2020 | Dr Gcobani Qambela

Dr Gcobani Qambela is a Senior Lecturer, Anthropologist and award-winning educator in the Department of Anthropology and Development Studies at the University of Johannesburg (UJ). His research intersects with the anthropology of masculinities, sexual and reproductive health and the anthropology of childhoods and youth. Gcobani's doctoral work focused on the lives of young Xhosa men living in a rural and peri-urbanising context.

Through this work, he developed what he calls "the Anthropology of Boyhoods" that argues for considered attention to the interior lives of boys across the life course. He is currently working on a monograph based on his doctoral research. Prior to joining UJ, he taught at Rhodes University, North West University, as well as international universities including Duke University, Florida International University, Quest University, as well as the consortium, Organization for Tropical Studies.

He has also worked in the non-governmental sector, specifically for the Centre for AIDS Development Research and Evaluation (CADRE), where he worked on various consultative projects for Johns Hopkins Health and Education South Africa (JHHESA), focusing on men's health and sexual and reproductive health mass communication programmes.