Sex, Sexuality and Sexual Health in Southern Africa

This book--Sex, Sexuality and Sexual Health in Southern Africa--is structured around four major themes: gender and sexuality diversity; love, pleasure and respect; gender, sexual violence and health; and sexuality, gender and sexual justice. Chapters in this book analyse sexuality in relation to recent developments in the Southern African region and what this might mean for contemporary theory, policy and practice.

Sex, sexuality and sexual health are often viewed through a narrow biomedical lens, ignoring the fact that they are profoundly social and historical in character. The contributors in this book bring to light the entanglements of sexuality with respect, recognition, rights and mutual respectful pleasure. Authors draw attention to partnerships, allyships and feminist, queer and trans coalitions in the pursuit of sexual health and justice in the region.

The book will be of interest to final-year undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers and activists as well as those working in Women and Gender Studies, Critical Sexuality Studies, Sexual and Reproductive Health, Development Studies, Public Health, Psychology, Education, Sociology and Anthropology.

Deevia Bhana is the DSI/NRF South African Research Chair (SARChI) in Gender and Childhood Sexuality at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Her research examines gender and sexuality across the young life course focusing on agency, masculinities, inequalities, reproduction, health, violence and education. Her recent publications include Gender, Sexuality and Violence in South African Educational Spaces (ed. with S. Singh and T. Msibi, Palgrave Macmillan, 2021) and Love, Sex and Teenage Sexual Cultures in South Africa: 16 Turning 17 (Routledge, 2018).

Mary Crewe trained in the social sciences and education at the Universities of Natal (Pietermaritzburg) and the Witwatersrand. She has extensive experience in high school and tertiary education. She taught at the University of the Witwatersrand before establishing the Community AIDS Centre in Hillbrow at the start of the HIV epidemic is South Africa. She moved to the University of Pretoria in 1999 to create the Centre for the Study of AIDS and was its Director until 2020. She wrote one of the earliest books on AIDS in South Africa and has published extensively in the field of school-based HIV and sexuality education. Currently, she is a Research Associate in the Department of Historical and Heritage Studies at the University of Pretoria.

Peter Aggleton has a background in the social sciences as applied to well-being, education and health. He holds senior professorial positions at a number of universities including The Australian National University in Canberra, UNSW Sydney, and UCL in London. He is an adjunct professor in the Australian Research Centre for Sex, Health and Society at La Trobe University in Melbourne. In addition to his academic work as a researcher, teacher, editor and writer, Peter has served as a senior adviser to UNAIDS, UNESCO, UNFPA and WHO. He has worked extensively across Africa, Asia and Latin America.