Prof Heidi Hudson, Professor of International Relations at the University of the Free State (UFS), has received the Global South Feminist Scholar Award from the International Studies Association. Presented by the Association’s Feminist Theory and Gender Studies section, the award honours scholars whose work has significantly shaped feminist and gender scholarship in international relations, particularly from and within the Global South.

At its core, the award recognises research that challenges whose knowledge is seen as important in understanding global issues such as conflict, peace, and development. It emphasises scholarship that foregrounds perspectives from regions like Africa, where lived realities and local knowledge systems often differ from dominant Western frameworks that have historically shaped the discipline.

Reframing global knowledge through African feminist scholarship

Prof Hudson is the former Director of the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies and former Dean of the UFS Faculty of the Humanities. Her work is rooted in feminist scholarship, a field that examines how power, inequality, and lived experience shape global systems. In her case, this means looking at issues like war, peace, and security not only at the level of states and governments, but through the everyday experiences of people, particularly those often excluded from mainstream analysis.

“For me, the global system, capitalism, climate change, and conflict or post-conflict are fundamentally gendered enterprises. This means that in my scholarly work I cannot ignore the experiences of ordinary people, especially those at the margins of society.”

Prof Hudson’s academic journey did not begin in this space. Trained in traditional strategic and security studies, her shift towards feminist thinking marked a turning point that continues to shape her work today.

“It means a lot to receive the award at this stage of my academic journey because, looking back on my career as a Feminist Security or Peace Studies scholar, it validates my decision 27 years ago to make a radical paradigm shift to a more normative and critically inclined research agenda.”

That shift was sparked by an opportunity that changed how she approached both research and the world around her.

“Little did I know that an invitation from the Institute for Security Studies in 1997 to write a piece on gender and security would forever change not only my academic choices but also the way I see the world.”

A key part of her work is foregrounding African perspectives, not as examples to support existing theories, but as sources of knowledge in their own right. This includes recognising how women across the continent contribute to peacebuilding and navigate complex social and political realities.

“Africa should not be a site for applying or testing Western theories. It has a unique theoretical voice that needs to be highlighted, particularly at a time when human actions have placed the planet’s future at risk.”

Her research also challenges how international relations as a discipline defines security and whose experiences count. By drawing on feminist and African perspectives, she broadens the focus beyond formal institutions to include social, economic, and environmental dimensions of insecurity.

“My approach through gender and African feminist ontologies is about recognising that one should be critical of all situated knowledge, no matter its origin, and that all knowledge is entangled. This means that the boundaries of one’s discipline are never fixed.”

Alongside her research, Prof Hudson has invested in developing emerging scholars across the continent, contributing to a growing network of African researchers shaping global debates.

“This has been one of the most fulfilling aspects of my work, as the interaction is based on small group peer review and co-learning. My engagement with these brilliant emerging scholars has shaped my scholarship and honed my interdisciplinary skills.”

Looking ahead, her work continues to evolve, expanding feminist thinking to consider relationships not only among people, but also between humans and the natural world.

“I contend that attention to interspecies intersectionality, Indigenous feminist place-based connections with nature and spirits, and creative relational storytelling and listening offer more inclusive ways to address complex security challenges of the Anthropocene.”

For the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies, the award affirms its role in advancing critical scholarship that speaks to African realities while contributing to global conversations. Director Prof Stephanie Cawood notes the broader significance of this recognition.

“It confirms the leading status of the Centre in critical interdisciplinary scholarship for and of the Global South. We are blessed with internationally recognised scholars such as Prof Hudson, who produce groundbreaking scholarship proving that the Humanities matter now more than ever before.”