley was the Vice-Chancellor of the Open University from 2002 until 2009.
The University of Ghana is a public university located in Accra, Ghana. It is the oldest public university in Ghana.
Womanist theology is a methodological approach to theology which centers the experience and perspectives of Black women, particularly African-American women. The first generation of womanist theologians and ethicists began writing in the mid to late 1980s, and the field has since expanded significantly. The term has its roots in Alice Walker's writings on womanism. "Womanist theology" was first used in an article in 1987 by Delores S. Williams. Within Christian theological discourse, Womanist theology emerged as a corrective to early feminist theology written by white feminists that did not address the impact of race on women's lives, or take into account the realities faced by Black women within the United States. Similarly, womanist theologians highlighted the ways in which Black theology, written predominantly by male theologians, failed to consider the perspectives and insights of Black women. Scholars who espouse womanist theology are not monolithic nor do they adopt each aspect of Walker's definition. Rather, these scholars often find kinship in their anti-sexist, antiracist and anti-classist commitments to feminist and liberation theologies.
The University of the Free State is a multi-campus public university in Bloemfontein, the capital of the Free State and the judicial capital of South Africa. It was first established as an institution of higher learning in 1904 as a tertiary section of Grey College. It was declared an independent Afrikaans-language university in 1950 and the name was changed to the University of the Orange Free State. The university has two satellite campuses. Initially a whites-only precinct, the university was fully de-segregated in 1996. The first black university vice-chancellor was appointed in 2010.
Wesley Girls' High School (WGHS) is an educational institution for girls in Cape Coast in the Central region of Ghana. It was founded in 1836 by Harriet Wrigley, the wife of a Methodist minister. The school is named after the founder of Methodism, John Wesley.
Dion Angus Forster is an academic and clergyman. He serves as a professor of Public Theology in the Faculty of Religion and Theology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Dame Nancy Jane Rothwell is a British physiologist. She served as president and vice-chancellor of the University of Manchester from 2010 to 2024, having deputised in both roles until January 2010.
The University of South Africa (UNISA) is the largest university system in South Africa by enrollment. It attracts a third of all higher education students in South Africa. Through various colleges and affiliates, UNISA has over 400,000 students, including international students from 130 countries worldwide, making it one of the world's mega universities and the only such university in Africa.
Rosina Mamokgethi Phakeng is a South African professor of mathematics education who in 2018 became a vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town (UCT). She has been the vice principal of research and innovation, at the University of South Africa and acting executive dean of the College of Science, Engineering and Technology at UNISA. In 2018 she was an invited speaker at the International Congresses of Mathematicians. In February 2023 it was announced that she would leave her position as vice-chancellor of UCT and take early retirement. She was succeeded by Professor Daya Reddy on 13 March 2023.
Mary-Anne Plaatjies van Huffel was a South African pastor and academic. She was the first female minister to be ordained by a Dutch Reformed Church in Southern Africa.
Florence Abena Dolphyne is a Ghanaian linguist and academic. She was the first female professor and first female pro-vice chancellor of the University of Ghana.
Joanne Caladine Bailey Wells is a British Anglican bishop, theologian, and academic. Since January 2023, she has served at the Anglican Communion Office in London as "Bishop for Episcopal Ministry". Previously, she was a lecturer in the Old Testament and biblical theology at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, and then associate professor of Bible and Ministry at Duke Divinity School, Duke University, North Carolina; From 2013 until 2016, she had served as Chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury; she was then Bishop of Dorking, a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Guildford, 2016–2023.
The Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians is a pan-African ecumenical organization that supports scholarly research of African women theologians. The Circle mentors the next generation of African women theologians throughout their academic careers in order to counter the dearth of academic theological literature by African women. The Circle has chapters in more than a dozen countries across the African continent, as well as diaspora chapters in Europe and North America.
Susan Poser is the current and first female president of Hofstra University, having succeeded retiring president Stuart Rabinowitz on August 1, 2021. Before being named to the Hofstra post, she was chief operating officer, provost, and vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Emily Awino Onyango is a Kenyan priest who became the first female bishop in the Anglican Church of Kenya in January 2021. Prior to becoming a bishop, she taught theology at St. Paul's University in Limaru, Kenya. She attended the founding conference for the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians in Ghana in 1989, and is a member of the Kenyan chapter of the Circle.
Anthony G. Reddie is a British theologian and academic, who specialises in black theology. He is a professor of Black Theology at Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford. He is an Extraordinary Professor and Research Fellow of Theological Ethics at the University of South Africa.
Isabel Apawo Phiri is a Malawian theologian known for her work in gender justice, HIV/AIDS, and African theology. She has been a Deputy Secretary for the World Council of Churches since 2012.
Sarojini Nadar is a South African theologian and biblical scholar who is the Desmond Tutu Research Chair in Religion and Social Justice at the University of the Western Cape.
Fulata Lusungu Mbano Moyo is a Malawian systematic and feminist theologian who is an advocate for gender justice. Moyo has written over twenty-eight journal articles.