Dr. Elelwani Ramugondo - 2023

Professor Ramugondo is currently Deputy Vice Chancellor for Transformation, Student Affairs & Social Responsiveness at the University of Cape Town (UCT). She has over 20 years of academic experience in a research-intensive university environment, having previously worked as a clinician in rural South Africa and the United States of America. She established the first OT Department at Tshilidzini Special School, in Limpopo Province, South Africa.

She was appointed special advisor on transformation to the Vice-Chancellor at UCT in 2015, following calls for decolonisation by the student-led Rhodes Must Fall movement. She served in this role with remarkable integrity during a turbulent time and a historical moment of change in the higher education sector in South Africa.

Professor Ramugondo is a founding member of the UCT Black Academic Caucus. She has also served as chair of various bodies within and outside the university, including UCT’s Academic Freedom Committee and the Rhodes Scholarship Western Cape and Northern Cape Selection Committee. In her role as Deputy Dean for Postgraduate Students in UCT’s Faculty of Health Sciences, she served as a member of the executive for the South African College of Health Sciences Deans (SACOHSD). In this role, she played a strategic part in SACOHSD forging effective relationships with national professional bodies for health sciences disciplines/professions.

She has published numerous peer‐reviewed research articles and chapters in books, as well as book reviews. She is a long-standing member of the International Advisory Board for the Journal of Occupational Science. She co-edited a book titled Concepts in occupational therapy: Understanding Southern perspectives, as well as two special issue editions on decolonising the academy for Critical African Studies. She has supervised numerous student research projects to completion, including 13 master’s dissertations and seven PhD theses. She is frequently asked to present keynote addresses, both within and outside occupational therapy and occupational science.

Zemke Lectureship Title: "Occupational Consciousness: Theorising to Dismantle Systemic Racism and Dehumanization"