Michelle Botha

Michelle’s research interests are closely connected to her experience as a woman and a person with a disability as well as her ongoing involvement in activism and the Non-profit disability service sec-tor in South Africa. During her undergraduate studies, majoring in Gender Studies, History and English Literature, she developed a keen interest in Critical Disability Studies. She completed a M.Soc.sci in Gender Studies with a dissertation focused on the complex lived experiences of women with disabilities in South Africa.She has recently completed a PhD in Disability Studies at the Uni-versity of Cape Town which focuses on issues of disability, rehabilitation, identity and inequality in South Africa.

Michelle also has experience working in the disability non-profit service sector in the area of career development for youth with disabilities. This work entails close engagement with government and the corporate sector around their disability employment challenges as well as providing work readi-ness training, mentorship and other support to job-seekers with disabilities. Currently, she serves on the board of the Western Cape Network on Disability and was elected Vice Chairperson in 2019. She also serves on the board and is a founding member of WINN, an emerging disability NPO work-ing in the disability employment space.