Professor Nompumelelo Zondi or “Mpume” as she prefers to be called, is a newly appointed Vice-Dean for Research and Postgraduate Studies in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of the Free State (Bloemfontein Campus). She assumed the role on 1 March 2024. She was Professor and Head of the African Languages Department at the University of Pretoria (UP) from 2017 to February 2024. Prior to her employment at UP, she worked at the at the University of University of Zululand (2012-2017) and at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (1995-2011). She is a National Research Foundation (NRF-C2) rated scholar and has published a corpus of work with high impact journals such as the London Folklore Society, Education as Change, Literator, South African Journal of African Languages and Agenda. Her scholarship converges on African literature (traditional and modern) as well as addressing gender inequality, especially in African patriarchal societies. She has published book chapters with Michigan State University Press in African Performance Arts and Political Acts (2021) and with Orient Black Swan, in Indigeneity, Culture and Representation(2000). Her recent monograph, Bahlabelelelani-Why do they sing? Gender and Power in Contemporary Women’s Songs (2020), deconstructs her doctoral thesis (2008) which uniquely contributed to unlocking women’s agency in rural KwaZulu-Natal. She is a recipient of a prestigious and highly competitive Fulbright South African Research Scholar Program-SARSP (2022-2023). While her host university was The Ohio State University (OSU), the program provided her an opportunity to engage with a few universities in the US where she either delivered keynote addresses or guest lectures. She is a lead editor for 2023 (ESI Publication), Thetha Sizwe: Contemporary South African Debates on African Languages and the Politics of Gender and Sexualities. The book launch took place on the Bloemfontein Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS) on 30 January 2024.
Prof Zondi looks forward to engaging with different departments in the faculty as well asidentifying niche areas of research with other faculties and universities nationally and internationally.